Comfort Food

Lately I've been trying to cut back on my sugar, drink more water and not eat right before bed. This might be easy for most of you, but food is somewhat of an addiction for me, and it's been hard!! I'd say for the past week, I've done pretty well. When we got home from Reno, I went through the cupboards, cleared out my twizzler stash, all the extra candy in the jar I keep for "company" (I'm the only one that ever really eats it), and tossed my ice cream, frozen M&Ms I like to keep on hand for emotional emergencies, and everything else that was sugary and tempting.

Although I am still trying to eat healthier, the past two days I have had my fill of comfort food. I'm going to blame in on my hubby who is traveling again for work and, well, I just need something to fill the void :) I have baked two of my comfort foods in the last two days that I feel a moral obligation to share because they are so dang good, it's a sin that no one else is enjoying these things also. I also have one extra recipe I haven't made recently, but it also is one of the most divine side dishes ever.

The first is my recipe for Tuna Casserole. I got this recipe from my mom, who happens to be the most fantastic scratch cook ever, who had gotten it from her mom, etc. There are many recipes for tuna casserole I've come across in my day, but this one tops ALL of them. I can't make it very often because the sight, smell or just merely being in the vicinity of tuna makes my husband double over in nauseousness.
But he's out of town and I signed up to bring a casserole to small group last night. So here it is!

Tuna Casserole
6-8 oz. medium sized noodles, cooked and drained.
1 can tuna
1/2 cup mayo
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup (sm. jar) diced pimento
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
1/2 cup milk
4-6oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
Potato chips, crushed

*Combine the noodles, tuna, mayo, celery, onion, gr.pepper, pimento and salt in mixing bowl. On med heat, stir soup and milk together until hot, then add in shredded cheese until creamy and melted. Add this to noodle mixture. Spray a 2qt. casserole dish with PAM, add casserole. Top with crushed potato chips.
Bake uncovered at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. This serves between 6-8 people.

My next comfort food is semi-homemade cinnamon sticky rolls. As I'm typing this, I'm actually polishing off my second one, so this blog is taking me much more time than it really should! These fantastic, warm, gooey, sugary, buttery, carbalishious treats are the inspiration for the blog. Because I have cleared my kitchen of most all things sweet, I have to get creative when I have a craving that must be satisfied. Today this craving was doing jumping jacks when I discovered a box of Pillsbury Hot Roll mix which had a "best by June 2010" date printed on the box. HALLELUJAH! I just couldn't let this box of magical goodness go to waste! Here is my semi-homemade recipe for Cinnamon Sticky Rolls.

Cinnamon Sticky Rolls
1 box Pillsbury Hot Roll mix (usually found in the cornbread mix or muffin isle)
All ingredients to make the dough that are listed on the box...1 cup hot water, 2 TBL softened butter, and 1 egg, plus 2 TBL sugar to add to the dry mix.

Half and Half
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
Butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Follow the directions on the side of the box for cinnamon rolls (mix, knead, set 5 minutes, roll out to 15X10 inches). Then take your softened butter (recipe calls for 1/4 cup, I usually do more like 1/3 - 1/2 cup instead...) spread it over the dough. Then take a huge handful of brown sugar and sprinkle it over the buttered dough until well covered. Take your jar of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the dough also. I do all this without measuring, so I apologize for not having exact measurements, it's all about however much you feel like doing. Then in a small bowl, mix the 1/2 and 1/2 together with the brown sugar to form a thick paste. Spray a 9x13 pan with PAM (or grease with butter!!), then pour some of the sugary mixture into the the pan to coat it thoroughly. Keep the rest on the side for after the rolls come out of the oven.
Roll up the dough in a long tube according to the directions on the box, cutting the roll into 12 sections. Place the cut rolls into your 9x13 pan, cover with plastic wrap and several kitchen towels to keep warm, then I place the pan on the oven and let them rise for 30 minutes. After this, uncover the rolls and bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.
After you pull out the rolls, use the extra brown sugar/ 1/2 and 1/2 mixture to top of each cinnamon roll. Enjoy!!

Okay, on to my last recipe for comfort food. This is a recipe I stole from a facebook acquaintance who I "de-friended" shortly after stealing the recipe. She had posted it on her status after she apparently made it one night for supper. Shame on me, yes I know, but I hadn't seen her since 10th grade and she updated her boring status about 37 times a day....so I took her recipe and cut ties. This is a great side dish for anything! A twist on the usual corn casserole. I haven't made it in about 2 months since I made it twice in one week for Kirk and I and we both gained 5 lbs....but I'm tempted to take it out of hiding to make for a BBQ this Saturday night.

Velveeta Corn Casserole
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 can creamed corn
1 cup uncooked elbow mac
8 oz. Velveeta, cut up into chunks
1/2 cup butter, cut up into chunks

Mix all ingredients together in an 8x8 casserole dish. Cover with oven-safe lid or foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover, stir, and cook for another 30 minutes.
That's it, easy as pie! Once you make this, you can officially die a happy person.

Well, that's my blog for tonight. Hope you enjoy one or all of my recipes, I guarantee you will thank me later if you try them :). Gotta go store away those cinnamon sticky rolls for the morning! Night!