Food Friday: Comfort Food

I think we could all use a little comfort food after this week. 

We turn to comfort foods when we are stressed, sad or lonely. I know lots of people felt this way after this week’s presidential election, especially women. So I am here with some ideas for healthy comfort food. 

Comfort foods are traditionally loaded with simple or refined carbohydrates. Classics include baked goods like muffins and pie, heavy savory food like french fries, mashed potatoes and spaghetti and meatballs. They are filling, warm and associated with good memories. How can you make some of your own without going into a carbohydrate coma and feeling worse after you’re done ? 

I suggest starting with some hot tea, dressed nicely with lemon and and a little agave. This might be all you need. A savory alternative is a hot chicken broth, made easily from jarred organic broth mix which is readily available in standard grocery stores these days. 

If you need more, and you need it quickly, consider homemade popcorn with olive oil, salt, herbs, lemon pepper, or nutritional yeast. (The nutritional yeast is something you’ll have to get at your local organic foods store.)

If you can take the time to prepare something, be strategic. We will go with the traditional items, just tweaked for the cause of health. 

Muffins:

Try my fruit muffins 2.0 HERE  and use gluten free flour or whole wheat flour, depending on your tolerances. Try cutting the sugar. 

Pie: 

Try a Paleo nut crust with a fruit that doesn't need much sweetening. Plums come to mind. When I thaw frozen pie fruit out of season, I do so in a large nonstick frying pan, and pretty much get the water poured or boiled off, and the filling made. How about Paleo pumpkin pie made with coconut cream ? 

Here’s some recipes: 

https://elanaspantry.com/paleo-pumpkin-pie/

http://blog.paleohacks.com/pumpkin-pie-recipe/#

These recipes are for YOU. Don’t expect to serve a huge room of extended family these healthy alternative recipes and not get some comments about how they are different. They are different in that the crust is not the same and the fillings are less sweet. But they are treats you can feel good about. A brief search on Pinterest will yield dozens of Paleo pumpkin pie recipes. 

French Fries: 

This is easy: Crispy baked or broiled sweet potato fries made with coconut or olive oil. The key is in the cut. Sharpen your knife. Make them uniform. If you are brushing them with olive oil, make them thin, so high heat is not required. I recommend a large cookie pan lined with parchment. Lay the fries in a single layer brushed with oil and salted with kosher salt. The add pepper or herbs as desired. Bake at 375 in the upper half of oven until they are beginning to crisp. Dip in paleo or home made olive oil mayonnaise instead of sugary ketchup. Aioli sauce would also be nice. You may cook them in a hotter oven if you use coconut oil, but watch them carefully. 

Mashed "potatoes": 

Here you can try the now famous FAUX potatoes which are made with cauliflower. Wash and cut a whole head of cauliflower, cook until fork tender. You may steam, boil, or roast it. Then blend with a tablespoon of healthy fat like olive oil or a little butter, add salt or pepper to taste. Some people add a little garlic puree, but that is optional. Garnish with turkey bacon bits, and maybe chives. 

"Spaghetti" and meatballs: 

This gives you the chance to try Zoodles, or zucchini noodles. Use a peeler, or a special tool widely available in the kitchen gadget section of major stores. They cook quickly, so beware and do them last. Make the marinara sauce and meatballs of your dreams, the simply have them over the well drained Zoodles. 

I hope you have a nice comforting weekend. 

Food Friday: Better Carbs

Authorities agree that we consume too many carbohydrates and that this has contributed to the obesity epidemic. However it’s easy to eat plenty of carbs, lose weight, and have lots of energy if you just shift the way you think about them. 

When most people think about carbs (carbohydrates) they think of starches like white potatoes, grains like rice, and of course wheat products like bread, tortillas and pasta. But carbohydrates also comprise sugar, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, etc, and all the products which feature them prominently, like conventional soda, frappes, and lattes. These sorts of carbohydrates are unhealthy because they jet sugar into your bloodstream much faster than you can utilize it and it ends up being stored as fat. The fat ends up having a variety of toxic effects down the line. Even the white flours, pastas, rices and white potatoes do this. The white flour and white rice have been denatured of their fibrous structure and because of this breakdown very quickly into sugar. 

Whole wheat flour and brown rice are commonly thought of as better carbs, and they are, but not as much as you might think. Their glycemic index (rate at which they break down into sugar) is not that much better than their white counterparts. These should be utilized by people of normal weight and body composition with high energy requirements. This would include adolescents and athletes.

It has been shown that consumption of 2-3 servings of whole grains per day reduces risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, colon cancer and obesity, compared to rates in those that don’t eat these. The precise reason for this is unclear, though it may well be because of the fiber and additional nutrients that whole grains contain compared to refined (denatured) grains.  It is a sad commentary that the presence of 2-3 servings of whole grains per day constitutes a measurably higher caliber of diet than our general population’s diet.

Certainly whole grains are not the only readily available dietary source of fiber and nutrients. What if, in an imaginary prospective research study, conventional eaters were compared to those with 2-3 servings of whole grains per day, AND against those with an equivalent amount of fiber, BUT in the form of vegetables and fruits? I suspect that the third group that took their carbs as fruits and vegetables would do even better. I feel confident in speculating like this because, as a rule, produce (vegetables and fruits) is considerably more nutrient dense than whole grains. Depending on the particulars, they have fiber, vitamins, minerals, but also other types of nutrient such as healthy fats and antioxidants. Moreover, they have even lower glycemic indices. 

So, I propose that we learn to take most of our carbs as produce. What ? No bread at dinner ? No pancakes or cereal at breakfast ? No bread for sandwiches at lunch ? People are sure they will starve. What they will do is lose some of their belly fat. They will lower their blood sugars. Pregnant women will gain less excess weight, and be less likely to have gestational diabetes. They will also spend more money and time on food. But, they could also be spending money on treatments for obesity, diabetes, heart disease and worse. 

There are other differences that should go along with this approach. Portion sizes usually need to be larger. Additionally, there should is more emphasis on healthy fats such as coconut oil for high heat and olive oil for low heat and dressings. Also, from a culinary standpoint, there should be a greater utilization of flavors such as spices, garlic, lemon, chili and so on.  Healthy sauces and dressings figure more prominently. and Finally, there is more emphasis on lean meats, poultry and cold water fish. 

I wanted to take this post and show you how this might look. I think that while you will find it completely different, you will find it rather appealing. 

Breakfast idea: 

I would pair this with a small bowl of fresh fruit. 

Lunch: 

Stiff leaves of romaine make a crunchy manageable container for savory contents, much like a taco shell. 

Dinner:

These are cauliflower mashed “ potatoes”, also known as “faux”  potatoes, which can be served as a side dish at dinner, drizzled with olive oil or butter.

These are zucchini noodles which just need a hearty meat sauce.

Dinner is in some ways the easiest, since you still have your “main dish” and your salad. All you need is another cooked vegetable, like these vegetable fries, and perhaps some fresh fruit. 

There are an infinity of substitutions like this. When families are transitioning from conventional diets to more of a paleo style diet like this, they may find it politic to try to make their new healthier dishes resemble old conventional ones. Eventually, this pretense can be abandoned, as more exciting approaches to healthy cooking are discovered. Check out any number of the new Paleo cookbooks out there. For more information, see the last four Food Friday blog posts on food inspiration. 

Food Friday: Food Inspiration, Part 1 of 4

I love food. I love healthy food. But sometimes I need food inspiration. I would like to turn to my four big sources of food inspiration: 

• food websites
• cookbooks
• food in literature 
• food movies 

This week we will touch on food websites. 

First and foremost, there is Pinterest. This is a free online general pinboard where you can create your own page full of albums and “pin” items from anywhere in the internet or from Pinterest itself. It is your all purpose infinite online scrapbook collection. More often than not, it is my first stop when searching for a specific recipe. Sometimes I just need inspiration and will just scroll through my own extensively curated food albums. It takes about 5 minutes for me to go from unmotivated to excited when I check Pinterest. 

Other general resources are food.com, foodnetwork.com, and epicurious.com. Of these, epicurious is my favorite. That is because it is a knowledge rich site. Sure, it has gorgeous  graphic design and photography. Additionally, it is well organized and is geared to someone who truly wants to learn to cook well. There are numerous tips, tricks and educational resources. There is also a free membership, and this enables readers to collect their favorite recipes on the site. Epicurious is a site I have used for years, but apparently it won a Webby award in 2015 for best site in the food and drink category.

AmericasTestKitchen.com and CooksIllustrated.com get the highest marks for being instructional, but they lack the high style and visual appeal of epicurious.com. If you want to understand technique, or the science behind cooking, go here. 

Saveur.com deserves mention as an old and fascinating resource. The magazine has been one of my favorites for many years. Saveur is distinguished by its philosophy of setting food into it’s cultural and geographic context. Reading Saveur is a good bit of culinary armchair travel. To introduce you, check out their page on the best culinary blogs of 2015: 

http://www.saveur.com/saveur-blog-awards-2015-voting-closed

I should say that there are many beautiful websites and blogs out there which I will not showcase. That is because I am going to try to highlight sites which feature healthier cuisine. Many of these are vegetarian or vegan. I will include them, since current evidence based guidelines recommend we consume more plant based foods. However, I will also feature Paleo sites, which I believe are even better. 

The Paleo movement is amusingly misnamed since it has little to do with what Paleolithic people (cavemen) ate. The Paleo diet is devoid of grains and legumes (beans, soy and the like) , as well as modern processed foods and sometimes even dairy. There are many versions of the Paleo diet. At its worst, it is trendy nonsense. At its best, it is allergen free, and rich in healthy animal proteins, healthy fats, and  nutrients and fiber from fruits and vegetables. 

A new favorite for me is Paleo Magazine. A good place to start is their list of the top 10 Paleo Blogs on the Web: 

https://paleomagonline.com/top-10-paleo-blogs-on-the-web-2014/

My favorite on the list is Nom Nom Paleo.

I would also like to mention an important site on Paleo food which goes into a fair amount of medical science. This is

thedomesticman.com

It’s young author Russ Crandall had a life threatening bout with autoimmune disease. The Paleo diet helped in his recovery. He is medically literate and goes to some length in his books to explain the connection, which is that in some people, the Paleo diet can help reduce intestinal hyperpermeability and inflammation. 

I am going to conclude with a couple other specific favorites. First is the “eat" section of Greatist.

greatist.com/eat

Their site is beautiful and evidence based. Finally, there is

theforestfeast.com.

For sheer beauty, you should go here.

I hope, from now on, the question “ What should we have for dinner ?" is a pleasure rather than a pain.