comfort food

Skillet Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

This easy and extra cheesy one-pot cauliflower mac and cheese dinner gets a heathified veggie bump thanks to caramelized cauliflower added to the velvety cheese pasta to create a whole new take on a comfort food favorite.

This post is in partnership with Cache Valley Cheese

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a 783 times. There’s nothing like sneaking a little healthy into dinner and knowing the thrill of everyone at the table loving it. And even better when they ask for more.

Break out the mom victory dance!

It’s one of my secrets when it comes to feeding kids of all ages. For instance, my husband. He’s the biggest kid I know and not the biggest fan of cauliflower. But when that bulbous head of a vegetable is cooked to become caramelized and sweet, and mixed with macaroni that’s coated in a silky, creamy, cheese sauce? Suddenly, he’s just as much a fan as Smudge has been since she was a wee toddler.

Sneaking healthy in. It’s my secret weapon at meal time.

This year I couldn’t be more pleased to be partnering with a brand I grew up with. Not only grew up with, but honestly ate every. single. day. I don’t think I can even remember a time when Cache Valley Cheese wasn’t in my parents’ fridge waiting for me to slice and layer in one of my famous turkey sandwiches, melt over a freezer burrito, or add a perfectly cut square slice to my liverwurst and pickle topped Triscuits for my after school snack while watching re-runs of The Brady Bunch. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

And please, don’t even judge me when I admit to slathering thick slices of mild cheddar with mayo and eating it just. like. that.

Cache Valley Cheese has been with me and my family forever, and I can’t wait to share my food memories and favorite recipes featuring it’s high-quality, calcium-rich cheeses here on the blog this year.

So let’s get started!

continue to the recipe… about Skillet Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

Tomato Basil Soup

This tomato basil soup recipe, homemade with fresh tomatoes roasted in the oven, adds a healthy and deliciously creamy flavor you won’t find in any old can.

If I think back to my childhood, tomato soup is at the top of the list of my all-time favorite comfort foods. But unlike my ultra creamy macaroni and cheese or my mom’s spaghetti recipe, tomato basil soup is on the lighter side of the comfort food scale.

Even better, when you have a stash of roasted tomatoes in the fridge, it’s an easy recipe to whip up for an easy dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day.

I’ve seen some recipes for this soup that call for canned tomatoes, but I use fresh tomatoes roasted with garlic and herbs in my tomato soup. Earlier this week I shared my recipe for roasting the tomatoes here, and since I had a jar left over, I decided to update the photos and post for this recipe too.

Soup at our house is a regular menu item, in fact, my husband has gone on an all-soup diet more than once. It’s also likely that our early marriage was built on tomato soup with grilled cheese. Because can one even eat tomato soup without a grilled cheese sandwich for dunking?continue to the recipe… about Tomato Basil Soup

31 Days of Comfort Food Favorites to Make Now

Comfort food cures all our cooking cravings, and there’s no better time to cozy up to hearty soups, easy slow cooker meals, and comforting pastas, than the 31 days of October.

It feels good to fall into fall, don’t you agree?

While I fiercely LOVE the summer months, there is a totally cozy nostalgia that comes with changing leaves, a chill in the morning, and the don’t-want-to-admit-but-I’m-getting-excited-thrill of the holidays peeking just around the corner.

Whether you’re looking for a new killer chili recipe to bust out at your next tailgate party, a simple throw-together weeknight meal, or a healthy-fill-you-up breakfast, these 31 tasty recipes are what you should be making this month.

And since we are in the 31 days of October, don’t you dare forget the pumpkin recipes!continue to the recipe… about 31 Days of Comfort Food Favorites to Make Now

One-Pot Creamy Chicken and Rice

This creamy chicken and rice casserole is a fast and healthy 30-minute meal made right on the stove top, making it a favorite one-pot dinner that feeds a family of four for under $10.

This recipe is brought to you by Kroger

September is Hunger Action Month. As someone who has the access and the means to buy/grow/order food at my fingertips (or within a short walk or drive) every day of the week, this public initiative is a reminder that it isn’t nearly as easy for far too many. Helping others cure food scarcity is near and dear to my heart. And I hope to yours too.

So when Kroger asked me to participate in their #ZeroHungerZeroWaste donation challenge, I immediately said count me in. And now I’m challenging you to join too.

It’s one thing to donate that stray can of beans at the back of your pantry or the expired box of crackers. But it’s so much more to make healthful eating approachable and economical, showing families that there are better choices to easily cook and eat at home.

That’s why I’ve created this easy one-pot dinner to show you and those I’m donating it to that fast and easy dinners don’t have to come from a cardboard box, or sodium-loaded freezer meal, or be expensive.

They can just as easily come from real good, real food. And for many who are food challenged, most of the ingredients can be kept on hand in the pantry with little waste to be had.continue to the recipe… about One-Pot Creamy Chicken and Rice

Puff Pastry Chicken Pot Pie with Asparagus and Mushrooms

This chicken Pot Pie—one of my favorite comfort food recipes—is a lightened-up version thanks to a puff pastry crust, loads of fresh veggies, and a creamy yet lower-fat and lower-calorie sauce that brings all the flavors together.

This recipe is brought to you by Almond Breeze

Chicken pot pie, with its homemade buttery crust and thick creamy sauce, rings in the comfort food season each and every Fall and then continues well into the cozy vibes of winter. Who’s with me in calling this pure comfort in a bowl?

But when winter gives way to spring and we start easing into our summery daze, those cravings for traditional chicken pot pie get a literal gut-check when faced with the fact it’s time to transition from hiding underneath winter’s cocooning cardigan sweaters to strutting our stuff in summer shorts and sassy swimsuits.

But that’s what I love about this lighter chicken pot pie recipe: It cures my still-holding-strong comfort food cravings (because do they ever really disappear?) with a healthier adaptation of ingredients, making it a favorite home-cooked dinner no matter what season it shows off in.

continue to the recipe… about Puff Pastry Chicken Pot Pie with Asparagus and Mushrooms

Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Thanks to the Instant Pot pressure cooker, this easy chicken with wild rice soup is rich, creamy (without any added cream), and fast to make, and it tastes even better the next day, making it a great addition to your meal prep plans. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, not to worry, I’m sharing my stove top directions as well.

It’s soup week!

This week I’m sharing a few of my favorite soups, old and new. And a good thing too, because when my daughter came home from school and looked at me with a red-ringed nose and her eyes at half-staff and announced her “throat was sooooooo sore”, as she breezed past me and coughed, wheezed, and hacked her way down the hall and into her room to flop onto her bed like a left-behind Raggedy Ann doll, I knew we were in for the night.

Good thing I had this soup prepped and ready for cookin’.

Creamy chicken and rice soup. Pure comfort and totally right for all that feels wrong.continue to the recipe… about Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

30 Easy Comfort Food Casseroles to Make in November

These 30 recipe ideas for fall-flavored casseroles are great for whipping up homemade autumn-inspired dinners this month.

Happy November!

Cooler weather has finally arrived—unless of course you’re in L.A., and in that case, we’re sweating in sympathy with you. There’s something about chilly temps that makes us crave all things carb-laden and cozy, so for our 11th installment of our 31 Days Series, we’re bringing you 30 days of fall casseroles to warm up with this month, because nothing says cozy like a casserole. They’re the proverbial queen of comfort food.

A longtime staple in America’s cuisine, these baked concoctions appear at family reunions, holiday gatherings, potlucks, and more. Maybe you grew up on your mom’s tuna noodle casserole, or your grandma’s chicken and rice—either way, any time you take a bite of one, the nostalgia reigns and food memories come flooding back.

With casseroles, no matter what’s underneath, it seems the most popular have a thick blanket of melty cheese, crispy toasted bread crumbs, or some sort of breaded topping, totally canceling out their often plain Jane appearance. From French, to Mexican, to Cajun, to Italian, (with plenty of vegetarian options sprinkled in), we’ve got every kind of casserole you could dream of.

Ready to kick it old-school eatin’ style? Let’s’ dig in!

continue to the recipe… about 30 Easy Comfort Food Casseroles to Make in November

Easy Hamburger Vegetable Soup

This simple hamburger soup is loaded with vegetables and is an incredibly easy weeknight comfort food dinner because more than likely you’ll have all of the ingredients on hand and ready for soup thanks to your pantry, fridge, and/or freezer.

The first time I had this totally solid, totally comforting, hamburger soup was when my mother-in-law made it for a family gathering of which I was not yet part of the family. My husband and I had just started dating and it was dinner at mom’s house and I was invited to go.

No pressure. Nope. None at all.

One of the things I learned that night—along with the fact that as a teen my husband used to wear a nylon over his head so his wet curly hair would dry straight—is that getting friends and family together to share a meal doesn’t have to be over-thought or overdone.

Good food means good times, and that’s really all you need.continue to the recipe… about Easy Hamburger Vegetable Soup

Turkey Avocado Tetrazzini Recipe

There is rarely a comfort food I will turn my back on. And this classic Turkey Tetrazzini noodle casserole with a creamy sauce, mushrooms, and a modicum of leftover turkey meat—because when you cook a turkey, there will most likely always be leftovers—makes me want to make mealtime memories every time.

At our house, Turkey Tetrazzini is a holiday and potluck favorite, and next to my Curry Turkey Pot Pie, is one of my favorite ways to use up leftover turkey. But in my opinion why wait for leftovers? I’ll readily fix my favorite turkey breast recipe any day of the week regardless of whether there’s a special occasion to celebrate or not.

In fact, a semblance of this recipe is one of the first meals I made as an adult, when my husband and I served it at the dining table of our first home for my grandma and grandpa for a special dinner just for the four of us.

My grandpa loved it. My grandma gushed over my cooking skills. And I was simply relieved that it came out edible and on time. It’s one of my favorite reasons I love making food for others, for the special memories I recall whenever I think of a special dish.continue to the recipe… about Turkey Avocado Tetrazzini Recipe

31 Days of Healthy Comfort Food Recipes to Make In January

Happy New Year, foodiecrushers!

Like clockwork, the stroke of a new year encourages a slew of ambitious healthy resolutions — more green juice, less alcohol, more intentional living, less screen time, more kale, less ice cream.

You get the picture.

One sensible place to start is with our diets, and savvy meal planning is our tour guide. But since we know this is a lot to take in and meal planning takes work, we’ve decided to make things a bit easier for you.

We’ve scavenged the depths of the food blogosphere for 31 recipes — one for each day of the month — for you to plan and prepare, and get you through the chill of January. Healthy comfort food recipes are January’s theme because, let’s face it, we need to ease into this. Excess fat and calories aren’t needed this month, but it’s still winter, and that means comfort food still rules.continue to the recipe… about 31 Days of Healthy Comfort Food Recipes to Make In January

The Best Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

It may be an age-old wives tale, but according to mothers, grandmothers and any soup lover, there truly is no better cure for anything and everything that ails you than homemade chicken noodle soup made with chunky carrots, celery and always savory chicken stock. It’s the ultimate comfort food and incredibly easy to make.

Typically when I place my grocery haul on the grocery store check-out line conveyer belt, it’s a hodge podge assortment of ingredients that doesn’t give anyone a hint as to what’s going on in my kitchen at home. As voyeurs peeking into other’s lives, do the checkers notice (or even care) that you buy all organic with a side of doughnuts on every trip? That you buy enough food to feed an army or simply pick up a passel of frozen dinners for one? And do they judge your cooking skills—or lack thereof—depending on what exotic—or mundane—ingredients fill your basket?

So it wasn’t much of a shocker when I showed up to the 15 items or fewer line that the grocery store clerk asked me if I had someone at home who was under the weather thanks to my collection of a bottle of Chloraseptic, two different brands of throat losenges and all the fixin’s for homemade chicken noodle soup.

I’ll do everything and anything to cure my little girl’s wicked cold and sore throat. So when my baby doll requested a soother of soup for her sickly sore throat, as her adoring mother, I hopped to and got myself into the grocery store check out line and then straight back into the kitchen to whip up a homemade broth that makes the BEST chicken noodle soup, hands down beating anything out of a can.

How to Make Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch

Why make homemade soup when you can just pry open a can? Duh! Because it’s exponentially better tasting and better for you! Making homemade chicken noodle soup can sound time-consuming and intimidating, but in reality, it’s one of the easiest recipes to prepare and master. Even the homemade chicken broth is amazingly simple, so long as you follow a few tricks I’m sharing here. And once you’ve made it homemade, you’re going to have a terribly time ever considering going back to the canned stuff.

First, homemade chicken noodle soup starts with a homemade broth, and it suprisingly easy to make. It’s the same broth I use for my matzo ball soup and is one I’ve adapted (loosely) from Ina Garten and one of the many episodes of The Barefoot Contessa I’ve absorbed over the years. Here’s how.

I used 2 chicken breasts and 2 chicken legs in this recipe for stock, but if you have a 3 1/2 to 4 pound whole bird on hand, go ahead and substitute it. You may need to adjust your cooking time, so just test the chicken for doneness and taste the stock for flavor as you go.

I always boil my noodles separately from the chicken broth, then add to the soup, otherwise, they absorb up all of the delicious broth as they cook.

If by chance you accidentally simmer away too much of your broth, have a high quality boxed chicken stock on hand to spread the soupyness a little further.

What You Can Put in Chicken Noodle Soup

There’s so much variety you can do with chicken noodle soup. My standard go-to soup always has onion, carrots, celery, chicken, garlic, and parsley with egg noodles. I always use egg noodles in my soup, but go back and forth between the shorter, fatter, extra wide egg noodles from Manischewitz and these thicker and toothier egg noodles from Montana’s Country Pasta. I always have a bag of each on hand.

To switch things up, you could also think about adding:

Peas
Corn
Lemon
Potatoes
Rice
Whole grains such as farro, quinoa
Gnocchi
Wontons
Matzo balls
You can make it creamy by adding cream, half and half or even coconut milk.
Switch out the parsley with cilantro or tarragon for a totally different flavor.

Spices to Add to Chicken Noodle Soup

I like to use fresh herbs and spices in my soup, and mainly when cooking my broth, but always keeping it baseline and simple.

When making the homemade broth I use a big handful of fresh parsley and a few sprigs of thyme. To that I always add 2-3 dried bay leaves with 6-8 black peppercorns. Seasoning the broth with kosher salt is important as that is what provides the pronunciation of its flavor. My secret ingredient is adding 3 chicken bouillon cubes for a bit of extra chicken-y-ness. Once the broth is prepared, I discard all the bones and aromatics, and pour the broth over a strainer to remove any of the fine bits for a pure and delicious stock.

Then to the soup I keep it simple with herbs and add in chopped parsley and season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

If you’d like to play around, consider adding these herbs for different flavor combinations:

Lemongrass, for a fresh lemony bite
Marjoram, similar to oregano but more subtle in earthyness
Tarragon, adds a mellow licorice flavor
Ginger, adds a spicy, somewhat sweet flavor
Fennel, adds a sweet, perfumey, anise-like flavor
Dill, added right before serving it gives the soup a bright flavor

Shortcut to Semi-Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Soooo, sometimes there’s no time to make homemade broth and maybe you’ve run out your freezer stash too. What to do? Doctor up the store-bought variety. Here’s how.

Choose a quality chicken stock. At this point you’re going to want to choose stock over broth to get that deeper, chicken flavor.

When you but the stock, purchase twice as much as the recipe calls for. Then, pretend this is the water portion of the homemade broth and boil your vegetables and herbs (leave out the peppercorns) for at least 30 minutes to deepen the stock’s flavor. Strain, and continue on with the recipe.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Bookmark this recipe and leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

5 from 3 votes

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Homemade chicken noodle soup tastes best with homemade chicken stock, which is suprisingly easy to make at home with leftover roasted chicken bones.

Ingredients

2 split chicken breasts with ribs and skin on
2 chicken drumsticks with skin
1 yellow onion peeled and cut into quarters
1 head of garlic unpeeled and cut in half crosswise
6 carrots leaving 2 of them unpeeled and cut into halves, and the remaining 4 peeled and cut into 1/4 inch rounds
6 ribs celery two of them cut in half and the remaining cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 parsnip unpeeled cut into 3-inch chunks
1 bunch fresh Italian parsley
1 bunch fresh thyme
3 chicken bouillon cubes
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1-2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 ounces extra wide egg noodles

Instructions

Add the chicken pieces, onion, head of garlic, two unpeeled and halved carrots, two ribs of celery halves, parsnip halves to a large stock pot. Tie 15 stems of Italian parsley and 15 stems of thyme with a bit of kitchen string and add to the pot.
Cover with cold water 1-2 inches above the chicken and veggies or 14 cups of water. Add 3 chicken bouillon cubes, bay leaves, black peppercorns and kosher salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to a lightly rolling simmer and cook uncovered for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is cooked through and tender and stock is well flavored. If the stock tastes weak, add another chicken bouillon soup and a bit more salt.
Transfer the chicken to a plate to cool and remove the vegetables from the stock and discard. Place a strainer over a large bowl and strain the broth. Return the broth to the stock pot and add the chopped carrots and celery. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Add the egg noodles and cook for another 8 minutes or until noodles are tender but chewy. Remove the skin from the chicken and shred the chicken with two forks. Depending on the size of the chicken breasts, start by adding 3/4 of the shredded chicken to the soup then add more if you have enough broth or reserve for another use. Season with more salt and pepper if desired and stir in 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley and serve hot.

More Ideas for Chicken Noodle Soup

The classics will always be, but sometimes we need to add a little spin for the chicken win. Here are a few food blogs who’ve done just that.

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Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni

I’m not embarrassed to admit it. In our first days of being married—yep, that was just a feeeewww years ago—Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper was totally a favorite of my husband and mine.

Maybe it’s because my mom rarely made dinner from the box that gave that dang Hamburger Helper version a secret appeal.

Or maybe it was just because it had the basic ingredients that make a comfort food dinner completely craveable: pasta, hamburger and cheese sauce.

We always doctored up the boxed version with sliced onion and mushrooms, it’s not like we could just eat it the cardboard cutout way.

But when I started reading labels and trying to pronounce words in the ingredient list that I needed to pull out the dictionary for, the boxed version went by the wayside.

But that didn’t mean my craving went away.

continue to the recipe… about Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni

Matzo Ball Soup with Chicken Meatballs and Homemade Chicken Broth Recipe

I’m not Jewish. But I am definitely a matzo ball lover.

It all started with late night jaunts to the classic Canters Deli where I became an obsessive fan of matzo ball soup with all the fixins’: noodle, matzo ball, kreplach, chicken and carrots. What the crap is a kerplach you ask? It’s sort of a jewish tortellini and pretty darned good.

But oh, THE BROTH. That delicious broth that brought me back to my senses in those wee late night hours. If only I could replicate it—the broth, not the late hours. But I’m no Jewish mother—although my husband will say I do have the stereotypical tendencies. Sadly, those secret, Old World ways of chicken broth making may never make it to my stove.

But I do have a delicious recipe that hits home and curbs my matzo ball craving every time. And what better time to share with you than in celebration of Passover and Easter weekend. Yum. You’ll soon be a believer.

continue to the recipe… about Matzo Ball Soup with Chicken Meatballs and Homemade Chicken Broth Recipe

Craving > 5 Twists on Comforting Chicken Stew

Goodbye grill. Oh well helllllooolo braise.

It’s the first day of fall and we’re all about comforting, stew-ey goodness and going back to the basics with chicken, carrots and mushrooms. Over rice? No way. Noodles. That’s right, egg noodles, just like mom used to make, slithering in butter with a touch of salt and pepper.

photo > foodiecrush

Whoa, but wait! What’s that pungent smell perfuming the entire house with an almost wrinkle-your-nose-I’ve-been-cleaning-the-house-from-top-to-bottom smell?

Vinegar. Cider vinegar. It reminds me of most Saturday mornings when mom would clean the wood floors with her secret combination of “just a tablespoon or so to a gallon of water” that made the whole house smell clean and fresh.

Except tonight its for dinner. And it tastes nothing like wood floors.

photo > foodiecrush

Get the recipe from one of my favorite food mags, and you SERIOUSLY have to try it. It’s a keeper. One for the archives, to hand down from generation to generation. You’ll thank us later. And your house will smell clean and fresh, whether it is or not.

Do you have a favorite home cooked meal that reminds you of mom’s cookin’ (not neccesarily her cleaning like this post). Join a bunch of us foodie bloggers on Wednesday, October 5, when we’ll each be posting our own Family Food Flashback recipes. Join us with your story, your recipe and your memories.

Send me a link to your recipe by Monday, October 3 and we’ll add your link to our list of recipes for post on Wednesday, October 5 and we’ll share memories of dinner time before Ipods and microwaves. Well, some of us will anyway.

And of course, here are some hold-the-phone, home-cookin’ chicken recipes to add to your “Welcome Fall” repertoire.

photo > Mirch Masala

One thing that brings me to my cooking knees is the combo of chicken and coconut milk. Manju creates a coco stew-ey goodness with Mirch Masala’s Kerala Chicken Stew with potatoes, ginger and garlic deliciousness. And a beauty shot bonus too.

photo > La Fuji Mama

Quote from Rachael: her Chicken Gohan Stew is “ It’s what might happen if chicken noodle soup took a little trip to Japan and had a layover in Mexico on the way home.” La Fuji Mama also suggests using a shorter grain rice for max chew after thickening the comforting tang of the ginger-flavored, slow-cooker stew.

photo > Bev Cooks

Putting on her craz-ee hat and asking the rest of us to join her, Bev of Bev Cooks pulls together swiss chard, potatoes and chicken chunks in her Crazy Chicken with Skillet Potatoes and Swiss Chard. Choose your amount of your fav spice blend and cook at your own risk.

photo > My Cooking Hut

Two little love birds sittin’ in a tree, c-h-i-c-k-e-n k-o-r-m-a I love thee. Curry, coriander and creamy yogurt lovingly envelop tender chicken nuggets in My Cooking Hut’s Chicken Korma where Leemei serves this stew-ey comfort dish with a hint of spice from green chiles, cumin and chili powder.

photo > Food and the Fabulous

A pestle and peppercorns walk into a bar and…oh wait, wrong blog. There’s no punchline because this recipe isn’t funny, it’s lux. Isahy takes the de riguer simple ingredients of carrots, chicken and stock to create Food and the Fabulous’s Pink Pepper Chicken Stew, to create a spicy and bold one pot meal.

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