Healthy Comfort Food Swaps
I love a good bowl of pasta, with butter! That’s my feel good dish, not sweets. It’s not the worst dish for me, health-wise, but it’s certainly not the best! Everyone has something different they reach for when they get stressed or emotional. That’s OK, but I’m going to do a swap for the most popular comfort foods we reach for, to see if we can find healthy alternatives.
Now, little side note here, this is not to make you feel bad for reaching for that comfort food. If you really want that food, GO FOR IT! Eat, enjoy it and move on. I just hope to inspire you to explore different options and relationships with food. Most of the time we’re eating out of habit. When we switch our mindset about what’s making us eat this food or switching to a different form of that craving, we begin to not want that specific comfort food anymore.
Also, when I switched to a higher grade chocolate, I didn’t need to eat as much. It was very satisfying, whereas before I would eat about 10 Oreos and still crave more. The “high” only lasts so long when our comfort food is not nutritionally balanced. I would also switch to chocolate protein balls which were packed full of fiber and protein but also sweet to satisfy that craving.
Mindset: When I have a craving come up, I ask myself what’s going on right now that I want this? Am I stressed, emotional, PMS’ing, or just really thirsty and hungry because I haven’t eaten? I am still gonna go for that comfort food, but now I know what I’m going for to satisfy the craving. For example, if I realize I have not eaten all day, I’ll make a sweet potato with spinach and chicken. If I’m thirsty, I’ll add lemon to my water. If it’s that time of the month, it’s a superfood smoothie…you get where I am going here.
Ways to help with these cravings:
Make sure you eat balanced meals all day. If I skip breakfast I am doomed for the day - I will snack all day.
Know your cycle. Eat and exercise for what state your body is in and going through.
Stay hydrated. Women should have at least 9 cups of water per day, and men apparently 13 cups per day. These are bare minimums.
Meal prep so it is easy to grab healthier swaps. I know for me, if I don’t have food prepared I will reach for the quickest snack available - a bag of popcorn, my daughter’s snack of choice. Popcorn is not bad but not the best when it’s all that you eat for lunch.
Ok so here is a list of my favorite swaps:
Sweets -
Chocolate chip cookies with coconut and almond flour
Protein balls - 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter (try to buy peanut butter where the ingredients are “peanuts” only)1/2 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate chips.1 cup old fashion oats.1/2 cup of flax seeds or protein powder - if choose powder you may need to reduce oats.2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup.Taste test until you get the right consistency :) refrigerate if too sticky to roll into a ball and once cold, try rolling them. place on cookie sheet and freeze. Once frozen add to reusable bag and keep in freezer.
Black Bean Brownies or blondies with chickpeas - I tricked my family down in GA to eat black bean brownies without telling them and they loved em!
Banana/peanut butter smoothie - simple as that. Add ice and almond milk. Add protein powder for an extra boost
Ice cream with banana and peanut butter or add another fruit of your choice. During the summer this was almost every night with my 3 year old. Thank you, dear friend Kali for this recipe ages ago. 3 large frozen bananas1 - 2 table spoon of peanut butter.Dash of almond milk.Blend, put into freezer for about 2 hours. Take out and add toppings, I like to add chocolate chips. Seriously, so good.
Carbs-
Oats - Who doesn’t love oatmeal on a cold winter morning. They’re fueled with fiber and they feed our good bacteria in our GI tract. Overnight oats are my go-to for breakfast when I know we have a busy morning. Or if I work late and I know I will be tired in the AM.
Zucchini noodles - Contains potassium, Vit. C, Folate, Vitamin A and Iron. Honestly I have struggled to get the right consistence but have found that if you keep them crunchy and add your hot food on top of them, they will soften to the right consistency usually.
Butternut squash boats- Great source of fiber, calcium, magnesium and zinc. This link gives options for Whole30 and dairy free. I switch out the cheese for dairy free cheese.
Cauliflower rice provides antioxidants and phytonutrients that can protect against cancer or Brown rice noodles may have same calories as white rice (common question that comes up) but it has more fiber and protein. can help regulate blood sugar. I would suggest lentil noodles but I have a love/hate relationship with them but give them a try ;)
I lovemac and cheesebut try switching to butternut squash or nutritional yeast with the noodles listed above.
Twice baked potatoes with Forager dairy free sour cream or yogurt and cashew cheddar cheese, sprinkled with bacon. OMG, so good! Coat 5 Russet potatoes with oil and salt, poke with fork and cover with foil.Cook at 400 for 35/40 min. until tender (if adding bacon, add it to the oven to cook at the same time). Do not turn oven off after. Cut in half and scoop out the inside.Place in stand up mixer or bowl to mix by hand.Add 4 tablespoons of butter (kerrygold or vegan), 1/3 cup of oat milk or almond milk. start mixing together with fork to cut up potatoes if not using mixer.Add Bacon, dairy free cheese and sour cream of choice. Mix it all together and scoop back into the potatoes until that are all filled.Add back to oven for 15 minutes. Take out, let cool and enjoy!
Seriously so easy and delicious.
I hope this list gave you the inspiration and ideas to switch up your favorite comfort foods. Have suggestions and recipes you love? Post below to share with the community!
xoxo,
Kristin
