Produce-Packed Comfort Food

enticing family favorites made healthy

I kicked off this year encouraging you to focus on the foods to say “YES” to — vegetables and fruit, beans, nuts and seeds, whole grains, and seafood—rather than succumb to the “NO” diet mentality. For the next several weeks I’ll be dishing up practical tools for doing just that, showcasing recipes to help you get more of the most nourishing foods into your life, deliciously. This week, it’s all about adding vegetables and fruit to level up the most crave-able comfort foods. Enjoy!

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Beef and Mushroom Sloppy Joes

Photo by Goran Kosanovic for The Washington Post

Adding sauteed chopped mushrooms to the usual ground beef (or turkey) and sweetening the sauce with a little molasses instead of refined sugar, makes for sloppy Joes that are good for you without sacrificing any of the fun or flavor.

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Skillet Mac and Cheese with Cauliflower

Photo by Quentin Bacon, food styling by Lori Powell and Adeena Sussman

The power ingredient in this healthy, balanced mac-and-cheese is the finely chopped cauliflower that blends in subtly with the pasta. Using three different cheeses guarantees maximum flavor and melt-ability, and serving it in the skillet it’s baked in amps up the homey comfort factor.

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No-Cook Mango Dessert Cups

Photo by Tom McCorkle for The Washington Post

Here’s a special way to have fruit for dessert. These scrumptious, no-cook mango dessert cups are a simple blend of mango and light coconut milk, bound together ever so softly with gelatin, so they set in the refrigerator to be quite pudding-like. If your mango is sweet enough, you won’t need any added sugar, but you can always blend in some honey or your sweetener of choice to taste.

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