Comfort Food: Great ideas for a new twist on old favorites

February 18, 2010

 

Hmm!  Cold gray day!  No one home!  Too much travel!  A good book is calling!

Sounds like a day for comfort food.  Mac and Cheese or Chili! Grilled Cheese or Butternut Squash soup!  These are some of the things that come to mind immediately.

Comfort food by definition is a simple food, usually home made, that has an emotion significant to a person, frequently tied to childhood memories.  They are also usually creamy, hot, and frequently fattening! So who cares- you can’t deprive yourself all the time!

So I sent an email out to family and friend to see how we mirror the rest of the nation.  In the US, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese and meatloaf are right at the top of the list. ( Top 25 comfort foods)  In our family, we did have a lot of votes for mac and cheese, but then we had some other for hot dogs and beans, pepperoni pizza and      We also had our share of outliers like raclette (melted cheese and potatoes from Switzerland, Nasi Goreng (see Scoop and Nuke night post) – but those will have to wait for other posts.

OK – my personal favorite is mac and cheese.  It’s hard to make a change when the family gold standard is a 99 cent blue box.  But with age, improvements can be made!  For starters, you can just add Outrageously Garlic to the finished product.  If you want to get fancy, though, my family has now voted Mac and Two Cheese with caramelized shallots as top of the heap.

What are some TSG versions of the American Classics

1.  Grilled cheese sandwich with  TSG Sweet & Spicy Pepper Jelly

2.  Sisters Southern BBQ Meatloaf

3.  Chili Pot Pie with Cheddar Beer Biscuit Topping

4.  Garlic Parmesan Pasta

5.  Santa Fe Meatloaf

Want comfort food, but don’t want to pay the consequences for all that good stuff – figure out how to take some of the calories out of your regular favorite.  Substitute some of the key ingredients, like milk for cream, or low fat versions of  sour cream, lean meats. Roast that skinless chicken instead of fry. If that doesn’t work, look here for some low fat comfort foods.

Remember though – comfort is the operative word.  You can indulge, just occasionally.

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Tags: : comfort food, casserole recipes, comfort food recipes, macaroni cheese recipes, mach and cheese recipes, winter food, winter foods recipes