Cookbook Review: Ellie Krieger’s Comfort Food Fix

There is a subtle art to making food that’s healthy that doesn’t taste “healthy,” and Ellie Krieger has nailed it. Nailed it! Sure, it’s easy to make salmon or kale dishes healthy (they pretty much already are), but American comfort food favorites like buffalo wings, country fried steak with gravy and cheesecake? Well, that takes skill. Skill that Ms. Krieger has. In her new cookbook Comfort Food Fix, she tackles 150 recipes that’ll whet the healthiest of hearty appetites.  It’s impressive.
I got to talk to Ellie last summer for FBG and really just loved her take on food. It’s about quality, not quantity—but there are some little tricks you can do to make pretty much anything you eat healthier. It’s all about choosing real whole ingredients, finding the joy in cooking, watching your portion sizes and adding in more veggies. (And…having a glass of wine while cooking!)
A truly beautiful cookbook with lots of beautiful photos and a gorgeous clean layout, each recipe has a fun little intro with how it was lightened, along with before and after nutrition facts so you know just how much better what you’re eating is. It’s pretty fun to see.
While I love the healthiest of health foods, I still really dig comfort foods like meatloaf and greens, so I whipped up Ellie’s healthified versions of these to put Comfort Food Fix to the test. First up, her New Classic Meatloaf (p. 139). Going from 340 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat to 250 calories and 4 grams of saturated fat, it had good nutritionals—and it was tasty. Beefed up (Get it? Ha!) with mushrooms and whole-grain oats instead of bread crumbs, it was moist and meaty. And instead of pouring ketchup on top, she has you quickly whip up a slightly sweet and tangy tomato sauce that is delish!

 
To go with it, I roasted some cauliflower with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then took on her recipe for Southern Style Greens (p.246). They take a couple of hours to make, but with a mix of kale and collard greens that are seasoned with smoked paprika, cayenne and a little maple syrup, it’s a truly clean dish that satisfies. Not to mention that Ellie took the calories from 390 to 170, and the saturated fat grams from 9 to .5! Boom!

While this cookbook doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it’s simple and it’ll fulfill whatever comfort-food craving you’re having for the healthier. We love it!
What’s your favorite comfort food? How do you, like Ellie, “fix it” for the better for your bod? —Jenn