Naturally Chic Life is the personal blog
Life has a funny way of derailing plans and changing courses quickly. I am so excited to have this new blog as a place to share my life & style with the world but I may have a little bit (or a lot) less time to write than I had hoped. The reason? Well, I am not quite ready to share that just yet but it is a very positive thing and just one of a few reasons for my lack of time.
While I do have some time I wanted to share a great new book I discovered about a week ago while I was on a quest to find a way to eat healthier and save some money by eating at home. My biggest problem with the whole “healthy eating” thing is that most of the food is just not my style. I grew up with a very very simple diet so my style is comfort food, not exactly “healthy” in a box.
Lucky for me I found the perfect book called Comfort Food Fix by Ellie Krieger. Inside is a variety of snacks, breakfast, dinners, vegetarian dishes, and deserts that we all know and love but made in a healthier, but tasty, way. Not only are the recipes designed to be less calories, they are made to have more all around nutritional value to help you create a more balanced meal.
Each recipe contains the serving size, calories, saturated fat, cholesterol, fiber and sodium. Honestly, just having a recipe with a calorie count and serving size has been huge for me. My biggest challenge with eating out or home made meals (ya know, things not out of a box?) has been trying to keep track of how many calories I am taking in.
The first recipe I tried was DELICIOUS, it’s called Hamburger Healthier, a healthier spin on a classic comfort food favorite Hamburger Helper. Not only did I not feel like I was eating “healthy” I couldn’t even eat an entire serving size (2 1/2 cups!). I am really excited to try some more recipes and work on my cooking skills a bit.
Our favorite cookbook is still the Taste of Home, but we take the time to look at the recipes and make substitutions in the important spots. In addition, something like a hamburger dish (we do a dirty rice), we would chop up a ton of onion, peppers, eggplant, squash, etc to really bulk it up and make it more filling. A crockpot chili made with the meat, but also a ton of veggies like that is also amazingly filling.
However, neither of those really work as summer foods.
We steer more toward a healthy pizza and salad in the summer. Getting a pre-made pizza crust from the store and piling it with veggies, lean meat and goat cheese/part skim mozzarella also makes a filling meal. When I started my journey, I realized I was defeating myself eating things like fat-free cheese or mayonnaise. Your body isn’t wired that way and it’s essentially a bunch of chemicals as it is.
So glad you’re making the changes, by all means let me know if there’s any support I can give you!
That hamburger dish sounds good! That is similar to what I had made, mine was fully of veggies and whole wheat noodles. I agree with you about all of the fat free things, it’s more about being aware of what you are eating and portion control. We are more successful when we don’t deprive ourselves but re-train ourselves how to eat properly. Thanks for the tips Tom!!
Hi there, visiting from Boston Bloggers! You would think I was from the South with how much I crave comfort food. How great that this cookbook dishes up those same comfort foods in a better format, I’m all about it! Been looking for a new cookbook so may pick this one up – thanks for sharing!!!
Tell me about it! All I ever want is comfort food, that is why I love eating so much lol So to be able to make it a bit healthier and know how many calories I am consuming is great!
I totally need this book. Coming from the Midwest, I am a total comfort food junkie. I’ll have to check it out!
Let me know if you do! I’d love to know which recipes you try!