Sit Back and Get Comforted

Mmmm…comfort foods. Who among us doesn’t have certain foods that they turn to when they just need to feel—well—comforted?

Here is a countdown of my five absolutely favorite comfort foods:

#5—Pasta of any kind, but especially Miss Healthypants’ Homemade Chicken Helper Pasta. I made up this dish (not from scratch exactly, since it’s mostly made of canned and packaged stuff), and I absolutely love it. Even Iwanski likes it—although he’s not generally a big pasta eater (unless you count Chef Boyardee). Here’s how you make it:

MISS HEALTHYPANTS’ HOMEMADE CHICKEN HELPER PASTA

Ingredients:

2 Bowls of “Bowl Appetit” Pasta Alfredo (I buy these at Walgreens.)

Lots of cut-up vegetables—whatever you have on-hand—I like to use:
--Bell peppers (Trader Joe’s sells frozen red, yellow, and green bell peppers strips—awesome!)
--A small can of mushrooms (rinsed in water to get rid of the crazy amounts of sodium in the can)
--Fresh spinach
--Fresh broccoli

Some olive oil (I like the fancy-schmancy jalapeno olive oil the best.)
1 teaspoon (more or less) fresh garlic
1 big (12.5 ounce) can of chicken in water (again, rinsed to get rid of the crazy amounts of sodium in the can)
Red pepper flakes to taste

Directions:

Follow the directions to make the bowls of pasta. While that’s cooking away in the microwave, in a big pan or wok, sautee the garlic in the olive oil, and then add the veggies and mushrooms (if you like mushrooms) and sautee them. Add the chicken, and then add the cooked pasta. Add some red pepper flakes to taste, and then let the whole lovely mix simmer away for a few minutes.

And that’s it! Yummy!


My #4 favorite comfort food is:

Lazy Daisy Bars—these are the easiest cookie bars to make, and Iwanski and I love them. When I was just a wee little one, my Mom would make them all the time, so they really remind me of my childhood. Here’s the quick and easy recipe:

Lazy Daisy Bars

2 eggs
¼ cup water
¼ cup butter or margarine
¼ cup brown sugar
1 package yellow cake mix
6 oz. chocolate chips

Beat eggs—add water, butter, and sugar. Add cake mix
and chocolate chips. Bake at 375 degrees in a 9x13 greased
pan for 15-20 minutes.


My #3 favorite comfort food is definitely grilled cheese sandwiches. Nothing like cheese to make you feel constip—oh, I mean comforted. I like Muenster cheese the best for my grilled sammich. And very recently, Buck introduced me to the best grilled cheese addition EVER—bread and butter pickled jalapenos. YUMMY!


My #2 favorite comfort food?—Tomato soup. Hell, if you’re gonna eat grilled cheese, you gotta have tomato soup!—at least in my opinion. There’s something about how that velvety soup mixes with the melty cheese on the sandwich…man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.


And my #1 favorite food (drum roll please) is definitely...Triscuits and cream cheese. I mean, what’s not to love about it?

Triscuits = good

Cream cheese = sinfully good

Triscuits + cream cheese = the best comfort food EVER.

I especially love the Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits, with the cream cheese. It’s a spicy, dry cracker with a creamy, cool topping—to me, it’s just the ultimate sitting-at-home-on-the-couch-in-my-fat-pants comfort food. I love love love it!

But it doesn’t love me—or at least my waistline. So alas, I have to be careful of how much Triscuits & cream cheese I devour on a daily basis. Sigh…

So there you have it, folks—Miss Healthypants’ top five favorite comfort foods. Honestly, I just don’t know how I’d live without them.

Now…I’m dying to find out what all your favorite comfort foods are—so tell me, dammit!