Re-engineering "comfort" food

One of my favorite food challenges is to "lighten up" heavier dishes by including more vegetables, fiber, and lower glycemic index sweeteners. In the early 2000s, companies all jumped on the "low fat" bandwagon, adding in sugary fillers to reduce the fat of various goods. Today, consumers can pretty much rely on two things: 1) every body's metabolic make-up is different so one diet may work for one person but not for another and 2) the only transparent nutrition information is the ingredient list itself + education. 

Despite these challenges, there are some food items that caught my eye which are fun if nothing else -- and that is re-invented comfort food!

• Cookie Dough -- Companies like HungryRoot have matched the texture of cookie dough but made it vegan and swapped out flour, sugar, and butter with sweet potatoes, chickpeas, and almond butter. Don't waste your money - check out homemade versions online.

• Spiralized Veggies - Even Wegman's grocery store has spiralized beets and zucchini in the prepared foods section. The best thing about these is that they cook in half the time as spaghetti! I recently ate some beet spaghetti with turkey meatballs.

• Real Fruit Seltzer - My can of Watermelon Spindrift looks like a little birthday present -- with only one-fourth a slice of watermelon inside the can, it's still a fun reminder that sparkling water doesn't have to be boring and sweetened soda is so yesterday's news!

• Vegetable Pizza Crust - Okay so I do like to pile on the sauce and cheese, but fiber-rich cauliflower pizza crust (and cauliflower rice too!) is definitely worth a try -- there's even a retail concept near me in Somerville that uses veggies for all its crusts. 

• Eggplant Bacon - Half the time, I can't tell the difference. Years ago, I read an article about a certain seaweed that tastes like bacon. Strangely, this hasn't come to market yet - but give eggplant a try.

Any more ideas I should check out? Comment below!