When the mercury dips below 30 and darkness seeps into the living room before 5, I find myself craving the foods I ate as a child, before I went "clean". Of course I indulge every once in awhile, and the foods I find myself craving are, thankfully for my waistline, nowhere to be found in my pantry.
Tonight I'm dreaming of creamy mac and cheese made with Velveeta from the back of the box recipe. There is another wonderful recipe with Velveeta that my mom uses these days from The Tasha Tudor Cookbook. The old school feel of this casserole is further enhanced with the crunchy, salty addition of a Ritz cracker crust on top. If you want to go organic but retain that Velveeta feel, you can take it a step further and make your own Velveeta style cheese!
Another comfort food fav of my youth was Campbell's Bean with Bacon Soup-- mmm, mmm good, but at 860 mg of sodium per can I'm pretty sure it would negate my daily blood pressure pill. I've found a few decent knockoffs out there, but Ree Drummond does a nice version with lots of fresh, whole foods and nothing canned about it. . .
I'm pretty sure I had a few Swanson TV dinners back in the day. If fact, I think the one I liked best was the Salisbury Steak with hash browns (still a weakness when I find myself in a cafeteria), and a chewy brownie that was nowhere near as good as my mother's, but still somehow satisfying.
The hour is getting late and Nashville is on soon, so I leave you with thoughts of creamy artificial cheese and preservatives and make my way towards the refrigerator to indulge in my new high protein favorite after dinner dessert-- Smari New Orleans Coffee Icelandic Yogurt (more to follow). . .