Comfort Food

I'm sure you can all relate. When I think of Fall I think of all my favourite comfort foods; alfredo pasta, creamy soups, cheesy casseroles.. yum! The one thing that I know we all struggle with is the extra calories and bloating that go along with these delicious meals.

So it was time to dig through my recipe drawer and dig out some healthy fall favourites to keep me in check and avoid making some of these favourite calorie-laden foods.

One of my favourite recipes my Mom used to make in the fall/winter months was stuffed peppers. Although this isn't considered a healthy living fail, it can be loaded with sodium and greasy ground beef.

I found this lighter take on the traditional recipe on the Weight Watchers site:

Stuffed Peppers with Mediterranean-Spiced Quinoa

I must say, these peppers are to die for. Instead of making them vegetarian (which is delicious too), I use ground turkey to keep my "meatatarian" husband happy. These can now be classified as one of my comfort foods, and I'm sure once you try them will be one of yours too!

Before

 

After

 

A couple things to note about the recipe:

• It makes way to much filling, you could almost add two more peppers and fill them. Instead, I line the bottom of the dish with the remaining of the filling and will serve it on the side of my plate.
• It calls for cooked quinoa, when you should be using uncooked quinoa.
• The regular recipe calculates to 7 points plus, with the ground turkey you are looking at 10 point plus per serving.

Nutritional Details:

378 calories
14.5 grams of fat
45.9 grams of carbs
18.6 grams of protein

Hubby rates this recipe a 4 out of 5 stars.

What are some of your favourite comfort foods? Can they be lightened up too?