20 Healthy Winter Warmer Recipes

Before we head off to Louisiana to enjoy some time in the sun, I wanted to leave some recipes for those of you who are still battling winter. During the winter we loveeeee cozying up to warm and comforting dinners - but often classic recipes will add on some unwanted "insulation" thanks to all of the fat and sugar they contain. 

I love creating healthy versions of comfort food meals, so I've put together some of our favourite warm and comforting winter-y meals for you to try! I also have some great recipes from our friends at Origin which we've tried and loved!

Recipe: Cheesy Chicken and Mushroom Rice Bake

I'm a friendly person... but when it comes to winter, we are not friends. I'm a cold bug at the best of times so when winter rolls around I'm desperately searching for thermal leggings, wondering how many layers I can put on before I look like the Michelin man and just about hugging the fireplace each night. 

You'll find me clutching hot cups of tea and drinking hot water when I've drank so much tea it no longer tastes good. 

You'll see a scarf on my neck and a beanie on my head and I'll probably have fluffy socks hiding under my boots. 

When it comes to be thinking about dinner, you'll find me wrapped up in a blanket, deep in thought thinking about how I can make sure I cook at least one thing in the oven every single night so I can stand by and watch it absorb the oven's warmth.

That's why I like rice bakes and casseroles like this. They're easy to make, super delicious anddddddddddd I can soak up the warmth of the oven whilst I'm at it. Truth be known - I'll probably cook it longer than needed too because I don't want to leave my Bahama-like standing place. 

It may not be the prettiest dish on the planet - but this recipe is super dooper simple and absolutely delicious - and it certainly doesn't taste "healthy" either. 

But let me give you the recipe >> 

Recipe: Blueberry Ricotta Cups

I came to a conclusion the other day, whilst Jesse was away... I totally couldn't be a crazy cat lady, I'd be the crazy baking lady. 

Whenever I'm bored or Jesse is away or I have nothing to do - I bake. I hate cats so baked goods seem like the next best thing (and puppies - always puppies). 

Actually that's a lie. I bake whenever I have the chance because I love it - especially in winter when it's cold and the oven warms up the entire kitchen. 

These Blueberry Ricotta cups were one of my baking successes and I've made them 3x since! They're the perfect dessert for winter as you can serve them warm - and they won't pack on that winter insulation... if you know what I mean. Best of all, they're super simple and use only a few ingredients! 

Blueberry Ricotta Cups makes 4-5         
gluten free, low fat, clean eating friendly 

2 cups low fat ricotta

1/4 cup egg whites or one egg

1/4 cup plain flour/gluten free flour

2-3 tbsp honey/maple syrup

1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat oven to 200°C/395°F. 

In a bowl, combine all of your ingredients except the blueberries. 

Divide the blueberries among each of the ramekins**, adding just enough to cover the bottom. 

Pour your ricotta mixture over the top of the blueberries. 

Bake until set and the ricotta starts to turn golden. 

Serve warm in ramekins or chill in the fridge. 

*If you don't want to use honey or maple syrup, try mashing a banana and adding it instead - deeeelicious. You can also use regular sugar.
**I don't usually grease the ramekins as I found it doesn't make much of a difference - but feel free to do so if you prefer.

So tell me, what's your favourite warm dessert?

At the moment, I have three - these, my banana ricotta cups and my chocolate banana souffles. Scrum-diddly-umptious!

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Recipe: Chicken Parmesan Rice Bake

Well Sydney's weather has gone from ridiculously hot yesterday to cool and windy today - it seems the weather has finally realised it's Autumn. 

Oh how I love Winnie the Pooh!
Truth be known, I'm already planning
it as a (way in the) future nursery theme :Psource

Whilst walking around the park in my pink sweatshirt this morning, I felt a bit like Piglet in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day as leaves were whipping into the hair and the wind was pushing me back.

I don't know about you, but cold and windy days make me crave warm comforting food. For some reason baked meals always seem warmer than something you cook on the stove (does anyone else think this way?). 

So, to suit this blustery day, I thought I'd share one of our favourite quick and easy, warm and comforting dinners at the Southern In-Law household.

This dish goes to show that comfort food doesn't have to mean calorific! This Chicken Parmesan Rice Bake is low in fat, gluten free and so simple to make - especially if you're using leftover cooked rice. 

This recipe makes a single serving - however, it is so simple to multiply. I make it for just Jesse some nights and other nights I'll serve it to a crowd - all you have to do is multiply the amounts!

Chicken Parmesan Rice Bake serves one, easily multiplied
Or as my Mum likes to call it - Healthy Chicken Parmigiana Rice Bake

1 serve cooked brown rice* (or white rice, if you prefer)
1 small chicken breast, sliced (about 100g/3.5 oz)
1 small clove garlic, crushed
~1/2 cup canned tomatoes 
1 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese 
Garlic and herb seasoning
Oregano (leaves or ground oregano is fine)
1 cup baby spinach leaves, shredded finely 
1 tbsp parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 200°C/390°F. Prepare a small casserole dish or ramekin by lightly spraying it with oil, lightly greasing it with butter/margarine or lining it with baking paper.
In a medium non-stick saucepan lightly sprayed with oil, saute the chicken with the garlic.
Once the chicken has cooked, add in your tomatoes, cream cheese, seasonings and spinach, stirring until the cream cheese has melted through and the spinach has wilted. 
Add in the cooked rice, stirring to combine.
Pour your rice mixture into the prepared dish, topping with parmesan cheese.
Place into the oven, cooking until the cheese has melted and starts to lightly brown.

*When we're in a hurry, I use Brown Rice Quick Cups from Sunrice and I also freeze single portions of cooked brown rice whenever I get the chance for quick and easy dishes like this. 

So tell me, what are your favourite cold weather meals?
Are you like me and think oven baked meals are warmer than stovetop? or am I a weirdo? :P

    

   

Recipe: Quick and Easy Stovetop Rice Pudding

Did you know that today, August 9th is National Rice Pudding Day? Well.. since I don't live in the US and Australia doesn't have cool food holidays, I'm proudly proclaiming that it is International Rice Pudding Day! Why? Because everyone should enjoy rice pudding! 

Today, in celebration of this marvelous day, I wanted to share with you my Quick and Easy Rice Pudding Recipe. It's made on the stovetop and uses leftover rice, saving you tonnes of cooking time!

I love to make this rice pudding for breakfast with leftover brown rice and add in dried fruit, nuts, banana, apple or top it with some nut butter! It's healthy, eggless, gluten free, low fat and low sugar (though you can add as much or as little as you like) and can also be made Vegan if you choose a non-dairy milk!

What is Rice Pudding?

To put it simply, rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with milk. Other ingredients can be added and it can be made as a sweet or savoury dish. Personally, I like my rice pudding sweet and mine always needs to have cinnamon! One popular add in for rice pudding is raisins - if you cook them in they plump up and add a delicious flavour! 

Rice pudding was actually first made in Asia to aid the malnourished, however over thousands of years, thousands of recipes has developed in countries world wide. A traditional English Rice Pudding tends to use milk, sugar and raisins with nutmeg and/or cinnamon. Rice pudding can be baked or made on the stove top with each having a different flavour and consistency. 

Quick and Easy Stovetop Rice Pudding Recipe

Healthy, low fat, eggless, gluten free and delicious - can be vegan too!
Serves one!

~1/2 cup cooked rice 

3/4 cup milk of your choice 

1 tsp vanilla 

Sugar/sweetener to taste

Pinch of salt 

Optional: ~1/2 tsp Cinnamon 

In a small non-stick saucepan, add all of the ingredients. 

Turn the heat to high and bring mixture to the boil. 

Once the milk has started to bubble and boil, reduce the heat to medium. 

Cover the saucepan with a lid and leave to simmer, stirring every now and again. 

Once the milk really starts to reduce, take the lid off and stir frequently so it doesn't stick to the pan. 

When it reaches your desired consistency, pour the rice pudding out of the saucepan and into a bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes before eating. Note: This rice pudding also tastes amazing cold - in the summer I make up a double batch ahead of time and keep it in the fridge.

For the rice:In the picture I used cooked brown rice, however, I have also used white rice, red rice and black rice in the past. Before I went gluten free, I also tried it with cooked barley, so I'm sure it would work with other grains as well. 

For the milk: 

I generally use low fat cows milk or unsweetened almond milk, but the choice is yours! 

For the sweetener:

For me it has enough sweetness on it's own, but if I'm feeling like it needs more sweetener I will add in a small amount of maple syrup or cane sugar. Feel free to use any sweetener you like - honey, sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar - the list goes on!  

If you're in a real hurry: 

Some mornings I just can't be bothered waiting 10-15 minutes for the milk to reduce. On these days, I skip putting the lid on and stir the rice frequently until the milk absorbs. It doesn't make such a creamy consistency but it still tastes delicious.  

So tell me, are you a rice pudding fan?  

What do you like to have in yours? 

Traditionally speaking, I'd have to say cinnamon, raisins and a dash of nutmeg (baked is even better!) - but for breakfast, I love mixing in a mashed banana and topping it with nuts or nut butter or having it with other dried fruit and nuts. My current favourite combination is dates and almond butter! 

    

   

Recipe: Baked Apple Cinnamon Ricotta Cups

So you know all about my love of Baked Banana Ricotta, but even though that's my hands down all time favourite - why not make another flavour?!

I've been experimenting with flavours for my baked ricotta cups and came up with this delicious Apple Cinnamon version! Best of all? It's so simple to make! It's a healthy, single serve version of a crustless ricotta cheesecake.

I was inspired to make this Apple Cinnamon version after making baked apples stuffed with ricotta. This baked ricotta cup version is much simpler and easily freezable for a quick dessert.

The recipe can be tailored to suit your tastes. I don't like things sweet so I don't use any sweetener, however my family do and 1-2 tbsp of maple syrup was all it needed to please them! 

Feel free to add added chopped apple (I did this in my second batch and it was so much better), extra spices or some other mix ins. Raisins are a great addition to the Apple Cinnamon Ricotta cups and I bet nuts would work really well also - don't be afraid to play around with different combinations!

Baked Apple Ricotta Cups

makes 3 delicious low fat, gluten free baked ricotta cups

250g/9 oz ricotta cheese (use whatever kind you like - full fat, low fat or fat free)

1 egg

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce 

~1/2 tsp cinnamon (this depends on your tastes - add more/less if you like)

~1-2 tbsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F

In a bowl mix the egg and add in the ricotta, applesauce, cinnamon and maple syrup (if using). 

Add in any other mix ins if using and pour mixture into three greased ramekins or large silicone muffin tins.

Bake for around an hour or until set and the tops start to brown. 

Leave to cool slightly and serve warm or chill in the fridge. 

If freezing: wrap ricotta cups individually and then store together in a zip lock bag. 

So tell me - what's your favourite type of apple?

I'm a granny smith girl but I love pink lady apples as a treat! yum :)

    

   

Recipe: Rainy day Rice Pudding

Rain, Rain, go away. Come again some other day never.

I hate winter. I know, I know... hate's a strong word - but I'm serious. I'm one of those people that is always cold and winter just makes it 3000x worse. I can totally understand how some people get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) because I wouldn't be surprised if I had it in winter.

Source

In winter, I am always so cold and miserable that I've seriously considered taking up a groundhog lifestyle. I would happily hibernate all winter long and come out when the weather is warmer. 

All I'd need is my heated blanket, bed and a constant supply of hot tea and steaming bowls of oatmeal. Yes, I know hibernating means you're not supposed to eat - but seriously?! I need food. 

On cold, rainy, miserable days I usually find myself either;
a) wrapped up in a blanket, clutching hot tea
b) in the kitchen

One of my favourite cold weather foods is rice pudding. It's warm, comforting and delicious! I thought I'd share my tried and tested Stovetop Rice Pudding recipe, it's easily adapted and sooooo yummy. If you're looking for a quicker recipe, try using cooked rice

Stovetop Rice Pudding

1/2 cup raw rice (~100g)
2 cups milk + 1 cup milk
1-2 tbsp sweetener of choice (this depends on your preferences, for me I have zero sweet tooth, so when making it for myself I just use vanilla and no sweetener)2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Cinnamon, to taste (optional)

In a medium saucepan, bring rice, 2C milk, sweetener, vanilla and cinnamon to the boil.

Cover pan and reduce heat to low, leaving the rice to simmer for 15 minutes - stirring occasionally. 

Once the rice is cooked, turn the heat up to high and add the 1C milk. Stir constantly for ~7 minutes, or until your desired consistency is reached.

Transfer the rice pudding to bowls or a serving dish and leave to cool slightly before serving. 

 

This rice pudding makes a delicious winter breakfast, snack or dessert. You can easily adapt it to add whatever flavours you like - one of my favourite ways is to add in a chopped apple, extra cinnamon and a handful of raisins. If you want a quicker version use cooked rice and about 1/2 the milk and simmer until the milk is absorbed and it's creamy. 

So, what's your favourite rainy day food? One of my current rainy day foods is grilled cheese, it's warm, delicious and filling.