What to Cook: Winter
As we continue to settle into the Winter months, I’ve found baking and cooking to be a nice reprieve from the chillier weather. Winter is the perfect time to cook heartier foods and use some seasonal ingredients. When I get the opportunity to cook/bake I usually try recipes that don’t need any special equipment or unorthodox ingredients so the foods below should be relatively easy to try out. The two recipes below, Lasagna Soup and Blueberry muffins, take about an hour each and can be altered. For the Lasagna Soup you can add spinach, different noodles, or a different type of meat if you prefer. For the blueberry muffins, I think adding some lemon zest/juice to the batter would go nicely with the blueberries.
Lasagna Soup
Lasagna Soup has been relatively popular over the past year and is a recipe that is pretty simple. It should take a little less than an hour to complete and (to me at least) tastes very similar to regular lasagna. There are quite a few ingredients, but the prep time is short and most of the cooking time is spent waiting for the noodles to soften. Fair warning, the soup might seem watery at first but the chicken broth will cook down and the spices make for a nice broth.
For ingredients you’ll need:
1lb ground beef 1 yellow onion (chopped) 3 garlic cloves (minced)
2 tbsp tomato paste 24oz marinara sauce ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp fresh parsley ½ tsp dried oregano 1tsp dried basil
7 cups chicken broth 9 lasagna noodles 10oz ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella ½ cup freshly grated parmesan
Instructions:
Brown the ground beef in a pot. Drain the grease and remove the beef from the pot and put aside.
In the pot, heat olive oil over medium heat then saute the diced onion (about 5 minutes). Then, add in the minced garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes.
Add the tomato paste, marinara sauce, spices, chicken broth, and browned beef to the pot.
Once the soup begins to boil, add the lasagna noodles (broken into preferred size) and cook on medium heat until the noodles are tender (or preferred texture).
Combine the ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and parmesan together in a bowl.
Add the soup into serving bowls, put a dollop of the cheese mixture on top, and add basil as a garnish (or don’t but I like it and it looks nice).
Blueberry Muffins
At my house my dad has 17 blueberry bushes that produce tons of blueberries every year. Blueberries grow great in Alabama and, though we try to give away as many as we can, we usually end up freezing about 30 bags of blueberries every summer. This is about the time of year where my dad insists we need to use up all the blueberries, so I got to try this blueberry muffin recipe. My friends have given this recipe positive reviews and the only thing to note is that they can overbake easily so make sure to check them near the end of the cooking time. A toothpick poked into the center of the muffin should come out slightly crumbly and they’ll set fully once they’ve been taken out of the oven.
For the muffin ingredients you’ll need:
1 ½ cup flour ¾ cup white sugar 2tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt ⅓ cup vegetable oil 1 egg
⅔ cup milk 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
You can also add a crumble on top of the muffins. For that you’ll need:
½ cup white sugar ⅓ cup flour
¼ cup butter (cubed) 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400° fahrenheit. Prep a muffin pan with 8-12 (depending on the size you want) cupcake liners or grease the pan.
Whisk together all your dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl add oil, egg, and milk together and stir until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix the batter as that can result in rubbery muffins.
If you are using frozen blueberries, wash them in a colander and gently pat them dry before folding them into the batter with a spatula. If using fresh blueberries, simply add them to the batter.
For the topping, mix the sugar, flour, butter (cubed), and cinnamon together in a bowl using a fork until crumbly.
Add the muffins to the cupcake liners, sprinkle the filling on top, and cook for 20-25 minutes.
Enjoy!
- Kate