Cold and craving comfort food

Okay - it is cold.  about 20 degrees.  I know it is alot colder in other places but..... I am a wimp when it comes to cold.  I miss the West Texas heat.  Anyway, what comfort food do you crave, and how do you make it healthier?  I am looking for ideas before I go down to Wendys and eat the entire menu (minus the frosty)

With the windchill here it was about -27!

I have been wanting grilled cheese sandwiches, all hot and gooey.  Fortunately, these are pretty easy to make into a healthy meal.  Use whole grain or whole wheat bread instead of white, butter the cooking side very lightly, and top with reduced fat or fat free cheese.  I also like to add sliced tomato on top of the cheese, and maybe a couple slices of turkey breast.  Mmmm cheesy goodness.

We're supposed to get some arctic wind to accompany this foot and a half of snow, but it hasn't come about yet.  Not to my knowledge, at least.

My comfort food, which I love to snack on when it's cold outside, is warm bread.  Rolls, biscuits, artisan breads, english muffins, bagels, you name it I'll munch on it.  I love how fluffy it is in my mouth and how much it warms up my belly to swallow a good bite of warm, flavourful bread whether it's got a spread on it or not.

There's no real way to health it  up other than to eat it in limited amounts, which is what I resort to.  My husband eats every two hours.  I eat every four hours.  I have a serving, and only one serving (not a serving and a half, not two servings now with the thought I'd have no serving later, but just one damned serving) of bread for each of my meals.

And then I twiddle my thumbs and anxiously await the next serving of bread.  Bless my sense of self control.  :|

i just eat less of whatever it is that i want.  one of my favourites is homemade macaroni and cheese.  i use a 1-liter casserole and that's 4 servings.

Tonight I'm having a big bowl of pasta!

To "healthy it up", I use whole wheat rotini, and slice up a veggie "sausage" into olive and mushroom pasta sauce, then sprinkle with vegetarian fake-parmesan! 

veggie sausage and fake cheese?  split, you're gonna make me cry.

Original Post by pgeorgian:

veggie sausage and fake cheese?  split, you're gonna make me cry.

 LOL!

Seriously, I really like them!  I'm not a vegetarian by a long shot, but I find veggie products are a really good source of low fat protein - which is definitely the hardest thing for me to get enough of!

spaghetti sauce with hot italian sausage is a staple in my house.  i cook the sausage meat first, then drain and rinse it in hot water before putting it in the sauce.  i don't know exactly how much fat that gets rid of, but it seems like a lot.  yum!

i also use, like, 2 big (13oz) cans of tomato paste and about a pound of mushrooms and lots of onions and garlic, so that 450g (raw) package of sausage meat gets stretched out over about a dozen servings.  it's pretty healthful.

also, for CD, sometimes i put a little booze in there for an extra kick ;)

I love "drunken" pasta.  Cook the pasta with a heavy red wine.  I tend to use the wines that people buy me that I don't enjoy but can't seem to throw out.  If I don't like the wine I freeze it then use in stews, pasta, etc.  Beer goes in the chili for flavor.

I want with a full fat grilled cheese sandwich and french onion soup.  I have the calories so I will use them.  My walk was 3 miles today.

see - i do grilled cheese all the time!  but i cook half a sandwich ;)

Original Post by theresa5656:

I want with a full fat grilled cheese sandwich and french onion soup.  I have the calories so I will use them.  My walk was 3 miles today.

 Good for you!  Me?  I'd have to throw a little bacon on there as well for good measure - and it ain't grilled cheese without a zesty shrimp sauce for dipping!  YUM!

No bacon, that would completely throw off the calories no shrimp sauce either.  My weakness in mayonaise, but I managed to resist. 

Today is finally warming up, but the last few days, we've had windchills of -50 C

When it gets that cold, I always feel like baking!  So, now when I get the urge to whip up a batch of cookies, I whip up a batch of soup instead. 

Home made soup!  I do a chicken vegetable that is low cal and so comforting that I can eat a lot of it.

Another one is real cocoa.  If you cook up cocoa powder with a little water and sweeten it, then add fat free milk and maybe vanilla or cinnamon, you have a low calorie treat.  Those quick mixes just can't compare to the real thing!

I also crave hot ginger tea.  In fact, I'm off to the kitchen to brew some from a fresh ginger root.  It warms up the body and calms the stomach too.

I do grilled cheese a lot too, use wheat bread and I just put cooking spray on the bottom of the pan and don't butter teh bread at all, you really don't miss it at all!

BOOZE!  I think the only reason I like beer is because it tastes like bread.

We hit -50C here yesterday with the wind chill... So not only did I cook up a big pot of Turkey Stew, but thought about climbing into it too! 

We've done chili this week too, and my husband made split pea soup (bleh!) to fight off the chill.

Saw someone mention fresh bread... Mmmm, that's just evil

Thank goodness today is a high of 0!!!!

went to Olive Garden last night, could easily pass up the cream sauces and filled pasta...could NOT pass up breadsticks...it would have been wrong. 

chili made with venison is on the menu for this weekend.  I will put it in the crock pot and let it cook all day.  My cravings were satisfied now I am just waiting to go home.  Today is dead in the south - Jackson/Lee day today followed up my Martin Luther King Day on Monday combined with the cold makes downtown Richmond deserted.  At least at home I could curl up and nap in front of the fire with the dog.

Aha!  Someone else who has dined on venison.  I wonder, do you prepare it in a way so it doesn't taste gamey or do you like the fresh-outta-the-woods taste?