Variations on Comfort Food

The last few weeks have been pretty blah. I don’t like to publicly complain so I’ll keep it short but let’s just say I had made difficult decisions about my career and we also were hit with various illnesses. Things are starting to look better and I am in no way depressed or too ridiculously worried, but I definitely wanted comfort food. And a lot of it. Not my best few weeks in terms of healthy eating. But the comfort was there. 🙂

So here’s a look at my most comforting meals in the last few weeks:

Stuffed Acorn Squash with Brie and Capicola on Crackers.

Starting to see the laziness kicking in. The squash involved a bit of effort but the cracker side was a high level of lazy. It tasted great though! Although this isn’t typical comfort food, anything fall related is comforting. And acorn squash with walnuts and fresh cranberries is right up that alley. I followed this delicious recipe from Let the Baking Begin! for the acorn squash.

Chicken Pot Pie Muffins

My love for everything chicken pot pie related is no secret. Of course, as soon as I saw this muffin idea on Facebook, I ran to the store to buy the necessary ingredients (really, I only had to buy the biscuit roll as I always have the necessary ingredients for pot pie waiting in the freezer). Although I could have picked a nicer biscuit roll option (I went for the cheapest store-brand one), it turned out pretty good! I had them for lunch for about a week.

Poutine from Trader Joe’s

Earlier this year, I discovered that Trader Joe’s sells bags of frozen poutine. Dangerous discovery. After the end of a particularly difficult day, I decided to make it again. Normally, Jeff and I share the bag but he wasn’t hungry that night. As we got ready to watch a movie, I showed up on the couch with my baking dish full of poutine. Jeff said “Are you really going to eat all this?” to which I responded a simple “Watch me”. It was delicious. It was too much. I couldn’t remember the last time my stomach hurt from eating so much. But it still felt worth it. Because sometimes, comfort is just pigging out on food that taste like home.

Sick Week Goodies

I got the flu and was in bed for a few days. My first sick morning, Jeff went to the store and came back with a variety of goodies to help me feel better. He was awarded bonus points for picking the fun-shaped soups. Sadly, the healthiest soup he brought (Organic chicken and dumplings) turned out to be the worst one. But the thought was there. The variety of Spaghetti-O’s made me particularly happy.

Easy Maple and Chicken Baked Beans

In Quebec, baked beans are a staple breakfast item. Not for everyday breakfast but for big delicious weekend breakfasts, baked beans are very common. My mom shared this recipe (the link is in French but Chrome will translate) on Facebook and I decided to try it out. I turned on the slow cooker in the morning and by dinner time, I had the best beans I had ever made. I love them so much that it the midst of my sickness, it seemed like a good idea to make a baked beans grilled cheese sandwich. As my husband watched in horror, I created my dish with whole grain bread, swiss and mozzarella cheese and baked beans. I won’t lie, I was only 50% certain it would work. But, let me tell you, it was delicious! It looked gross but tasted amazing. 100% would do it again.