HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
As the title suggests...
Some people tend to eat when things are going to sh!t. I am one of them. And I am starting to feel like the baby weight I lost and then some more from moving all my stuff out of the house I shared with my stbx is starting to come back.
I tend to eat really plain stuff, so have not had much luck when it comes to recipes for healthy stuff. My job is mainly driving with about 10-15 mins manual labour each pickup, so it's not like I am getting a whole lot of exercise there. Apart from chasing bub around and going for walks every now and again, the exercise (which I do intend to start again soon) is pretty non-existant.
So, starting with the diet overhaul, did anyone have any really clever, sneaky, healthy things that they started their baby-steps to better dieting with? It seems silly, but I am just so unimaginative with flavours. I've got my tried and tested things which I will play around with, but need to broaden my horizons (ever so slowly) instead of my waistline.
Hopefully I'll get some responses here... there is a bag of bread in the kitchen screaming to be toasted and buttered... Somebody stop me!!
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
What foods do you consider to be 'comfort foods'? Do you like cooking and creating in your kitchen or do you think of it as a chore? Do you like the plain fare you currently eat, or do you want to spice things up? Do you have a deep freeze?
Have you heard of the Traditional Foods way of eating? I hesitate to call it a 'diet', because it isn't designed for losing weight, just for healthy eating. It's what I subscribe to, and it's basically: Get rid of processed crap and eat as closely to the natural state of foods as possible.
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
All the things that taste so soooo good that are just terrible for me- chocolate, pastas, toast with stacks of butter, etc.
I'm trying to nix the butter and put healthier things on, I just need tasty suggestions to limit the damage more or less. Because I know when I just try to do the all-out overhaul, I end up going back to the same things.
I haven't heard of that, but will do some research, thanks heaps
As for cooking, I go through phases of loving it and hating it- I think it's just the washing up afterwards and bub can always smell when I'm cooking something good and knows when I'm at my busiest to wake up... but don't they all? Lol
It's just taking those baby steps towards willpower, I guess. I cook healthy for bub, but for myself it's just meh.
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
Mmmmmm, apples with caramel, that sounds like something I could do Probably better for me than the chocolate. Wonder if I can get them over here?
Thanks for the suggestion!
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
Baby steps is right. You can't change all at once. It takes time. So pick 1 or 2 things and concentrate on those till you've integrated them into your daily routine. Then pick another, then another. In a year you'll be eating far better, and a year after that even better!
Butter is far healthier than margarine. The more natural, the better. I actually make my own butter from raw milk, but most people aren't willing to go to those lengths
The bread - home made sourdough bread is far healthier than ANYthing bought in the store, and fun to make! Although I try to stay away from bread for the most part myself. Carbs do not agree with me much. I keep it in the freezer so it isn't readily available.
Pasta is (no surprise!) healthier if you make your own too. I've never done this because of the carb thing, but a pasta maker is on my list of must-haves very soon because my husband eats a lot of it. If I have a craving for a pasta dish, I cook up a spaghetti squash and put pasta sauce on that. Once every 4 or 5 months I make home made Alfredo sauce and indulge myself with some fettuccine. Any more often and I'd weigh far more than I do now!
Dark chocolate in reasonable amounts is actually good for you. Again, you can buy raw cacao beans and grind them to make your own, but it isn't as good even though it's far healthier. Chocolate is one of my weaknesses - I can't seem to stop at just a piece or two. So I rarely buy any, and I never buy chocolate chips or sauce or anything. If I do I eat it all.
Have you ever made home made ice cream? What a treat. And healthy too if you use farm eggs and cream.
When you DO feel like cooking, pick 2 or 3 from-scratch meals and make big batches, then freeze them in serving sized portions for when you DON'T feel like cooking. I do this on weekend sometimes.
Try picking a certain country and make something from their cuisine that you've never made before.
Stock up your spice cupboard. Spices are the flavour of life. And experiment! Don't just stick to the recipe. Add your own touches, double the cayenne, add some cumin, whatever.
Shop at farmers markets. Get to know your farmers.
Buy something you've never cooked before and find a recipe and eat it.
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
Angel- I love those suggestions up there, it all sounds so yummy, and fits in with the traditional foods suggestion Hope made, which I am liking the look of also.
I think I'm going senile or the mummy brain hasn't quite left (please, oh please be the latter!). I always seem to forget about the things like almonds and just a smattering of the melted choc to go with the fruit salad to make sure I get that little sugar fix when trying to overhaul.
Portion size is also a problem... stbx was more expensive to feed than a horse (I KNEW I should have gotten a pony instead! lol). So I always overcompensated when making up meals that fed him, myself, bub and allowed for leftovers for him for work lunches. Which then meant I ate way more than I needed. Will have to retrain myself on that. But I suppose if I do the pre-packed portion sizes (great idea, especially when it comes to cereal cuz I have huge bowls that just beg to be filled) I won't have a problem
Thanks guys, this is already starting to make me feel more confident about sticking to this this time!
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
Wow, Hope, that's amazing you do that all yourself. All this stuff from scratch and you have time to breathe, when, now?
And this spaghetti squash intrigues me, I just googled it as I had never heard of it before. Sheltered lil ol me. But that sounds like a fantastic idea! I'm writing this all down so I don't have to keep referring back to the computer. Then the list is going on the fridge
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
It isn't time consuming when it's just part of your daily routine. A hundred years ago, EVERYONE did it. They had no choice. And they didn't have the benefit of modern appliances. Making stuff from scratch doesn't take that much hands on time, it's more waiting time for things to soak/ferment/rise/whatever. Butter actually takes very little time to make with a food processor I make everything I possibly can from the beginning, and it's surprisingly simple.
Anyway, I hope you get inspired to spend a bit more time in the kitchen. It's a passion of mine and I think everyone should get closer to their food sources.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention - grow some veggies!!! Nothing on earth beats a salad made from stuff that was in the earth ten minutes ago!!
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
I agree that we need to know what you consider comfort food. Here in the south, "comfort foods" = fried, baked desserts, or lots of cheese or cream-based sauce.
For fried foods, you can get some satisfying results from battering whatever it is you'd usually fry and spraying it with olive oil and then baking instead of deep frying.
A dessert I find kinda comforting is cinnamon apple bake... ingredients can be adjusted if you're watching sugar or fat intake. You can use splenda brown sugar if you don't mind synthetic sweeteners, and whole wheat flour works well instead of white.
INGREDIENTS:
5 apples, each cut into 8 wedges
4 tablespoons apple juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoon lowfat margarine
DIRECTIONS:
Combine the apple wedges and apple juice in a bowl. Stir well and set aside. Combine the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in another bowl. Add margarine in with a pastry blender until mixed well.
Place apple mixture in a square baking dish (8-inch) coated with nonstick cooking spray (nonfat); pour flour mixture evenly over apple mixture. Cover and bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20-25 minutes.
edited to add: It took me forever to hit save on my post, so I didn't see that you came back to tell us your comfort foods. chocolate and pasta... I can so relate!
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
I agree on the veggie gardening suggestion. Unfortunately, my soil here is really poor - nothing like where I used to live. I'm doing mostly container planting now. Trying an herb garden now instead of veggies, but I still have some strawberries growing in containers. The herbs are growing nicely so far, and it does give me incentive to cook and try new things because now I'm always on the lookout for new recipes using what I'm growing.
Re: HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible!
I'm not into it enough to do edible landscaping. I just till up our garden and plant stuff in rows in it. Does the trick
Whenever we move into a condo, it will have to have a big deck so I can do some vertical gardening and planter veggies. I love planting and eating veggies. Sadly our growing season is only from mid May to mid Sept.
3leaf, all of what you listed, and other things along that vein. Thanks for that recipe, can't wait to try it, bought the ingredients yesterday to make tonight
Just wanted to say thanks for the input to you all and have started already- things are going well with portion sizes and the snacking is directed to a more healthy way.
I stuck heaps more veggies than usual into spaghetti bol last night and cut down the pasta AND didn't go too hard at the garlic bread, woo! Next time i make it with spaghetti squash!
...just needed a helpful push and some yummy ideas Thanks again!
HELP! Need healthy foods that resemble comfort foods as much as possible! 
Probably better for me than the chocolate. Wonder if I can get them over here?
