Creating Comfort Without Food

A new post from Fit Fare, featuring advice from a show I caught only by happenstance:

A couple weeks ago, I was watching the Food Network as I fussed with some web site maintenance when Ellie Krieger started rattling off a list that caught my attention. I snatched my pocket notebook off the coffee table and started scrawling quickly, a throwback to my journalism days.

Then I remembered I have a TiVo, and I backed up the program to catch all I had missed in a more civilized manner.

Regardless.

That day's episode of Healthy Appetite was devoted to comfort foods. While Ellie Krieger apparently developed the recipes to provide mood-lifting nutrition and homestyle pampering, she took a few minutes to remind the audience that to live a healthy lifestyle, don't turn immediately to food when in need of a pick-me-up.

I debated whether this post really belonged on Fit Fare or Edible TV, but in the end I decided that theme trumped form.

While I do watch a lot of Food Network's daytime instructional shows, Healthy Appetite is one I haven't caught much. It's not on every day, and I felt skeptical of her recipes when it premiered: No matter how many TV cooks try to pass off baked chicken fingers with an oil-laced breading as health food, I'm not buying it.

Still, considering how much my focus has shifted to healthy eating in recent years, it might be time to take a second look at this series. Ellie Krieger tells you the health benefits of each significant ingredient she uses, so you at least know why the white-meat chicken in those fingers is nutritious.

Here are direct links to the recipes featured in the episode "Feel Good Factor":

Wheat Berry Salad
Balsamic Strawberries with Ricotta Cream
Cracked Pepper Potato Chips with Onion Dip
Lettuce Cups with Tofu and Beef

Photo: Colleen Fischer

Technorati Tags:
Fit Fare, food, healthy eating, comfort food, stress reduction