Meal Planning Week 10 - Comfort Food – Recipes to Build Confidence in the Kitchen

Meal Planning Week 10 – Comfort Food is all about comfort foods. Now, what’s comfy to me might not be comfy to you. Here’s some of my fave comfort foods.

For meal planning week 10, I’m talking about comfort food! I think I’ve exhausted all meal planning tips and tricks for now and need to focus on the food. And this week, I’m focusing in comfort food. Which I think we all have kind of been leaning on for the past year. Am I right? I know I have.

What is comfort food?

Basically, it’s food that elicits nostalgia or a comforting sentiment. It can be ANYTHING from sweets to main dishes and even sides or drinks. I mean, think of a root beer float. You can’t deny that has some sentiment to it at some point or another.

The theory is that these foods trigger the reward system part of the brain. Which makes people feel good temporarily. Interesting to note that men seem to prefer warm and meaty meals and associate comfort food with positive emotions. Women prefer snack related foods and associate these foods with negative emotions.

It’s interesting that comfort food is not just a US based concept. Comfort foods span the globe. From Afghanistan to the UK there is a slew of comfort foods people eat to feel good. Some comfort food for the number of overweight people. I don’t think you should blame the food but the amount of food that people eat. I know I am guilty of this.

In defense of the comfort food recipes, comfort could come in other items and activities. Some studies show that reading a favorite book can achieve the same results. Or even sitting down to a favorite movie. So, it’s not just the food.

How do we decide on what food is comfort food?

For some it is a dish that your family served you when you were sick to make you feel better. Chicken noodle soup tops that list. For me, it’s hard-boiled eggs on toast with cream of mushroom soup. And it has to be canned cream of mushroom soup. If you add cheddar, it’s called Eggs Delmonico or Eggs Newport if you add sour cream. Who knew?

Of course, gender plays a role in determining what is comfort food. For example, in 2000 a survey of comfort food was taken. Women preferred ice cream, chocolate, and cookies while men preferred ice cream, soup, and pizza/pasta. Women turn to comfort food in times of loneliness, depression, and guilt. Men eat comfort food as a form of a reward for success or when they were upbeat and felt food.

Even age ranges can determine what is a comfort food. Between the ages of 18-34 more snack like foods like cookies and ice cream. Ages 35-55 enjoy soups and pastas and those over 55 like soup and mashed potatoes. I guess the older you get if a food is easier to eat it’s comforting? Or maybe it is based more on what foods were available at the time you were a kid.

What are some historic comfort foods?

Some of y’all may or may not have heard about this, but tomato soup cake. I have heard of it, but I’ve never had tomato soup cake. And there’s a reason there’s tomato soup in the cake. During war time people didn’t have dairy and butter readily available. And, well, there was a plethora of tomato soup. So, someone at some point decided to try to make a cake with tomato soup. Apparently, it’s sort of like a spice cake. I guess I’ll have to make one and see.

Potato pancakes are a comfort food of mine that is also made out of necessity. I don’t think there has been a potato shortage here like in other parts of the world. Like the potato famine in Ireland. They’re an inexpensive ingredient with a decent amount of nutrition. Either made with shredded potatoes (latke style) or with leftover mashed potatoes they were a staple side dish on many a table, including ours. I knew if we had mashed potatoes at Nana’s that we would have potato pancakes the next day.

What are some comfort foods from around the world?

I think I would have to agree that French onion soup is a comfort food. And it is a popular one in France. Of course, ratatouille is popular there, too. I made a delicious ratatouille lasagna that was absolutely delicious! They also have cheese soufflé and gratin dauphinoise. I see a common theme here. CHEESE!

We can both agree that ramen is a comfort food here. But it’s also one in Japan. They have quite a bit of rice recipes as comfort food. Curry rice, omelet rice, and even just hot rice with an egg on top. Of course, they have tonkatsu. And probably any kind of katsu. Because who doesn’t love a breaded cutlet? Japan also has spaghetti Napolitan. Now this sounds interesting. It’s cooked spaghetti with a ketchup-based sauce that has peppers, onions, and either bacon or ham.

Here are some more comfort foods to meal planning week 10. Canada has poutine. Who can resist fries with gravy and cheese? Chilaquiles is popular in Mexico. And it’s popular in my kitchen, too. Then there’s fish and chips for Great Britain, schnitzel in Austria, carbonara in Italy, and pierogis in Poland. I will have to agree with sausage rolls for Australia. I had an Australian make them and they were fabulous! Some are obvious like paella for Spain. But some I haven’t heard of it like khichuri for India and kare-kare for the Philippines. Definitely finding some new recipes I need to try!

What is my comfort food and why?

While most of my comfort foods are savory, these Norwegian pecan cookies are one of a handful of sweet recipes. I looked forward to making them for the holidays with Mom. It was one of her family recipes. I’m sure they have a different name, but we always called them Norwegian pecan cookies. They’re a buttery delicious shortbread style cookie packed with pecans. And they’re perfectly delicious.

Of course, this meal planning week 10 can’t leave out my ultimate comfort food which is lasagna. I have only shared a couple of recipes for it on my blog, but I eat it as often as I can. It was the only thing I wanted for dinner on my birthday. Of course, I don’t eat it on my birthday as much anymore. I don’t have anyone to make it for. And I never have cake because I don’t make it for myself. I would be the only one to eat it anyway.

Another favorite of mine is shortbread cookies like these. Whenever we found a tin of Scottish shortbread cookies, Mom made sure we got a tin and savored every last bite. The crisp buttery flavor of these cookies are not super sweet which is perfect for me.

I’m not a huge super sweet person. I’m a slightly sweet person with butter and crunch. Which is the perfect description of shortbread cookies. They’re not super sweet and have the perfect amount of butter and crunch in there.

I hope I’ve given you some food for thought about comfort food for meal planning week 10. I have many more of these meal planning menus to catch up on so I hope you stay tuned and get some menu planning inspiration!