Healthy eating can be tough, especially when the weather is cold or rainy. Many people love to cuddle up with a plate of their favorite comfort foods like a bowl of pasta or even sweets. However, as the weather gets nicer and warmer, people start to search for ways to improve their eating habits.

Healthy Comfort Food Transitions

Making the transition from your favorite comfort foods to eating healthier can be tough for anyone. However, there’s no need to quit cold-turkey on your favorite foods. There are ways for you to make some of them healthier just by changing up a few ingredients. Here are five ideas you can try.

Almond Flour Tortilla Pizza

Who doesn’t love pizza? After eating a slice or two of pizza, many will feel sluggish. However, instead of ordering or making a standard pizza from scratch at home, try a DIY recipe that is considered healthier. Use almond flour tortillas for the crust, add plant-based cheese, and add your favorite veggie toppings.

Buffalo Wings Cauliflower

Wings are always a good comfort food idea, especially with buffalo sauce. However, they can be a bit unhealthy. Instead, you can swap out the chicken for pieces of roasted cauliflower. Roast the veggie pieces a bit, and then cover them in your favorite buffalo sauce. Pop them in the oven for a bit, and you’ll have a healthy take on buffalo wings.

Veggie Toast

You can turn some of your favorite veggies into toast. A cabbage round can resemble a bagel, and it’s a healthy food choice. Slice a cabbage head vertically to create your cabbage rounds and top with some cashew cream cheese, smoked salmon, and other toppings. Instead of cabbage, you can also slice some sweet potato and pop it into the toaster a couple of times as a different kind of toast.

Replace Breadcrumbs with Almond Flour

Breadcrumbs are used in many comfort food recipes, but they can make a lot of dishes unhealthy. Substituting breadcrumbs with almond flour can be the cooking hack that you need to make your favorite meals healthier. When you want to bread fish, chicken, meatballs, or any other food that you like, dredge, coat, or mix the almond flour into the recipe.

Like the buffalo wings, you can make your favorite comfort food mac & cheese healthy by replacing the pasta with cauliflower or broccoli florets. Boil the veggies and cover them in your favorite cheese. For additional healthiness, replace the cheese with nutritional yeast — a vegan option. A dash of hot sauce can also help with flavor.

Thanks to its powerful active ingredient — curcumin — turmeric are rightfully considered a superfood. Aside from slowing the effects of aging through regular consumption, there are some other benefits of turmeric. Read more about three of them, and how you can add it to your diet.

1. It Has Anti-Inflammatory Effects

Turmeric works by scavenging various forms of free radicals, including reactive nitrogen and oxygen to reduce inflammation in the body. It also modulates the activity of your detoxifying enzymes.

2. Turmeric Is Antifungal and Antimicrobial

Studies show that curcumin can prevent the growth of various fungal or bacterial infections in the body. Since turmeric can invade a cell of a bacterial species and kill it from within, it also acts as a food-safe antibacterial agent.

3. It Also Improves Cardiovascular Health

Since curcumin is known for improving the endothelium, the lining of your blood vessels, it can be incredibly efficient in reversing the progression of heart disease. Some studies go as far as to claim using curcumin supplements can provide similar results as the drug Atorvastatin.

How to Take Turmeric

Based on your preference, there are many ways in which you can include turmeric in your diet. Some of the most popular options (with plenty of customization opportunities) include:

• Turmeric milk — add ground ginger and turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, coconut or almond milk, coconut oil, and a pinch of stevia; add honey if you want it sweet.
• As a herb in meals — since it’s often added to curries, you can include it in these kinds of meals.
• Turmeric tonic — add lemon juice, some leftover lemon rind, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and water in a small saucepan.
• Simmer for about 3 minutes and drink while it’s still warm. Add a sweetener of your choice.
• Supplements — in choosing the brand, you should look for one that has at least 95% curcuminoids.