When Food is Your Comfort #MFRWAuthor #BOB

Ahh, comfort food. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Chicken fried steak with white gravy. Mac’N’Cheese. So tasty in the mouth so yummy in the tummy. And oh so permanent on the hips. Sigh. And let us not forget cheesecake or chocolate pie. Nope can’t forget those!

Some people…doggone them…can indulge frequently in these treats and live long healthy lives, perpetually slender. For the majority of us it’s not quite so simple. When the day comes we can’t carry a suitcase up an escalator and our dogs are embarrassed to run Agility with us, changes need to be made.

Does this mean we need to avoid all those foods we love so much? Weeelll we’re not going to lean up on fried meat, mashed potatoes and gravy. But a few adjustments can keep our mouths happy and our waistlines more in line.

I’m going to be sharing some of my favorite recipes, the ones that have helped me, and also my secret helper. What’s my secret helper, you ask? What we used to call white broccoli…cauliflower. You might have tried riced cauliflower and loved or hated or been totally ambivalent. But have you tried Shepherd’s Pie with mashed cauliflower and cheese? Hmmmmm??

I started with leftover stew, any combination of meat and vegetables will do. I don’t much care for carrots or peas, so most of my stews and other slow cooked meats end up with an excess of onions and garlic (is there such a thing as too many onions??)

Mashed up the cauliflower, in this case frozen that I thawed out and actually should have cooked better. I had the devil of a time getting those chunks soft and creamy!

Eventually it went on top of the stew, then of course I added cheese and popped it in the oven.

And…here you are. Nope not low calorie but lowER calorie plus I snuck in another vegetable without having to add those danged peas or carrots.

What do you think? Kinda hit the spot on a winter evening, and fooled my roommate!