The Ultimate Winter Menu: Chef Billy Parisi, Feast of Fiction Create Crowd-Pleasing Comfort Dishes & TV Watch-Party Menus

CHICAGO, Jan. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As friends and families settle in for the winter hibernation season, ConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is helping them enjoy the colder months with crowd-pleasing comfort dishes from celebrity cook favorites. Chef and food "vlogger" Billy Parisi is putting a creative twist on comfort foods using pantry staples and popular food trends. And popular YouTube culinary channel Feast of Fiction hosts Jimmy Wong and Ashley Adams, known for their iconic TV-inspired recipes, are creating a group-watching menu for fans of medieval, horror and sci-fi shows.

"By partnering with Chef Billy and Feast of Fiction, we're creating an out-of-the-box winter menu that will be a hit with families and freshen up the usual go-to dinner meals," said Dan Skinner, communications manager, ConAgra Foods. "And with rising usage of TV and movie streaming services, people are finding additional ways to bond over the things they love, and we're helping to elevate these experiences to create even more memorable watch parties."

Comfort Food with Chef Billy: According to Google Trends, recipe searches peak at the start of the year for dishes that have a "use it all" approach, avoiding food waste. So, Chef Billy created Banana Oatmeal Muffins using blended banana peels, and for coffee drinkers, Leftover Coffee Chocolate Brownies. Chef Billy is also using items commonly found in kitchen pantries, such as ConAgra Foods brands' Hunt's®, RO*TEL® and PAM®, to give typical comfort food dishes a creative twist. Mexican Meatloaf with Chorizo Queso is anything but your grandmother's go-to meatloaf recipe, and instead of traditional sweets, Olive Oil Cupcakes with Lemon Butter Cream give a savory twist on a popular dessert.

"Comfort food is synonymous with the winter, and your taste buds crave something to take your mind off of the cold weather. That's why I created a mix of hearty recipes that are not only easy and fun to make, but offer a unique fusion of flavors to jazz up your seasonal favorites," said Chef Billy.

TV-Inspired Meals with Feast of Fiction: Feast of Fiction has a weekly cooking show on YouTube where hosts Jimmy Wong and Ashley Adams create fun dishes inspired by popular TV shows, including hits from medieval, sci-fi, horror and drama genres. Here are examples of new, TV-influenced meals:

• For fans of medieval shows:
  • Castle Fortress Chili Con Queso – Break down the bread walls of this fun chili castle and dig in! Feast of Fiction uses a long, thin baguette to cut into two castle towers on opposite sides of a bread bowl. The towers are partially sliced so the bread can be split apart and dipped into the chili.
  • Dragon Eggs – Get some help storming the castle by hatching your own dragon eggs, filled with creamy tomato filling to share and devour.
• For sci-fi fanatics:
  • Open-faced Grilled Cheese Flying Saucer with Tomato and Avocado – A UFO has crashed into the kitchen and it's time to investigate! Feast of Fiction teaches at-home cooks how to use bowls to make circular, open-faced sandwiches. The sandwiches are filled with cheese, tomato and avocado, and decorated with little eyes and antennas made out of chives.
  • Glow in the Dark Rock Candy – Wong and Adams use Vitamin B2 and tonic water to make rock candy that lights up when shown under black light.

"We created an exciting mix of recipes that allow people to celebrate their favorite shows in an unexpected way. These recipes are not only easy to make, but they transform ordinary TV nights into unforgettable parties," said Wong.

For these and other recipes from Chef Billy and Feast of Fiction, visit www.forkful.com.

ABOUT CONAGRA FOODSConAgra Foods, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's largest packaged food companies with branded and private branded food found in 99 percent of America's households, as well as a strong commercial foods business serving restaurants and foodservice operations globally. Consumers can find recognized brands such as Banquet®, Chef Boyardee®, Egg Beaters®, Healthy Choice®, Hebrew National®, Hunt's®, Marie Callender's®, Orville Redenbacher's®, PAM®, Peter Pan®, Reddi-wip®, Slim Jim®, Snack Pack® and many other ConAgra Foods brands, along with food sold by ConAgra Foods under private brand labels, in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise, club and drug stores. Additionally, ConAgra Foods supplies frozen potato and sweet potato products as well as other vegetable, spice, bakery and grain products to commercial and foodservice customers. ConAgra Foods operates ReadySetEat.com, an interactive recipe website that provides consumers with easy dinner recipes and more. For more information, please visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.

ABOUT CHEF BILLY PARISIBilly Parisi has the education and experience of a seasoned chef. Parisi graduated from Arizona's Scottsdale Culinary Institute and the University of Missouri. He's also logged several years as line cook, sous chef, and executive in some of the Midwest's finest restaurants. Parisi has served as the face of fixmyrecipe.com, Lowes Foods, Heinen's Grocery Stores and Sears Holdings Corporation. Parisi has been featured on several national TV, radio and print mediums, including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, DIY network and Comcast On-Demand. For more information, please visit Billy at http://www.billyparisi.com/.

ABOUT FEAST OF FICTIONFeast of Fiction is one of YouTube's most popular cooking shows, with over 450,000 highly engaged and incredibly loyal subscribers.  Every week co-hosts Ashley Adams and Jimmy Wong bring fictional dishes to reality with original recipes inspired by food found in movies, video games, books and TV shows. The channel has accrued 37 million video views and has partnered with brands such as Walmart and Google, as well as hosting celebrity guests including Rosanna Pansino, Grace Helbig, Harley of EpicMealTime, and Nathan Kress from iCarly. Check out all the culinary creativity at YouTube.com/FeastOfFiction.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Morgan Shelton, Edelman [email protected]; (312) 297-7050 Dan Skinner, ConAgra Foods [email protected]; (630) 857-1508

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SOURCE ConAgra Foods, Inc.