5 Healthy Comfort Food Hacks If You Love Taste & Health
Inside: Healthy and low-calorie comfort food is just what you need right now. These 5 comfort food hacks give you the taste you crave without compromising your health.
You want yummy ooey-gooey. I do too. But too much yummy ooey-gooey drives cholesterol and blood sugar levels up. And makes the scale groan.
Comfort foods tantalize our taste buds, warm the soul, and take us back to a time and place when life was simpler and problems were small. Who doesn’t want that!
Is it possible to have both – comfort foods and health?
Because of my love for all things chocolate, peanut butter, and starch, I’ve learned a few kitchen tricks to turn typical comfort foods into healthy, low-calorie comfort foods with these 5 food hacks.
Try these 5 Healthy Comfort Food Hacks
A few healthy ingredient swaps and upgrades will have you nourishing both body and soul.
Healthy Comfort Food Hack #1: Veggie Up!
This may actually be a dietitian’s mantra. Fortunately, I’ve learned to love vegetables. Back in college – before I studied nutrition – I figured out I could manage my weight better if I filled up on large amounts of super low-calorie foods – cauliflower, carrots, and water. That discovery and a bunch of playing in the kitchen turned first me – and then my entire family – into vegetable lovers. Or at least vegetable appreciators, in the case of one beautiful red-headed family member. 😉
If you don’t have the veggie habit yet, using them to create low-calorie comfort foods is a good place to start. Bulk up your favorite foods with nonstarchy vegetables, so you can have a larger portion for fewer calories, carbs, and unhealthy saturated fats – all while boosting nutrition and being extra kind to your gut.
Load up pasta salad and every other kind of grain or legume-based salad with cherry tomatoes, sliced carrots, sugar snap peas, and more. Add flavor, color, and texture when you slip slices of bell pepper, red onion, and tomatoes into your grilled cheese sandwich.
Challenge yourself to add a vegetable to all kinds of recipes. Check out my healthy hashbrown casserole – healthy comfort food to the max.
Try hiding vegetables too. Add finely chopped broccoli into tomato-based casseroles and grated carrots into meatloaf. Blend ground meat with finely chopped mushrooms. Check out The Blend, developed and perfected by The Mushroom Council. They’ve got lots and lots of recipes.
Healthy Comfort Food Hack #2: Focus On Whole Grains
Oh, how I love my starchy grains. Fortunately, these days I find so many healthy options in the stores. And thank goodness whole-grain pasta manufacturers dumped the cardboard taste and found a way to make whole-wheat spaghetti actually taste like spaghetti.
Don’t fear grains, especially whole grains.
Diets rich in whole grains are linked to lowered risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer. Some options:
- Brown and wild rice
- Oats
- Barley
- Whole-wheat pasta and couscous
- Quinoa
- Wheat berries
- Farro
- Spelt
And plenty more.
Oats and barley both contain the viscous fiber beta-glucan, which helps lower cholesterol and improves insulin sensitivity. Yay for anyone with prediabetes, diabetes, or heart problems.
Healthy Comfort Food Hack #3: Substitute Or Go Halfsies
Sometimes a simple substitution of whole milk to 2% milk or white flour to whole wheat flour turns out beautifully.
But other times, yuk! It ruins the entire dish.
When it works, go for it. When it doesn’t, go halfsies.
For example, make airy blueberry muffins with half white flour and half whole-wheat flour, or sprinkle a combination of regular cheese and reduced-fat cheese over your pizza.
Simple, healthy swaps
Try some of these partial or full substitutions for more low-calorie comfort food hacks.
INSTEAD OF THIS |
UPGRADE WITH THIS |
Ground beef | 94% lean ground beef or ground turkey |
Half and half | Fat-free half and half, milk, evaporated fat-free milk |
Cream in soup | Whole milk, pureed white beans or potato or other pureed vegetable or pureed bread (yes, bread) |
Cheese | Reduced-fat cheese |
Sour Cream | Reduced-fat or fat-free sour cream or Greek yogurt |
Cornflake crumbs | Crushed Wheaties® |
Breadcrumbs | Rolled oats, crushed bran flakes or chopped walnuts |
Enriched white flour | Whole-wheat flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, white whole-wheat flour (these last two are softer and lighter) |
Butter or shortening in baked goods | Replace 4 tablespoons hard fat with 3 tablespoons canola or olive oil or with 4 tablespoons mashed avocado. |
Sugar in baked goods | Reduce the sugar by ¼ to 1/3 or use a combination of sugar and sugar substitute. |
I remember when reduced-fat cheese slices, puffed up and burned instead of melting. Fortunately, like whole-wheat pasta, today’s reduced-fat cheeses resemble actual food.
Healthy Comfort Food Hack #4: Bring Out Flavors
By seasoning smartly and layering flavors, you won’t miss the extra fats, sugars, and salt.
- When cutting back on sugar, season with cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla to bring out the sweetness of the dish.
- Sprinkle dry herbs early in cooking and fresh herbs before serving. Check out 5 Mistakes You’re Making with Herbs and Spices.
- Enhance dishes with toasted nuts. Sprinkle toasted almonds onto green beans, walnuts over Brussels sprouts, pecans into green salads, and pine nuts with sautéed spinach. Your options are endless. Did I mention I love all things nuts too?
- Use tiny amounts of strong-flavored cheeses such as feta or sharp cheddar. Stronger flavors give a big taste with smaller amounts to lower calories and saturated fats.
- Roast vegetables to bring out their natural sweetness.
- Squeeze a fresh lemon into stews and soups just before serving to boost flavor with less salt.
Healthy Comfort Food Hack #5: Downsize
Sometimes nothing but the real deal satisfies. I don’t want a “healthy chocolate peanut butter cookie.” I want a yummy ooey-gooey chocolate peanut butter cookie.
If the real deal is what you need for a smile, shrink the portion. Serve mini sundaes in stylish shot glasses. Bake pudding or tiny cakes in little ramekins. Do the same for chicken pot pie and macaroni and cheese.
No matter what, sit down, slow down, and savor every bite!
Cheers to happy, healthy eating! And cheers to healthy comfort food that reminds us of a time and place when life was simpler and problems were small.
LOVE Your Heart
Download this free 6-page list of heart-healthy food & ingredient swaps for more low-calorie comfort foods.
Filed Under: Nutrition, Success strategies
Tagged: carbohydrate, diabetes, healthy comfort food, prediabetes, sugar, whole grains
Jill Weisenberger
I'm Jill, and I believe simple changes in your mindset and health habits can bring life-changing rewards. And I don't believe in willpower. It's waaaay overrated. As a food-loving registered dietitian nutritionist, certified diabetes care and education specialist and certified health and wellness coach, I've helped thousands of people solve their food and nutrition problems. If you're looking for a better way to master this whole healthy eating/healthy living thing or if you're trying to prevent or manage diabetes or heart problems, you'll find plenty of resources right here.
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Welcome to my Blog
Hi there! I'm Jill, a nutrition & diabetes expert and the author of 4 books.
I believe simple changes in health habits can bring you life-changing rewards.
And I believe willpower is way overrated.
Right here is where you can discover the mindset and habits to stick with healthy lifestyle choices most of the time - and drop the guilt when you don't.