Life
Best Snow Day Ever: 5 Things To Help You Survive Being Snowed In
If you live in the United States, there's a good chance you're facing snow, ice, and frigid weather right now. Or maybe it's 50 degrees but likely to drop below zero tomorrow — things are weird out there this January. Regardless: Should inclement weather force you to stay inside (or — fingers crossed — home from work), we want to help you make the most of your time snowed-in. So here's a compendium of hot cocktails, hot cocoas, warm soup recipes, new Netflix movies, and a board game that will hold the attention of even your most attention-challenged friends. Happy snow day!
Cards Against Humanity
Though I’m not typically the board game type, the majority of my family is and lately they’ve been introducing me to some doozies. First and foremost: Cards Against Humanity. Have you ever played Apples to Apples? Cards Against Humanity is like Apples to Apples if all the cards were written by the gang from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Do not play with your parents or, god forbid, your significant other’s parents (I found myself having to explain to some of my cousins the meaning of bukkake). It seems like it would be perfect for a snowed-in chill-out with friends, though. And if you don’t actually own the game?On the game’s website, you can download the full game and make the cards yourself, which sounds like another good snow day project.
Miso Soup
Swap your classic bowl of chicken noodle for miso soup. It’s equally cozy and savory, plus miso is a good source of probiotics, which help boost immunity — a must this time of year. You can even add noodles, vegetables, or chicken. Check out the following miso soup recipes, or just order it in with some sushi:
* Tofu mushroom miso soup* Miso soup with udon noodles and scallops* Kimchi miso soup with root vegetables* Carrot ginger miso soup* Miso soup with tofu, shitake mushrooms, and seaweed
Image: istargazer/Flickr
Movies
This one’s pretty obvious, I know. But consider this your reminder that Netflix has added a slew of new movies as of the first of the year, including American Psycho, Thelma and Louise, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Big Trouble in Little China, Amelie, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ghost, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Mommy Dearest, and The Virgin Suicides.
Hot Cocoa
Another seemingly obvious snow day choice, but let’s stop and talk about hot cocoa for a minute, shall we? It’s a cold weather classic, but the stuff that comes in little packets (with or without a Swiss child pictured on the box) isn’t terribly good for you. To make hot chocolate a little bit healthier, the darker the cocoa the better. If you don’t mind a less sweet taste (and I don’t), you can even use 100 percent raw cacao powder, which is rich in antioxidants and polyphenols. I like to mix cacao powder with warm almond milk and a little agave or honey to sweeten it up. Here are five more better-for-you cocoa options (including vegan and sugar-free recipes) from Mother Nature Network. Megan Gordon at The Kitchn recommends spicing up your cocoa, too: “Cinnamon helps metabolize blood sugar, cardamom’s been said to boost energy, and ginger is great for digestion.”
Image: meg's my name/Flickr
Warm Cocktails
What better way to celebrate having nowhere to go than to booze it up with warm winter cocktails? Here are recipes to suit any liquor stash:
* Spiked cocoa (with tequila and cayenne pepper) * Classic Irish coffee* Scotch hot toddy * Citrus and anise mulled wine* Hot coconut, rum & pumpkin* Spiked mocha cocoa * Hot honey lemon with vodka* Hot gin toddy
Image: petritent/Flickr
