Favorite Comfort Foods and Why

 I had to think and think on this one. Not because I couldn't think of anything...but because I couldn't narrow it down.

I think most of my comfort foods come from my childhood. Many I must admit are what I think of as "winter dishes".  Any recipes are listed below. I sure would like any ideas you have.

I love to cook so don't fix the same thing too often other than what you see below. 

I do think over the years, my "comfort foods" and my "easy to fix" foods have become intertwined :)

Beef stew - no question this was my mother's dish. She was better at using the pressure cooker than I could ever be. Now I use an Instant Pot so as not to blow anyone up.  The recipe I now make is called Latvian Stew and is from a site called The Book Club Cookbook 

Chinese vegetable stirfry  - I love the ability to create a stirfry from any fresh local veggies I might have. When it's winter, I use some fresh and some frozen. We don't usually eat meat in it, but I have cut up some link sausage in it and some chicken now and then. My husband can have very little salt, so that changes much of my cooking. My recipe is below*

Green beans with ham and potatoes and cornbread - still one of my favorite dishes. I mentioned my husband can't have much salt so all of the bacon and grease is gone, but I still sneak a few chopped up pieces of ham in for special occasions. This site is very close to my recipe except for no bacon and no salt. https://wellfedbaker.com/southern-green-beans-and-potatoes/#recipe 

Fried chicken when I was a kid but never now, NEVER. And my reason might surprise you. Although we don't eat any fried foods per se, I do love fried chicken, but the mess, oh the mess. How did my working mother clean up all that grease weekend after weekend? 

https://www.africanbites.com/southern-fried-chicken/  This site has a wonderful recipe but oh my, can you imagine the clean-up 😩😩

Fresh salad - I think I love this sort of thing because of the creativity and possibilities involved. It's rather like a stirfry. I can use any of the local veggies I can find. I can use fruit. I can make all kinds of toppings. Something different every time. I didn't paste in my recipe. I think you'll see I use everything I can think of. Salmon, chicken, shrimp, even sometimes warmed up pulled pork, it's probably our favorite.

    

*Easy Stir Fry:

Use any or all of the following washed and cut in bite-sized pieces:

red bell pepper

yellow bell pepper

zucchini

yellow squash

mushrooms, button of any kind

carrot, cleaned and peeled

i or 2 cups of baby spinach

green onion

Sesame seeds, can’t use in our house

Hoisin Sauce (bottled)

Vegetable broth, no salt added

2-3 cups instant rice (cooked)

Rotisserie chicken torn into pieces (optional)

 

Add 2T of broth to the skillet.

Add peppers first as they will take the longest to soften

Use peeler to shred more carrots over pan.

Add squash and Zucchini after peppers and carrot curls

Add mushrooms

Add more broth as needed (we like our saucy so I add as I go along)

Mix in baby spinach (only needs a few minutes to wilt)

Add torn pieces of chicken if desired. 

Cover only long enough for the chicken to warm.

Add 2 to 3 T of hoisin sauce

Stir all

Put rice in warmed bowls and top with veggie mix.