ALL of the Comfort - NONE of the Guilt!

7/18/2012 *Sara-Marie* 0 Comments

Bowl of comfortliciousness - yea, I just made up that word.

It's been about a week or so since I've updated everyone on my weight loss progress. I would say that I've been so-so over the last two weeks. Some days have been better than others but I haven't hit the gym in almost a week - no bueno.  (Ugh, after rereading that last sentence - I'm heading to the gym tonight - no more excuses!!!) I am up about 1.8 lbs - which sucks, but I'm trying not to get too upset about it. It's also that time of the month, so I know I'm retaining some water. Along with the bloating, my cravings for comfort foods are sky high. Luckily, due to my abnormal obsession with Pinterest, I found this recipe! It was so easy to throw together and the results were wonderful. I only made a few changes: added 2 large sweet potatoes in addition to 4 small red baby potatoes I wanted to use up; I added some fresh rosemary sprigs; increased almost all of the seasonings - I used:  4 garlic cloves, 2 TBSP of italian seasonings, 3 TBSP of evoo, plenty of salt and pepper; 1 cup of broth; 5 TBSP of pomegranate balsamic vinegar; and I used 1.2 lbs of sweet italian turkey sausage. 

After roughly chopping all of the veggies: sweet potato, red baby potatoes, fennel, onion, carrots, red bell pepper, I seasoned with salt, pepper, evoo, garlic, chicken broth, and plenty of italian seasoning mix. Topped it off with some fresh rosemary sprigs. Don't it look purrrrrty?

Next, I covered with aluminum foil and plopped the pan into a preheated 450 degree oven. While the veggies were roasting, I lightly browned the turkey sausage on the stove top. They don't have to be cooked all the way through because they will finish cooking in the oven.

After browning, I sliced these bad boys into bite sized chunks.

After about 45 minutes, I uncovered the veggies, dropped in the sliced sausage and added the balsamic vinegar. After a good toss, I put the tray back in the oven, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. I then tossed again and let it roast for another 10 minutes to get everything nice and browned. Like so:

Done.

This was delicious. Perfect comfort food for a cold winter night (or HOT summer with a working AC!) or just when you crave something awesome. I have to admit my favorite part was the sweet potato with the all of the other savory flavors. SO GOOD. Next time, I won't even bother with the regular potatoes. This was also my first time cooking with fennel. It gave a wonderful aroma but had a very mellow flavor once it had cooked down. This was so easy, I'm sure I will make it again - with whatever veggies I could get my hands on!

EXTRA BONUS - this is guilt free! A big bowl of veggies + lean meat = WIN! 
My belly and my mind are thanking me :)

Any other ideas for wholesome, good-for-you, comfort food recipes?

XOXO,
SMP