Comfort Food

Hello All,

Tonight I bring you healthy but comforting food, straight from my own adventures in trial and error!

My current obsession is oatmeal, but not those irritating little packages. Get the giant, flavorless kind but then doctor it up. I like to put a teensy bit of REAL peanut butter (IE, one where the ingredient list is "peanuts" and nothing else) and a dollop or so of maple syrup. SO good, and tastes like something your mother would make you while you were ill (in a good way).

Speaking of stuff your mother used to make, make your own vegetable soup. Honestly, I don't have a fool proof recipe, but if you use a vegetable broth base alone, it can, admittedly be a little flavorless. Solution? Throw some organic tomato paste in there as well as as many vegetables as possible.

Whole wheat toast with hummus. Simple, smooth, yummy.

Organic mashed potatoes. Use rice milk instead of milk, olive oil instead of butter, and then doctor it any way you like! I like adding garlic and rosemary (for the really ambitious, roast your added ingredients separately).

Real/whole apple sauce. Self-explanatory, I think.

If your like me and love the taste of espresso but hate how much caffeine there is, as well as how much sugar lattes end up with, try a "watered down" homemade version. Brew some coffee, and while it's brewing steam your own not-milk (for taste, I'd go almond milk, for health I recommend rice milk) by heating over medium heat and whisking until boils. Keep whisking after you turn down the heat. It should make it frothy through most of it. Then simply combine in a coffee mug/cup/wine glass.

Don't lose pasta just because your losing weight! A big part of my diet is organic, whole-wheat rotini and various healthy sauces; marinara, olive oil and wine, etc. etc.

I hope some other vegans will add their own thoughts and ideas! I actually had a lot of fun compiling this list, and would love to include more some day.