Comfort Foods That Won't Make You Fat

We really do self-medicate with mac and cheese. Even just writing about comfort foods helped people in a recent study bounce back from loneliness. Of course, indulge too much and you may not bounce back into your jeans. Jeannette Bessinger, coauthor of the new book 150 Healthies Comfort Foods on Earth, shows you how to skinny your favorites. *Pancakes: Trade white flour for whole wheat flour or whole oat flour, then swap fatty toppings for a fruit compote made with berries and a drizzle of maple syrup. *Lasagna: Thaw two boxes of frozen spinach, squeeze out the water, and layer into your lasagna to replace some of the cheese. More filling fiber, fewer calories! *Brownies: Baking them from scratch? You can almost always remove 1/4 of the sugar without impacting the flavor or texture significantly. -Jessica Girdwain Redbook Magazine