There is almost nothing as comforting as potato soup! It tastes slightly like mashed potatoes combined with the deliciousness of a baked potato – sour cream, bacon, cheese. Mmm. Is there anything more homey than that?

Surprisingly, potato soup isn’t that hard to make – it’s just a matter of using the right ingredients and learning how to properly thicken things! Potatoes have gotten a reputation as being bad for us, but they are very healthy when eaten in moderation. Mostly, their skins are excellent sources of a multitude of vitamins. In this recipe, I like to keep the skins on for this reason!

Easy Potato Soup

You’ll need…

• 2-3 russet potatoes, diced into bite size pieces
• about 1/4 of an onion, diced
• about 3 tablespoons of butter
• about 2-3 tablespoons of flour
• about 2 cups of milk
• about 1 cup of chicken stock
• about 3-4 tablespoons of Philadelphia Cooking Creme OR cream cheese
• about 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 slices of turkey bacon, diced
• about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese (your favorite – I like smoked mozzarella!)

How to Make It…

For the potatoes, you can wrap them in foil (after scrubbing them!) and bake them for about 1 hour at 400 degrees. Or, you can dice them into pieces and roast them in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Choose what you have time for! (Baking the potatoes and then dicing allows the potatoes to break down in the soup slightly.)

In a small skillet, cook turkey bacon until warm and slightly brown on both sides. Remove from heat and when cooled, dice into small pieces.

Once the potatoes are cooked slightly, chop onion and add to a soup pot with a bit of nonstick cooking spray. Cook the onions until they are just translucent. Add bacon and potatoes. Add butter and allow to melt. When the butter is melted, add the flour and stir. You’ll want to cook the flour for a few minutes to remove the mealy taste of it.

After about 4-5 minutes of stirring, add your milk and chicken stock. Stir and allow to thicken slightly. You’ll want to bring the liquid to a very low simmer! Add Philly cooking creme or cream cheese, as well as the sour cream. Stir to combine. Add the shredded cheese and allow to melt and combine. Allow to simmer for another few minutes and then serve!

(If your soup doesn’t thicken up much with just the flour and butter, you can combine about 2 tablespoons of corn starch in a small bowl with about 2 tablespoons of water. Stir to combine and add to the simmering soup. Stir rapidly and this should thicken it up a bit more!)

Note: This recipe serves about 3-4 people. It can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2-3 days!

Spinach is one of the “superfoods” out there that is all benefit and no consequence. However, I’ll be the first to admit that spinach is also not the tastiest food I can think of! Sometimes, it can taste a little bit like dirt. To jazz it up, I like to wilt it down and add it to things – jarred spaghetti sauce, taco meat, pizza pockets… you name it, I can probably find a way to hide spinach in it. It instantly ups the healthiness factor without affecting calories and without having to choke down a bag of spinach.

The best part about this quick Chicken Florentine Pasta is that the cream sauce is not full of empty calories – there is no butter used here. By using the already flavorful Philadelphia Cooking Crème (a new product that I’m obsessed with), you save several steps of making your own sauce and calories by avoiding using half-and-half or heavy cream and lots of cheese.

You’ll need…

● 1-2 chicken breasts

● 1-2 cups of pasta (cooked)

● about ½ bag of baby spinach

● salt and pepper

● 1 tablespoon of olive oil

● about 1 teaspoon of minced garlic

● ½ onion, chopped

● about 3-4 tablespoons of Philadelphia Cooking Crème (whatever flavor you like – I like Savory Garlic)

● 1-2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese

How to make it

Start by getting a pot of water boiling for the pasta. Use a lid so it will boil faster.

On a plastic cutting board, chop up chicken into bite size pieces. Place a large skillet over medium heat and add the oil. On a separate cutting board, chop up the onion and garlic (you can also use pre-minced garlic if you like). Add chicken and onions to the skillet. Once the chicken is starting to look almost done, add the garlic. (Garlic burns really easily, so I like to add it later!) Cook until the chicken is completely done and onions are translucent.

Be sure to season the onions, chicken and garlic with salt and pepper as they cook.

At this time, you can probably add your pasta to the water. I like using linguini for this recipe, but any shape works!

If needed, add a little more oil to the skillet. Add about ½ a bag of spinach to the skillet and cover with a lid, allowing the spinach to wilt. This doesn’t take long – a minute or two! Stir everything together. Finally, you can now add the Philadelphia Cooking Crème. (You can also use cream cheese or jarred Alfredo sauce, if you can’t find this.) Stir completely to create a thick sauce – feel free to add milk or more crème to loosen it up. Add the Parmesan cheese at the end and stir.

Keep the skillet over low heat until the pasta is finished cooking. Using a slotting or toothed spoon, scoop the pasta directly into the skillet and toss.

Serve with garlic bread. Enjoy!

Note: This recipe serves about 2-3 people. If you have leftovers, they are good for about 2 or so days if stored in an airtight container. 

You know, those days? When all you want to do is curl up in a ball in your sweats, sleep, watch some terrible Netflix movies and ask yourself why life can’t be like a Julia Roberts movie. (In fact, I’m having one of those days right now.) But those days are never quite complete without that pint of Ben and Jerrys, that pizza with pineapple, or tortilla chips and salsa.

Comfort food. It’s a necessity for late night binging, breakup wallowing, and rainy days with Real Housewives marathons. Everyone has a favorite, but these? These top ten classics are some comfort foods every gal indulges in at some point or another.

10. Pizza. With extra cheese. And all the toppings. Or none of the toppings.  My personal favorite is a single, original, round slice. But hey, to each her own.

9. Mashed Potatoes. Just as delicious when you have a toothache and can’t eat solid foods as they are paired with a juicy steak or with nothing at all.

8. Cheeseburger. An American classic. (Even if it wasn’t actually first created in America.) Burgers are great because they can be as quick and simple as a Big Mac or as fancy and fab as something with jack cheese and onion rings, but either way they’re delicious.

7. Grilled Cheese. Nothing quite like a 3 a.m. grilled cheese when you’re starving and there’s absolutely nothing in your fridge but well…bread and cheese. Hmm…do I have both of those right now? It’s almost three and I’m getting kind of hungry…

6. Chili. Perfect for cold winter nights. Football games. Toppings for your hot dogs. We don’t judge here, ladies.

5. Burritos. I was debating on whether to go with the quesadilla instead because I’m a quesadilla gal myself, but burritos are really more of a comfort food. Stuffed to the brim with rice and beans and meat and cheese, overflowing with juices in a wrap that never quite stays wrapped, making it the messiest of messy comfort foods. Yep. You’ve got to go with the burrito.

4. French Fries. I don’t really think that this particular food need’s an explanation. I mean it’s french fries. And french fries are classic comfort food.

3. Chicken Fingers. When I was younger the only thing I would ever order any time I went anywhere was chicken fingers. Because it was always on the children’s menu. It was simple. It tasted good. I knew what I liked. And I still do.

2. French Toast. Sure it’s a breakfast food, but it’s one of those breakfast foods that can be eaten at just about any time of the day. And the fact that I recently had a vanilla and orange infused french toast that I can’t stop thinking about at brunch a few weeks ago may or may not have influenced my decision to make this number two on the list…

1. Mac & Cheese. Number one purely because of the diversity of this cozy comfort food. Baked with breadcrumb. Heated up in a microwave. Served in a sizzling platter with three different types of cheese…mmm….

Alright now I’m hungry. Your turn. What are your favorite comfort foods? Your guiltiest of guilty pleasures? 

Mondays suck, we know this. The harsh reality of the work/school week are a slap in the face after innocent, lazy (but completely misleading) Sunday. When you come home exhausted and hungry on a Monday evening, you crave warm fuzzy comfort food, but your body is angrily demanding that you go to sleep as soon as Gossip Girl is over.

What’s a starving girl to do? Never fear, darlings, this chicken pot pie recipe will have you feeling cozy and well-fed super quick — and it’s so easy and fast that you’ll be tucked in by bedtime.

You will need:

- One frozen 9” Pie Crust (with a top and bottom crust!)
- 1 pack frozen peas and carrots
- 2 Cups of frozen diced, skinless boneless chicken breasts
- ¾ Cup regular whipping cream
- ¾ Cup chicken broth
- 1/8 Teaspoon black pepper
- 3 Tablespoons All Purpose flour
- ½ Teaspoon of salt
- ¼ Teaspoon dried basil
- 3 Tablespoons of butter or margarine

To get started, preheat your oven to 425.

In a medium pot combine the butter, flour, salt, pepper and basil. Heat, stirring continuously until the mixture is smooth. Honestly, this step won’t look the most appetizing, but, trust me, just keep going.

Next, add the whipping cream and chicken broth, and keep stirring your mixture. Then turn the heat up and bring everything to a boil.

Let it cook for about 1 minute (still stirring: if you stop, the mixture will thicken and form a skin…gross) then add the peas and carrots and chicken. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes.

Pour mixture into your pie crust and top it with the crust topper. If your grocery store doesn’t have this kind of crust—mine didn’t—just cut the border off of another bottom crust and top with that dough. (Just beware that you will end up with Frankenstein Pie…it’s all good, though.)

Pop it into the oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when it’s golden brown and gently whispering your name, begging you to devour it. Let cool for 5 minutes and dig into your amahhzing comfort food made easy.

Taking 20 credits, working two jobs, and writing your thesis doesn’t leave for a whole lot of free time, and that’s a pretty hard thing to adjust to. I usually like to procrastinate – I work better with a gun to my head, it seems. But now I have to work in advance, because I don’t have time to do things the way I normally do.

This weekend, I don’t even have time to drink. What is my world coming to?

As for lessons learned these past two weeks or so, I realized the value of backing your sh*t up like your life depends on it. My thesis chapter was due on Monday. I didn’t finish it until Tuesday. Now, because I have an older version of OpenOffice (a free version of Microsoft Office, essentially), when my computer decided to spazz out, I lost 11 out of 12 pages.

Cue comfort food binging.

I binge eat when I’m upset. It’s a problem I’ve been working on for a while now, but I’m worried that this year might drive me back to it – especially when I’m this upset at the very beginning of the semester.

I started work this week essentially calling old alumni and asking them to donate to the college. Some of them ask me what I’m doing when I get out of school, and my uncertain answer usually consists of some variation of “I don’t know.” I’ve always want to work with animals, but I want to continue writing. There doesn’t seem to middle choice that I can find right now…and I don’t really feel like entirely looking for it. I don’t like thinking about the future as it is – planning the next couple years of my life nearly on my own has be a little upset.

Okay, who am I kidding? I’m flipping out.

For now, though, I’m just going to plow through the next couple of days. And maybe on Monday – because I don’t have time to do it on Sunday – I’ll get my drink on. God knows I need it.

I think my senior year might turn me into an alcoholic, you guys.

[Picture courtesy gettyimages.com]

Yikes, that doesn’t look appetizing.

Let’s be honest: when I get home at the end of a long day of work and classes and studying, the last thing I want to do is whip up a fancy meal for myself. Sometimes, I just need something fast and simple. But after a few months of take-out and pizza and dining-hall food, I realized that I was sacrificing my waistline for the sake of convenience.

What’s a calorie-counting busy girl to do?

Embrace the frozen entrée. I know, I know. Frozen entrees make me think of my Mom and Weight Watchers and scary-looking meat products in soupy liquids. No thanks.

However, there are some delicious frozen meals out there if you know where to look. The best part? Every last calorie and carb and gram of fat and milligram of sodium is right on the box, so you know exactly what you’re getting. To top it all off, they provide us with something this entire country is severely lacking—portion control. You shouldn’t need a hamburger the size of your head just to feel satisfied—frozen meals are a great way to teach yourself what is considered normal (the measurement for a normal serving of protein is the size of your fist…not your head).

Since I’ve become somewhat of a connoisseur of the frozen meal, I thought I’d round up a few of my favorites, for your thawing pleasure:

1. Go classic. Frozen versions of comfort food are always a safe bet. I like Lean Cuisine, where a decent serving of mac and cheese will only set you back 290 calories, and the cheese ravioli, my personal fav, is 240 calories.

2. Go east. Frozen entrees that mimic Asian or Indian dishes are often full of spices, which do a good job of masking the fact that you’re eating just-thawed noodles. Smart Ones makes a Thai Chicken and Noodles that, if you are tired enough, tastes just like Pad Thai. One full serving is only 260 calories—did someone say dessert?

3. Go healthy. Just about everyone is cashing in on frozen meals, even the health nuts at Kashi (makers of all things bran and dried fruit). They have a decent selection and, unlike their highly caloric granola, you get both nutrition AND low calories. Try the Pesto Pasta, 290 calories.

It’s best to avoid frozen entrees that also include a side and a dessert. Why? Well, for starters, if you’ve ever had your apple crumble bubble over into your honey mustard chicken, you know what I’m talking about. Plus, they add a lot of extra calories. You’re better off getting yourself some Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches and sticking to a one-dish entrée.

Happy microwaving, ladies!

Something about grilled cheese is so fantastically comforting. It’s crunchy, yet gooey. It’s not too hot, it provides the perfect amount of warmth. It can be dunked in tomato soup, or can stand alone. And anyone from the age of 8 onward can make it! Just be careful not to burn it.

A recipe for grilled cheese may seem foolish, but it can be an art form. And yummy as the diner-style ones are, you can make a healthy one in two seconds. And it’s still delicious.

Sammich for one:

2 slices of 2% milk American cheese

2 slices whole wheat or multigrain bread

non-stick cooking spray

frying pan

Assemble your sandwich (I have faith you know how to do this). Spray the exposed bread on each side with non-stick cooking spray and put them in the frying pan, letting the bottom piece of bread toast and allowing the cheese to start getting melty. Flip as you deem appropriate to toast the other side and melt the rest of the cheese. I prefer my bread to be a golden brown but some people are pickier about the crunch factor.

Feeling experimental? Switch up your cheeses, try a pepper jack if you like things spicy! Try adding tomato, or make your sandwich a double-decker by adding another layer of cheese and bread to a cooked grilled cheese.

Also, a yummy fattening fix is to use butter instead of non-stick cooking spray.

Any other ideas to improve on this classic? Let us know!

If I told you I had a sure-fire way to beat it, I’d be lying. Because if I had found the magic formula, it wouldn’t have taken me 8 months to realize that graduating from college in four years wasn’t the worst decision of my life.

Fortunately for you, I have a few good tips about what NOT to do. Whether you are kicking it at home for the summer or making your way in a brand new city, these tips are sure to keep you from going as crazy as, well, I did.

DO NOT Turn to Your Comfort Food. During my stint in unemployment, I caught an episode of Oprah where Dr. Oz talked about the brain. Apparently, the part of the brain that remembers our fatty comfort foods is right beside the part that stores our memories. So your brain connects the way that fatty comfort food tastes and the way it made you feel better when you ate it. If I had known there was scientific proof that the Pad Thai wasn’t going to make me feel better, maybe I would have only ordered it one time a week instead of three. And of course, the few extra pounds did nothing for my self-esteem.

DO NOT Stay in Bed. Or watch TV in bed or do anything in bed but sleep. (Of course, you can have sex in bed… but first refer to tip #4).

DO NOT Go Shopping. You’ll just be spending to quell the lonely feeling and all that will be left at the end is a bit more credit card debt and clothes you’re probably not that crazy about. However, getting out of the house for a bit of window shopping, sans credit card can be a good mood booster.

DO NOT Drink Alone. Have a drink with dinner, but just one. Trust me, that bottle of wine will go faster than you think. And then you’ll be sitting at home alone, drunk and crying. And it isn’t pretty.

DO NOT Slut it up. You want a hug; you want the feeling of connection. You want something, anything so that you don’t feel so damn ALONE all he time. Bringing home just any boy (or boy after boy) may feel really good now, but tomorrow morning when he leaves and doesn’t ask for your number, you’re going to feel more alone than ever.

DO NOT Bring out the old photo albums or look through the 600 pictures of you and your girls on Facebook. I made the mistake of watching a DVD a friend had compiled of pictures of our friends set to music just a week after I moved away. I was a blubbering mess and my new roommates were mortified.

DO NOT Push Your Friends Away. Distance has already put a space between you so don’t push them farther away by putting up an emotional wall. Just because it may feel like they don’t understand what you’re going through, they’re still your friends and always there for support.

DO NOT Stay Unemployed for Long. Maybe you moved back home without a job or you just haven’t landed that perfect post- grad position. Chances are, any summer job or first job isn’t going to kick ass. Instead of sitting around applying for jobs (and eating and crying and totally wishing you could go back to school) just do ANYTHING. My tip: go through a temp agency and ask for a few jobs where you’re working with a lot of other people. I made two great friends working a sample sale, even though the long hours and snooty people were totally unbearable.

DO NOT Despair. Accept that feeling lonely sucks. Don’t let yourself feel like this isn’t the way you should be feeling right now. Accept the total shittyness of it all and soon, you’ll find that you aren’t feeling so lonely anymore.

It has been a few months since breaking up with the ex and while he is out telling the world that I am still calling, I have been out on the town looking for a new man to bunk up with. Being that I am not living in some big city that allows for a Carrie-Bradshaw-Revolving-Door-Of-Men type situation, I have been resorting to some new ways of scouting out the men.

Namely, internet dating.

Ah! Say it ain’t so! I must be crazy, right? But seeing as I spend my days sharing my life stories via the internet, it only makes sense that I create some of those stories that way as well. Well, that and the fact that my brother met his wife online and they had a bomb ass wedding.

So far, so good. Actually, great.

I have come to realize that there are so many benefits to online dating. For one, I can do it from the comfort of my couch. In the comfort of my underwear. While enjoying a heaping bowl of Mac and Cheese (the ultimate comfort food!). All that comfort – paired with the fact that I can hide behind the glow of my computer screen – makes the whole getting to know you period a whole lot more…well, comfortable.

Pair that with the fact that you can simply sign off/ignore the guy when you just don’t want to hear about how great he is/how he’s the president of his frat/how much his dad makes and you realize how genius this whole inter-web thing really is!

Getting to know your prospective mate through online conversations, emails, phone calls and then – eventually – an actual date, gives you the opportunity to take some time and decide if getting up, getting dressed and sitting through a potentially awkward evening is really worth it. You can get to know the guy on a more personal level early on so when you do finally meet, it feels like you have known him forever.

It makes for a much different dating feeling.

Online dating was so taboo for such a long time, but I am really starting to wonder why I waited so long to log in. I feel like I have finally graduated from my college dating ways to a more sophisticated take on finding a mate. No more heading out to the bar in search of a man whose name I won’t remember when I wake up next to him the following morning. Now I feel I can connect with someone on a new level; an adult level.

And if I do end up waking up next to said man the following morning, at least I will have his screen name.

Does the food at your cafeteria suck? Want to make some extra cash? Can you cook candied olive crumble with fish, braised short ribs with scallops, robiola cheese with fizzy carbonated grapes or chai ice cream with miso-sesame chocolate and powdered peach and pineapple? Didn’t think so.

Fortunately for Duke senior Bryan Zupon, who just loooves food, all this was a possibility. So, he opened a restaurant…in his dorm room.

Those Duke kids, they’re always going the extra mile. Damn overachievers.

“I don’t think that New Southern cooking has changed since the mid-’90s,” Zupon said to the New York Times. “I’d talked to a lot of big-name chefs in the area — for personal reasons and also for the newspaper — and they were so apprehensive to change. I was like, this is frustrating, so I’m just going to do my own thing and see where it takes me.”

Now I know, having grown up in North Carolina, that the state is not known for its culinary wiles. Although there aren’t any top restaurants, there are still some delicious places I look forward to eating every time I go home that could rival some of the best southern cooks out there.

Allow me to share:

• Bojangles. Nobody makes a Southern fillet biscuit so perfectly fluffy with just the right amount of crisp on the outer edges. Mmmm delicious. And even better when you’re high. And the sweet tea?? Don’t even get me started. It’s about as good as my Aunt P’s.

• Taco Bell. You can’t eat fast food in New York. I’ll eat street food but I do not eat fast food and you shouldn’t either (unless you like mouse poo burritos). But back home in the South, the Taco Bell has a 100.1 rating and awesome service. Who doesn’t love a seven-layer burrito for fourth meal?

• Waffle House. Sure, the waitresses are usually missing a few teeth, but who am I to discriminate? Just because Waffle House may not be in the upper echelon of NC Cuisine sure as hell doesn’t mean they don’t serve up a mean cheesy eggs. And don’t try to switch out the raisin toast, people! When paired with the apple butter, it’s a match made in taste bud heaven.

Two weeks and counting before I hop on a plane and head home to some of the most delicious food EVER.

Maybe Zupon should open his mind—and his mouth—to the South.