Why do we all have our favorite foods that we call comfort foods?

According to Wikipedia: “Comfort food is food that provides a nostalgic or sentimental value to someone, and maybe characterized by its high caloric nature, high carbohydrate level, or simple food preparation. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual, or it may apply to a specific culture”

The truth is like anything else enjoying comfort foods especially if they are high in calories should be done in moderation. I personally am not a stress eater but I do enjoy some comfort foods from time to time, my favorite dish being a bowl of spaghetti with Hunt’s traditional pasta sauce with a lot of parmesan cheese.

This dish in particular brings me feelings of coziness, when I was in college I would go home during lunch and prepare myself a plate of spaghetti while listening to Crazy Cool by Paula Abdul. Even now I can hear the song playing in my head. I do not know why these memories evoke so much joy when it’s just myself preparing some lunch but I guess it goes back to how I was feeling during these lunch breaks, I had the house to myself and everything from cooking the pasta, the music I was listening to eating the pasta afterward made me happy.

I can even still picture myself in my mother’s kitchen while I was cooking the pasta singing to Paula Abdul.

Another of my favorite comfort foods is my mother’s homemade Chicken Noodle soup which she always made for me when I wasn’t feeling well and still makes for me today! That’s right my mother now lives with my husband and I and when either of us is feeling sick or under the weather, she will always be ready with a large pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.

A few of my other comfort food favorites are a grilled cheese sandwich, my own cheesecake that I make topped with peaches, cornmeal cookies, and one of my all-time favorites fried green tomatoes. The fried green tomatoes I make are my own recipe and so far I have never tasted another recipe quite like mine.