America's Top 10 Comfort Foods - The Healthy Way

So I’ve decided to take on the task of preparing healthy alternatives to comfort foods. In preparation for this I visited the Food Network website and found the list of America’s Top 10 Comfort foods and found that America’s Top 10 Comfort Foods are; 1) Pizza, 2) Biscuits, 3) French fries, 4) Spaghetti, 5) Chicken Soup, 6) Fried Chicken, 7) Mashed Potatoes, 8) Burritos, 9) Macaroni and cheese and, 10) Grilled cheese.

Over the next few blogs I am going to attempt to bring you a tasty and healthy alternative to these foods. Today I can cover a few of these with one simple recipe, Simple Cheese Sauce. This is a recipe you can use in place of cheese for pizza, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, and as a condiment for burritos but I will cover burritos later. Also, since this is my take on a healthy alternative it is 100% free of animal fat! That means its vegan vegetarian but don’t let that scare you, this stuff is so good my 13 year old said that this mac and cheese is now her favorite mac and cheese!

Simple Cheese Sauce

1 c. cashew pieces

2 c. water

¼ c. pimento

1 ½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

¾ c. nutritional yeast flakes

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until at desired consistency. Add to your favorite foods and enjoy!

For pizza you will need:

Whole wheat pita bread

Pizza sauce

Favorite pizza toppings

Simple Cheese Sauce, thick

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread 1-2 tbsp. pizza sauce over 1 pita. Top with desired toppings, then cheese sauce. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

For grilled cheese you will need:

Whole wheat bread

Simple Cheese Sauce, very thick

Vegan butter

Preheat a stove top griddle. Spread one to two tbsp. onto a slice of bread, top with another slice, butter both sides of sandwich, and grill on both sides until golden brown. Repeat until desired number of sandwiches is met.

For macaroni and cheese you will need:

16 oz. Elbow macaroni

Simple Cheese Sauce, saucy consistency

French Fried Onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook macaroni according to package directions for al dente. Mix 3/4 simple cheese sauce in with noodles. Pour into a baking dish, top with remaining cheese sauce and French fried onions, bake for 15 minutes. Serve hot and enjoy!

Come back next time for biscuits, mashed potatoes, and fried chik’n!

Chips and Mango Salsa

Here's a healthy twist to your snack food, Chips and Mango Salsa that's to die for! You can use this for parties, pot lucks, a healthy brown bag idea, or just a midday snack. I promise your whole family will LOVE this dish! All you need is...

Chips:

1 package white or blue corn tortillas

Olive oil

Sea salt

Mango Salsa

4 large tomatoes

1 large mango

1 med sweet white onion

1 pepper of choice (I use tomatillo)

Juice of half a lemon

Cilantro to taste, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Take one tortilla, spread with olive oil on one side, salt to taste then cut into 8 triangles. Place tortillas onto a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown. Repeat with all tortillas and store in an airtight container. Dice tomatoes, peeled mango, onion, and pepper and place into a medium sized bowl. Squeeze the juice of one half a lemon into the bowl then add chopped cilantro; mix all ingredients together. Enjoy with your freshly made tortilla chips.

Variations: Instead of mango add corn, black beans, red and green pepper for a more southwestern salsa.

Some people like to discard the seeds of the tomato; I personally use them as the "juice" of the dish. Some people also like to discard the seeds of the pepper; if using tomatillo you don't have to worry because it is a very mild pepper. Of course with the hotter peppers you can adjust the heat of your salsa by the amount of seeds you allow. When buying the tortilla, make sure you buy the ones with the least amount of ingredients, you want it to be as close to the homemade thing as possible.

What makes this dish so healthy? Well, the obvious reason is because of the lack of preseratives and processed foods. So much of what we eat today is jammed full of things like MSG, high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, sodium, and fat. Some of which are designed to enhance the flavor of certain ingredients like the "artificial flavoring", excite your brain cells (excitotoxins), get you addicted, and make you fat so you can keep on feedin' the man. This recipe is made from all natural, fresh ingredients making it the healthiest and tastiest option for you and your family. Enjoy!

Tofu Scramble

Tofu Scramble is an excellent rendition of scrambled eggs. Obviously, this would appear to be for the strict vegan only. Not true! This is a wonderful way to reduce the amount of fat and cholesterol in one's diet while still reaping the benefits of a comforting country breakfast.

1 16 oz package Firm water packed Tofu
2 tbsp. braggs liquid aminos
2 tsp. Turmeric
4 button mushrooms
3 green onions
1 medium tomato

Saute all vegetables except tomato for about 1 minute then crumble the tofu into the pan. Add liquid aminos and turmeric, saute and cook off all the liquid, add tomato heat and serve.

This is one of those recipies you can actually play with quite a bit. Add Morning Star sausage crumbles and salsa for a breakfast burritto for example. Add potato, nutritional yeast flakes for a cheesy flavor, and maybe some shitake mushrooms for a meaty texture. Serve with toast and Morning Star "bacon" strips. Use your imagination and let your taste buds go wild! Serves approximately 4 people.

Sesame Tofu

This is a dish I like to serve over rice so you'll want to prepare your rice as you begin preparation for your sesame tofu. For this recipe I recommend either brown or white rice and not more than 6 servings.

You will need:
2 16 oz. packages of prepared stir fry Tofu (see blog "How to Prepare Your Entree Tofu")
8 oz. mini Bella mushrooms, sliced
1 head broccoli florets
1 medium onion, julienned
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 large carrots, thin slices

Teriyaki Sauce or homemade sauce using the following:
1/4 c. soy sauce
1-2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. black strap molasses
1 c. pineapple juice
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 heaping tbsp. corn starch
crushed red pepper, to taste
roasted sesame seeds

Pre-cut and pre-measure all ingredients so as to make cooking as smooth as possible. Prepare the sauce by mixing all ingredients except the sugar and sesame seeds keeping additional pineapple juice nearby, set aside. Heat the wok or skillet to the highest temperature setting. Add a couple tablespoons of a light oil to the wok/skillet, it should just start to smoke, carefully add broccoli and carrots, gently toss and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until tender crisp; set aside. Bring wok/skillet back to high heat, add oil and stir fry onions and mushrooms for approximately 3 minutes, onions should be slightly transparent; set aside. Bring wok/skillet back up to high heat, add 1 tbsp. oil then garlic, stir fry for 1 minute. Stirring constantly, add the sauce, red pepper flakes, and sugar to taste; the sauce should thicken to a paste. Add pineapple juice until sauce reaches desired consistency (should be thick), should equal approximately 1 1/2 cups of sauce. If using a store bought sauce, add desired amount to the garlic then continue from here. Return all vegetables and tofu to the wok/skillet, coat in the sauce top with roasted sesame seeds, warm to hot and serve over a bed of rice. Approximately 6 servings.

Nutritional info per serving:

Calories: 324 Carbs: 32 Fat: 9 Protein: 23 Sodium: 570 Sugar: 12

Vegetable Lo Mein

What you'll need:

1 package Lo Mein noodles

3 green onions, chopped

1/2 c. carrots, julienned

1 c. broccoli

1 8 oz package portabella mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced

2-3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

The following ingredients, add to taste:

Soy sauce

Rice vinegar

Sesame Oil

Pineapple Juice

Sugar

2 heaping tsp. cornstarch

Cook Lo Mein noodles according to package directions. I like to have all ingredients chopped and measured before cooking. For the sauce I always use liquid aminos or soy sauce, rice vinegar, dark sesame oil, pineapple juice, sugar, and cornstarch as a base. You can play with the sauce by adding any of the following or a combination of the following: fish oil, molasses, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, Chinese five spice powder, orange juice, zest or use your imagination. You can also replace all of the sauce ingredients for a bottled sauce at your local grocers. I never measure these ingredients and I wait to add the sugar, keeping a half cup close by, but I usually end up with about 1 cup of sauce before adding it to the pan (this will become 1 1/2 to 2 cups).

Heat wok or large frying pan to highest heat add a couple tablespoons oil of your choice to the hot pan. Oil will begin to smoke just slightly, carefully add carrots and broccoli, toss and cook for approximately three minutes or until tender crisp, remove from wok. Bring wok back up to high heat add a little more oil then add mushrooms, toss and cook for another 3 minutes then add green onions, toss and cook for one minute, remove from wok. Bring wok back up to high heat, add 1 tbsp. oil then garlic and ginger, after about 1 minute add sauce and sugar, allow to boil and thicken to a paste then add more pineapple juice to thin to a thick sauce adding more sugar if needed. If sauce continues to thicken add more pineapple juice until sauce reaches desired consistency. Return all vegetables and Lo Mein to the sauce, mix well, warm to hot. Serve and enjoy! Serves 6

How to Prepare your Entree Tofu

The next step in making sure your guests have an excellent experience with tofu is by ensuring the proper preparation for your dishes. In this blog I am going to share my tips for creating the best tofu entrees. Using the following directions you can prepare tofu for steaks, kabobs, soups, and stir fries.

1.   First choose the extra firm water packed tofu.

2.   Open the package and drain the water.

3.   Cut the brick of tofu in half. The next step depends on what dish you are making. For tofu steaks cut each half in half once more then move on to the next step. For stir fry and soup cut the each half into two more halves making a total of eight even slices then move on to the next step. For kabobs, I recommend Tempeh cut into cubes, otherwise follow the same directions for stir fry.

4.   For this step you will need two flat baking sheets, two clean kitchen towels, and paper towels. At this point the tofu is still very wet. To get the best texture as possible you want to remove as much of the water as possible. So you will first lay one kitchen towel on one of the baking sheets, then line with a few layers of paper towel. Lay the slices of tofu on the paper towel in a single layer, lay the same amount of paper towel on top of the tofu, then the second kitchen towel, and the second baking sheet. At this point you want to apply as much pressure as possible evenly across the tofu. I like to stack all of my plates and bowls on the center of the baking sheet for at least thirty minutes.

5.   After pressing the tofu you are ready to move on to the final preparation. The tofu steaks are now ready for marinade, BBQ on the grill, baking or broiling. For soup or kebobs; cut tofu into cubes and bake on 350 until slightly browned and firm. For stir fry; cut into triangles and fry on each side in a wok or pan with your choice of oil, heated to the highest setting, until golden brown. I like to finish this tofu in the oven on 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (until firm but not crunchy). Tofu is then ready to be added to your stir fry.

This is how I prepare tofu for all of my entree dishes. Following these directions you should never have problems with a slimy gelatinous texture. This tofu will be the centerpiece to your entrees, guaranteed to please your taste buds with every bite.

Choosing the Right Tofu

Choosing the right tofu is so critical to making a great tofu dish. The wrong tofu could give a lasting impression guaranteed to turn your victim's stomach at the mere thought of tofu. Don't think of this as being too much work or too difficult. Just as you carefully choose the best ripe tomato, watermelon, or pomegranate; just as you carefully choose the steak with just the right amount of marbling and outside layer of fat; choosing the right tofu is actually easier.

The first thing you need to establish is what kind of dish you're looking to make; dessert, sauce, entree etc. these all require a specific tofu. A pudding pie requires an extra firm silken tofu while a slab of tofu for an entree should require extra firm water packed tofu. Be sure that if you are new at using tofu, you should always use the exact tofu that the recipe calls for. Once you get used to cooking with tofu, you will be able to play with it more and create your own wonderful dishes.

Here are a few things to remember:

Mori Nu is an excellent tofu for these types of dishes:

Sauce = Soft silken tofu

Spread = firm silken tofu

Pudding/Custard = extra firm silken tofu

Nasoya tofu is an excellent tofu for these types of dishes:

Tofu "Steak" (shish kabob) = Extra firm water packed tofu

Tofu "scramble" = Firm water packed tofu

Smoothies = Extra soft silken tofu

A good rule of thumb is that if you are looking to make a smooth and creamy dish, you will always want a silken tofu. If your dish is smooth and creamy but you want it to be able to stand firm like a pie, you will want extra firm silken. If your dish is smooth, creamy, and liquid like an alfredo sauce; you will want an extra soft silken tofu. If you want a meaty texture, you will want the extra firm water packed tofu. Wikipedia is also an excellent source for finding the right tofu. Whatever you choose, tofu is always an excellent cholesterol free, low fat, low calorie, low carbohydrate; source of high protein, iron, and calcium option for you and your family.