Comfort Food

littlejazzbird81
littlejazzbird81 Posts: 17
edited September 20 in Food and Nutrition
Whenever I get stressed out, I crave comfort foods, like velveeta macaroni and cheese, pasta, sometimes Thai food, anything with a LOT of carbs and salt. I want to plan ahead so when the craving hits, I'll have a plan in place. Any suggestions for healthier comfort foods?

Thanks!

Replies

  • jennigroves
    jennigroves Posts: 7
    You can have these things in moderation, but try substituting the usual pasta for whole grain pasta with low sodium, organic sauce. ( You can substitute the same with homemade pizza) Go light on the sauce, skip the bread that we love to have on the side with pasta, and drink plenty of water so you get full faster and don't overeat. When you can, avoid the craving and have a healthy snack like fruit or a granola bar. But ,you have to let yourself have the foods that you crave once in a while or you will hit a wall and end up binge eating. Other health replacements are dried fruit for a sweet tooth and weight watcher brownies for a chocolate craving. Good luck!
  • cassandra1220
    cassandra1220 Posts: 284 Member
    I am a velveeta shells & cheese junkie. I think it is the best stuff ever! lol. I make it with barilla plus pasta and buy the actual block of 2% velveeta (feels strange to buy a grocery cart full of "healthy" food and a neon yellow/orange block of plastic cheese but hey...a girl has to live!) and mix it with some skim milk to thin it out and add some sauteed baby bellas, some frozen peas(thawed), and a few crumbled slices of cooked turkey bacon. You don't need much because it seems luxurious, and it wont kill your calories for the day. Absolutely a "comfort food".
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
    My comfort food is cake. Man, I love cake! lol I would be happy if I could eat nothing but cake and still lose weight and be healthy. Maybe cake and pizza...but I digress.

    If you can control your portion size, a little shells and cheese won't hurt you much. Alternatively, you could Google "healthy mac and cheese" and maybe find a more healthy, less guilty version.
  • lulabellewoowoo
    lulabellewoowoo Posts: 3,125 Member
    When I have those emotional eating moments, I eat a 100 calorie package of kettle corn. Salty and sweet. I concentrate and make myself eat one piece at time. Usually, halfway through the bag, the feeling has passed. If not, then I go for a second bag and drink LOTS of water to compensate for the salt. But it's better than the alternative of me raiding the kids' snack box. I can't just have a little when I'm stressed.
  • BrenNew
    BrenNew Posts: 3,420 Member
    My comfort food is cake. Man, I love cake! lol I would be happy if I could eat nothing but cake and still lose weight and be healthy. Maybe cake and pizza...but I digress.



    Us Brenda's sure do think alike! :laugh: I could easily live on cake and pizza too! :laugh: Though, I'd also have to have ice-cream, which I can NEVER, EVER get enough of! :love: Thank goodness I found Edy's slow churned, no sugar added cookie dough! I was able to eat ice-cream almost every single night, AND STILL lose the weight that I wanted to! :love: :bigsmile:
  • Hannah_Banana
    Hannah_Banana Posts: 1,242 Member
    FiberGourmet makes a lower carb Mac & Cheese now. :flowerforyou:

    http://www.fibergourmet.com/Mac.aspx

    I make my own though. I just have a serving (2oz) of Dreamfields elbows and 1 slice of kraft fat free cheese slices. I don't even need milk or butter!

    Total damage: 225 cals

    I guess if you used FiberGourmet's plain elbows and did the same thing (which I might recommend) it would only be 165 cals. :bigsmile:
  • XFitMojoMom
    XFitMojoMom Posts: 3,255 Member
    watch those fat free slices - the sodium content is OUT OF THIS WORLD!!

    My thing is salt... so nuts. I'm getting out of eating it with salt though. Unsalted walnuts are the bomb.
  • wallerinaprincess
    wallerinaprincess Posts: 96
    For me, especially in winter, I want soup for my comfort food. As long as you stay away from creamy ones, they are generally ok. Also, do you crave the velvetta because its easy? There are a lot of easy "just boil water" type things that are healthy. You just have to look around and spend some time in that section reading labels. They have lots of soups that are 98% fat free, low sodium, etc...and you would never know that they were. Hot and filling, I'm a big soup gal. Also, its easy to get all you need in one serving, carbs, calories, fiber, protein, and a small small bit of fat. My last thing I love about soup? Cheap!:drinker:
  • kpnuts23
    kpnuts23 Posts: 960 Member
    My comfort food is cake. Man, I love cake! lol I would be happy if I could eat nothing but cake and still lose weight and be healthy.

    Im in the same boat... I Loooove cake... a little bit too much, there is some birthday cake sitting opposite my desk and im in pain!!! Just had lunch and now im munching strawberry gum to take the craving away!! darn cake!!! :-)
  • littlejazzbird81
    littlejazzbird81 Posts: 17
    Thanks for the great suggestions everyone!

    Yeah, I guess I would have to include cake on my list of comfort foods too. I used to get the "cake for 2" packs at QFC (2 slices in a package) and then eat them both. :( No more though!

    I crave velveeta because it is so creamy. Yum, I just love it. I'll try some of your suggestions and see how they combat the cravings.
  • Kaileyxoxo
    Kaileyxoxo Posts: 95 Member
    hey! i actually just read this on hungrygirl.com, its a healthier version of mac n cheese, havent tried it yet but sounds pretty yummy and low cal! http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/chewdetails.php?isid=1804
  • littlejazzbird81
    littlejazzbird81 Posts: 17
    Ooh! Thanks!
  • FireMonkey
    FireMonkey Posts: 500 Member
    Hungry Girl is the BEST site.:love: I just looked at a Bananabread recipe that I MUST try tonight:

    Banana bread

    Ingredients:
    1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
    1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    3/4 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
    1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)
    1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters)
    1/2 cup no-sugar-added applesauce
    2 tsp. baking powder
    1 tsp. vanilla extract
    1/2 tsp. cinnamon
    1/2 tsp. salt
    Optional Toppings: no-calorie spray butter, Cool Whip Free

    Directions:
    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine both types of flour, Splenda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon (in other words, all dry ingredients). In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, egg substitute, applesauce, and vanilla extract (all the wet ingredients). Add this mixture to the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir until just blended. Spoon batter into a large loaf pan (about 9" X 5") sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly, and then cut into 8 slices. If you like, spritz with some spray butter or spread on some Cool Whip Free. MAKES 8 SERVINGS

    Serving Size: 1 (thick!) slice
    Calories: 140
    Fat: 0.5g
    Sodium: 267mg
    Carbs: 31g
    Fiber: 3.75g
    Sugars: 7g
    Protein: 5g
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