If you work in hospital food service management, you likely know that patients don’t always want to eat healthy. Being in a hospital can be scary for some people, so they may want to turn to comfort foods that have helped them feel good in the past. Unfortunately, comfort food is often packed with fat and calories – not something you want to put on a hospital menu. However, since patient satisfaction is likely of utmost importance to you, you’ll probably want to give people foods they’ll enjoy – you just have to look for healthier ways to do it.
Thankfully, there are many small changes you can make to classic comfort food recipes that can make them healthier without sacrificing taste.
Simple switches
Best Health Magazine explained that one easy way to make lasagna, sloppy joes and hamburgers healthier is to use something other than ground beef. Turkey is always a good choice when trying to use a healthier protein, but if you want something that tastes closer to hamburgers, consider ground elk or bison.
“Because bison and elk are grass fed and free range, their nutrient content is higher than ground beef,” Karen Langston, a holistic nutritionist and certified nutritional consultant, told the news source. “You’re getting more protein and nutrients with fewer calories and less fat.”
Nothing says comfort like macaroni and cheese, but this dish is usually just a bowl of carbohydrates smothered in artery-clogging cheese – not exactly a healthy choice. To lighten this dish up, The Huffington Post recommended using whole wheat, whole spelt or brown rice pasta. Also, instead of using cream you may want to infuse olive oil, low fat milk and American cheese rather than cheddar. Also, consider complementing this meal with some vegetables to add more nutrients.
Fried chicken is another dish that people love when looking for the comforts of home. If you want to make healthier fried chicken, consider covering chicken in whole-wheat panko breadcrumbs and baking it. This will give it the same crunch that people love, but without all of the oil.
Everyone loves pizza, and thankfully there are scores of healthy varieties of this meal that remain relatively easy to make. Fitness magazine explained that you can use low-fat cheese, whole-wheat crust and pile on the vegetables such as spinach and onions to make a delicious pie that everyone is sure to love.