Now here's what I'm talking about! After two days of challenges, we are on a topic that I could talk about for hours! Talking about food is definitely not a problem.
So the post is easy, but the topic is always challenging. As always, I'll start off with a little background. If you are reading this, you are probably aware of my journey to being a healthier person. Food has always been a challenge for me. I am an emotional eater. I always have been. So comfort food has been a big part of my life for most of my life. Lately I've been doing my best not to give in to emotional eating, though it's the hardest of all of my bad habits to break. When I'm upset, my first instinct is to eat. I'm working on finding other coping mechanisms and if I do eat, I try to eat something healthier or make a healthier version of whatever comfort food I want. There are times when I will eat what it is that I'm craving, but I do try and eat less of it and enjoy it instead of just mindlessly eating and/or I will do extra workouts to work it off.
The reason I gave the background is that you will soon discover that my comfort foods are, in general, completely unhealthy and I wanted to explain how that works with all of my lifestyle changes.
Now that all of that is out of the way, here are my comfort foods, in no particular order.
1. Dog-N-Shake chili cheese dogs: I don't remember exactly what it was that got me started with the chili cheese dogs for comfort, but they definitely fall in this category. The butter toasted bun is the kicker for me. It just takes it to the next level.
2. My mom's chocolate sheet cake: This cake was my choice of cake for my birthday for years. It is so rich and delicious and makes me think of happy times. I have the recipe now, which is dangerous, but it is pretty involved so I do all right resisting the temptation to make it.
3. My lasagna: This is one of the only food that Vince and I both have on our comfort food lists. I think I go to this as a comfort food because it is the first thing I was able to make completely from scratch. It's a modification of my mom's lasagna recipe and it was my go to recipe for years. The biggest problem is that it is the opposite of healthy and I'm struggling on how to make it healthier without ruining it.
4. Homemade chocolate chip cookies when they are still warm: I have no specific memories or meaning tied to homemade chocolate chip cookies, but there is just comfort in a warm chocolate chip cookies. They are like a hug for the taste buds.
5. Kucha: This is the closest I can get for the correct spelling of this and none of the recipes that I have seen actually match what I'm thinking about. When I was younger, we would always have bread for breakfast. It was a sort of homemade bread. We took Rhodes rolls and kneaded them into a ball, cover and let it rise, kneaded it again and let it rise overnight. In the morning, you brushed the top with melted butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar before baking. It was a so delicious and is such a strong memory from when I was young.
6. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup mixed up until it is runny: This is one of those things that has really traveled with me from childhood to adulthood. We didn't do a lot of desserts when I was growing up, but it seemed like there was always vanilla ice cream and Hershey's chocolate syrup in the house. It was a favorite of everyone in the family, though I'm the only one who mixes it all up. It's also one of the few times I was allowed to play with my food until it was exactly how I wanted it. So as an adult, I will still mix it up just perfect until it is all melted into a chocolate-y ice cream soup. It makes me smile every time.
I think that's a pretty good list. I thought about putting something healthy on the list, but, honestly, as much as I wracked my brain, I couldn't come up with any healthy foods that are really comfort foods. I have some favorites - grapes, honeycrisp apples, lemon bars (yes, they are healthy), taco "cupcakes" - but they aren't really comfort foods. They would be on a list of my favorite foods, but not the comfort food list.
Hmmmm...maybe it's progress that writing this post didn't make me crave any of my comfort foods. If nothing else, it's interesting to think about. :)
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