We all know that the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows—at some point, things get a bit too much for us and we start feeling overwhelmed. Maybe you’re burned out at work or stressed because of some relationship trouble. Perhaps you’ve had a major setback when it comes to your beloved creative projects. Many of us deal with this by snuggling under a cozy blanket, putting on a nostalgic TV show, and eating something tasty.

There’s nothing quite like comfort Food to pick up your mood and make you see the bright side of things! Internet users revealed the quick and easy comfort meals they love making whenever they’re feeling blue in a thread on r/Cooking, and we’ve collected their best ideas. We know we’ll be trying a few of these instead of reaching for that pint of ice cream the next time we’re down.

Bored Panda reached out to the author of the thread, u/actuallyboa, who opened up about how food is both a form of art and love for them. We also got in touch with Andrea Bonior, Ph.D., the host of the mental health advice podcast ‘Baggage Check’ and the bestselling author of ‘Detox Your Thoughts,' to better understand why we find food so comforting and why moderation and mindful eating are so important. Read on for both of our interviews.

#1

A toasted slice of a crusty Italian bread dipped in good, flavored olive oil. Add something like salt, pepper, garlic, or grated Parmesan if you're feeling ambitious.

Image credits: ItalnStalln

Dr. Bonior, the host of the 'Baggage Check' podcast, explained to Bored Panda that food experiences have strong associations with memories, "not only because our senses are involved but because they become traditions that are conditioned to make us feel a certain way because of the context of how we shared the food in the past." Our sense of smell, particularly, is very closely connected to our emotional memories.

"Many times we might associate certain meals with a certain loved one, or feeling safe and taken care of during childhood, or having a leisurely day of something being cooked or baked. Also, tasty food improves our mood almost instantaneously—not only satisfying the physical aspect of hunger but bringing pleasure," she said.

#2

fried rice

All you need is rice, egg, shallot/onion and some meat (optional). I’m not counting salt, pepper etc. here though

It’s easy and quick to make, and always my go to food when I’m sad

Image credits: kftsang

#3

Hummus mixed with a good hot sauce on naan. It might sound like a weird combo, but it's pretty spectacular in practice.

Image credits: pan567

Bored Panda was also interested to learn more about having a healthy relationship with comfort food so that we don't overeat every time we're stressed. "I think it's important not to be all-or-none. No food is inherently 'bad' in moderation (unless it's poison!) So, if you think that a particular comfort food isn't necessarily the healthiest, why not try a smaller portion and pair it with something else that is more healthful, or substitute just one aspect of it for something healthier," Dr. Bonior gave some spot-on advice.

For instance, one thing that you could do is make mac n Cheese with whole wheat noodles. Or bake a delicious chocolate cake with a bit less sugar. Something else that can help us get more from the comfort food experience, according to Dr. Bonior, is slowing down and eating more mindfully, "really pausing while we eat to truly take in how the food looks, how it smells, and to chew it slowly to notice the taste."

Moreover, serving the comfort food in a "particularly pretty way" can make the entire experience more of a ritual that's focused on relaxation and taking a break from all the stress and problems in your life. "By slowing it down and making it an event that you embrace, you'll enjoy it more, feel less guilty about it later, and actually be less likely to let it turn into a binge that you try to shame yourself for later."

#4

A classic grilled cheese sandwich made with sourdough bread, sharp cheddar, and Kerrygold salted butter.

Image credits: Darwin343

#5

A tomato sandwich. All you need is tomato, mayonnaise, and sliced bread. I have this most summer days when fresh local tomatoes are at their peak. It's probably the meal I eat most often.

Image credits: flouronmypjs

#6

Cinnamon toast

Image credits: rrroller

Meanwhile, the author of the r/Cooking thread, redditor u/actuallyboa, shared how they were enjoying a snack of buttered rice with tamari and were fascinated by how this simple food was so delicious. "I wanted to know about others’ experiences with simply comforting dishes they like to make," they told Bored Panda that they couldn't wait to hear what some other redditors thought.

"In my opinion, these simple foods represent a combination of nostalgia and certainty. Because they aren’t overly complicated, I believe we can taste them with our 'mind’s tongue' and when we enjoy them, it brings forth a lot of satisfaction and perhaps even good memories, making them perfect comfort foods. Some people value quantity when it comes to food, others value quality, but either way, we all have something delicious that brings us joy."

We also wanted to find out about some other comfort foods that redditor u/actuallyboa values. "I love the clean simplicity of sushi, the heartiness of good meats and cheeses, and the nourishment and comfort that comes with wholesome soups. With soup, the simpler, the better. These foods offer enjoyment to me on many different levels, because to me, food is both a form of art and a form of love."

#7

Oatmeal with peanut butter and a chopped apple stirred into it. For true comfort food, I just want to replicate a fancy version of those instant oatmeal packets from childhood.

Image credits: ttrockwood

#8

Good old fashioned PB&J sandwich

Image credits: nottheredbaron123

#9

Fried cabbage with bacon and onions or leeks, or same with butter and parsley. With salt and pepper and maybe a fried egg and some toast, it's got for the gods at any meal.

Image credits: legendary_mushroom

We’re willing to wager that the absolute majority of humankind loves comfort food. Whether we’re aware of it or not, many of us gravitate to specific meals and snacks. Usually, they’re not just delicious—they have a nostalgic component, too.

Maybe you gravitate to a snack that you used to eat when you were a kid during some of the happiest moments of your childhood. Or you might make a dish that reminds you of what your mom or grandma used to make for you to show their love.

Our sense of smell and taste are both very powerful, and they can instantly remind us of the good old days. A perfect antidote to feeling down, and a great way to take a well-earned break from all the stress.

#10

- rice + butter + soy sauce
- fresh bagel bakery bagel + cream cheese
- baked potato + baked beans
- tortilla + cheese = quesadilla + salsa
- oatmeal + brown sugar + walnuts
- french fries + ketchup


Comfort food = hot carbs for me so, most of those aren’t proper meals but they are awesome

Image credits: ttrockwood

#11

Tortilla filled with sharp cheddar and jalapenos, crisped up with oil in a frying pan.

Or better known as a cheese and jalapeno quesadilla.

Image credits: BelliAmie

#12

Ramen noodles w sesame oil and chopped scallion.

Image credits: No_Virus_7704

However, it’s not just nostalgic dishes that help pick us up! We also gravitate toward high-fat and sweet foods because they reward our brains. The problem is, however, that if you’re constantly eating comfort food, your health might suffer in the long term. Our bodies need far more than just ice cream, chocolate, and french fries to survive. (Oh, trust us, we’re not judging anyone; we’re very partial to drowning our sorrows in food—we know what it’s like.)

There are some other ways to deal with stress and sadness that don’t necessarily involve over-indulging in calories while spending 8 hours on the couch binge-watching whatever Netflix throws at you. For one, you could opt for healthier versions of comfort food, e.g. something that you make yourself. A pint of double-choco salted caramel cookie dough ice cream is great. But maybe cinnamon toast makes you feel better, too? Or something made with fresh ingredients, say, a salad your relatives used to make when you were visiting them in the country?

#13

Baked potato with butter and shredded cheddar

Image credits: Ok_Initial_2063

#14

When I was in school, I'd often eat this incredible chia pudding. The only ingredients you need are chia seeds, coconut milk, and maple syrup.

Image credits: Wormspike

#15

My favorite comfort food of all time is hot steamed white rice, a pat of butter, and tamari or soy sauce. It is simple perfection.

Image credits: actuallyboa

However, it’s not just eating that makes us feel better. If you’re constantly under pressure and having to juggle fear, anger, and exhaustion, you need to manage that ASAP for the sake of your physical, emotional, and mental health. That starts with the basics.

Remember to stay hydrated. Get plenty of sleep. Move lots. Get away from the screen and meet some people face to face. Nostalgic nibbles help get us through the toughest of times, but it’s essential that you don’t drown in memories of the past while neglecting the present. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some snacks to look for…

#16

Boxed macaroni and cheese.

Image credits: -UncleFarty-

#17

Tortilla + cheese + salsa = all you need for a perfect quesadilla.

#18

I'm not counting salt & pepper in the ingredient totals.

Tomato sandwich (tomato, mayonnaise, bread)

Spaghetti aglio e olio (pasta, olive oil, garlic)

Scrambled eggs (eggs, cream or sour cream, butter)

Grilled cheese (bread, butter, cheese.) I usually use two types of cheese though so maybe a bit of a cheat.

Crispy smashed potatoes (potatoes, olive oil, thyme)

Roasted vegetables in general (vegetable, olive oil, maybe a dry spice)

Popcorn (popcorn kernels, ghee for popping, butter)

Baked naan with brie (storebought naan, brie, olive tapenade/marmelade/jam/tomato sauce/sliced pear)

Image credits: flouronmypjs

#19

I love to cut up a carrot or two and throw them in a foil packet with some olive oil and ginger. Salt to taste, seal up the packet and bake until you can smell it. Usually 20-30 minutes but I’ve left them for 45 before and they just get more caramelized. They end up sweet and savory and I can eat a whole bowl of it with nothing else added. Maybe some fresh ground pepper but not always. The ginger adds a great *something* to it.

Image credits: mlledufarge

#20

Rice porridge

#21

Mujadara…caramelized onions, rice, and lentils. Yum!

Image credits: doggymomwalking

#22

Pyrogies, carmelized onions, sour cream

#23

Breakfast quesadilla. All you need is a tortilla, shredded cheese, and an egg or two. Scramble the egg in a bowl, add a handful of cheese. Pop the tortilla onto a medium-hot pan, wait a couple of minutes, pour the egg mix onto the tortilla, and let it sit until the egg begins to settle. Carefully fold the tortilla in half to make a perfect quesadilla.

#24

Peanut butter and honey on a tortilla

Image credits: alm0stengineer

#25

Pastina: mini star shaped pasta (Pastina), chicken bouillon, butter and parm if you want

Image credits: devieous

#26

Popcorn ?

#27

Miso pasta. Grab a box of pasta, butter, and miso paste. Add some fresh Parmesan if you've got it.

Image credits: Sasum

#28

Egg drop soup is chicken broth, eggs, soy sauce and green onions. That's four but close enough. Add sesame oil optionally

Image credits: broncosandwrestling

#29

Tomato sandwich with mayo salt and pepper.

Pasta with butter and fresh parmesan cheese.

White rice with butter milk and sugar.

Slices banana with cinnamon and sugar.

Grilled cheese dipped in ketchup.

Always mashed potatoes and gravy, bonus points if there is leftover stuffing as well.

Slices of ham rolled around a strip of cheese and a sweet pickle spear.

Image credits: nomiesmommy

#30

Simple toast. Preferably with decent bread, at least Italian or sourdough. Toast it until it's really toasted not just warm bread and slather with Irish butter. Toast is one of my top 5 favorite foods.

Image credits: just-kath

#31

It’s close because it’s basically 4 ingredients but feels fancy newer one to me - carbonara

Pasta, some pasta water, 5ish eggs, parmesean grated sorta finely, bacon I use half a pack of bacon cut it before cooking it

One pan cook the bacon and stir it a the pieces so they’re separated from each other. Leave in pan but move from heat so it doesn’t burn/stay hot

While bacon cooks boil water + grate like 6ish oz of parmesean.

Beat 5 eggs (4 just the yolk, 1 whole). Combine it with the parmesean u til you get something that sorta looks like yellow paste almost. (You can add seasonings here and pepper is great)

When pasta is done take some water in a mug and set aside

strain noodles & put back in the pan.

Add bacon / bacon fat to the noodles and stir it. Noodles should still be hot

Add egg mixture and stir, add water for a more sauce texture and you’re good to go. Eat immediately or you’ll want more water to keep it alive

Notes - I’ve never accidentally scrambled the eggs with the pasta doing it this way. You don’t want the bacon hot hot because it could scramble though so I try to have to some a few minutes before berthing else.

Image credits: Powerful-Student7139

#32

Naan flatbread. A slice of naan topped with Brie and some sort of spread, whether it's olive tapenade, marmalade, jam, or tomato sauce

Image credits: flouronmypjs

#33

Instant ramen noodles w eggs and cabbage and chili crisp

So student but totally love it.

#34

A caprese salad made with ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil. Drizzle with balsamic or Italian dressing.

#35

Rigatoni cooked al dente with grated Parmesan and black pepper. It's like a poor man’s cacio e pepe.

#36

Tortilla, shredded cheese, and an egg or two. Scramble the egg in a bowl, add a handful of cheese. Medium hot pan, put the tortilla flat in it. Wait a couple minutes, pour the egg mix onto the tortilla, let it rip long enough for the egg to start to set up, then carefully fold it in half in the pan and make a quesadilla out of it.

#37

Goya boxed yellow rice with a can of black beans and diced raw onion. Costs about tree fiddy, is filling, and brain dead easy to make. Remarkably tasty and the raw onion adds a crunchy texture that makes the dish work.

Image credits: MN_Shamalamadingdong

#38

Tomato Bread

1. cut the best tomato you can find in half and grate it against the large holes of a box grater into a bowl with a paper towel folded at the bottom of the bowl, add salt and stir

2. Slice of sourdough goes in the toaster

3. Peel a garlic clove. You have a little time to clean the box grater, knife, cutting board.

4. Remove the paper towel, the tomato will have released a lot of water from the salt. At this point, add a dash of nice olive oil and a couple turns of black pepper. You can squeeze out the paper towel into something if you really want but the tomato water should be too salty to drink if salted properly and you need the salt in there initially to get the moisture drawn out. It’s a small loss.

5. Immediately when the toaster pops up, grate the garlic lightly on the surface of the bread, the residual heat “cooking” the garlic ever so slightly. This is not garlic bread so use a light touch.

6. Spoon the oily seasoned tomato mixture on the bread liberally so it soaks into the bread but still retains some crunch and does not fall apart. Serve immediately while still slightly warm.

If you have basic pantry ingredients, and you freeze your sourdough bread, you can literally make this anytime you have a tomato on hand. It’s delicious enough to impress anyone for breakfast or dinner, and it amazes me every time I have it how delicious something so simple can be if you put a little love and care into it.

Image credits: peelfoam

#39

Spam musubi: Spam, Japanese short-grain white rice, and nori.

Image credits: Darwin343

#40

A box of cereal and milk!

#41

Chip butty

Beans on toast

#42

A bowl of steaming hot brown rice, a slice of muenster cheese melted into it, a little too much sambol oelek.

#43

Japanese steamed egg custard (chawanmushi), you just need eggs and dashi stock (or any flavored broth). The ratio i like is 3 eggs to 375 mL of liquid. Mix, season, steam, and serve!

#44

Peanut butter toast with a sliced tomato. So good! Also I find a runny egg on rice with soy sauce and green onions if you have them is just so satisfying.

#45

Sharp cheddar melted onto crackers.

#46

Franks and beans

#47

Sleep for dinner is nice.

#48

Slice of Swiss cheese. Slice of pastrami. 1/4 avocado. Roll it up using the cheese as it’s wrap and eat it in 3 bites.

#49

Pasta and spray butter haha. It's an autism safe food for me.

#50

Tuna pasta. Tuna, fusilli, sweetcorn and some mayo.

#51

Tofu, soy sauce, sesame oil

#52

Cheese sandwich.... Cheddar cheese slices, Mayo, bread.

#53

Pasta, parmesan, butter.

#54

J. Kenji López-Alt's mac 'n' cheese. Easier than the boxed stuff, made with macaroni, evaporated milk, and shredded cheese.

#55

A PB&J sandwich, although it must be strawberry jelly for me. It's just not the same with grape.

#56

Canned chili over lettuce with salsa and/or sour cream. This makes a darn good taco salad. Bonus points if you eat it with tortilla chips or Fritos.

#57

Buttery Vegemite toast.... when i no appetite in me... this.

#58

This can be as simple or complicated as you like, but my easy comfort food is biscuits and gravy. You can do pre-made biscuits, and for the gravy, milk, flour, and breakfast sausage. The recipe can explode from here in terms of adding spices, or starting the gravy with a roux, or making your own biscuits.

#59

Kielbasa, onion, cabbage. Fry ‘‘em up

#60

matzah ball soup

#61

Tea with lemon and honey. Peanut butter on bread. Smoothie with spinach, banana, and milk.

#62

Congee with egg (rice, stock, egg - ginger for seasoning)

#63

Canned tomatoes with elbow macaroni pasta.

#64

Cheese and mushrooms on toast

#65

Taking a cue from others, I'm not counting salt and pepper



Caprese - Tomato, fresh mozarella, fresh basil and/or Italian dressing



Grilled cheese - Bread, cheese, butter



Chocolate dipped strawberries



Spicy ramen - Instant ramen, egg, Sriracha



Rice and beans with cheese



Brown butter pasta - Pasta, butter, mizithra or parmesan cheese



An omelette with cheese and fresh herbs



Quesodilla with salsa or guacamole

#66

Fried tofu with scallions and oyster sauce.

#67

Does water count?

Being Filipino, the 2 ingredients will always be rice out of the rice cooker, and a fried egg or two.

The third would be anything preferably salty from the pantry or freezer: spam, spanish style sardines, corned beef (needs more work), tuna (needs some work), hotdogs, sausage, thick sliced ham, bacon… you get the idea.

If I could add a 4th ingredient, it’d be some wasabi furikake.

#68

Cook pasta, after draining add an egg or two and return pot to low heat, mix, add cheese, mix more. Kind of a poor man's vegetarian carbonara.

#69

Ramen, eggs, and scallions.

#70

Kenji's mac & cheese - macaroni, evaporated milk, shredded cheese

#71

Cheese on toast. Might add sliced tomatoes or chillis on top

#72

gin and tonic

#73

Buttered noodles

#74

Filipino. So rice and anything.

Polish sausage. Bacon. Eggs (fried or scrambled). Bratwurst. Spam. Corn beef hash. Canned corn beef and sliced onions.

Other than that? Torta: Cook up some ground beef in a skillet, while that’s going, scramble some eggs. When the beef is just about ready, pour the eggs in and let it set. Flip. Eat. With rice. You can add anything: onions, bell peppers, etc.

#75

Fried egg, rice, lao gan ma.

#76

-Bagels, cream cheese, and thinly sliced salmon
-Canned Tuna mixed w/ Mayo (with salt n pepper) on bread. Sometimes I put some Hot Cheetos in there :)
-white rice, sunny side eggs, and ketchup (or soy sauce) all mixed in a bowl

#77

Buttered noodles and tuna fish with some salt and pepper.

#78

Fried eggs, fluffy rice, tomato sauce.

Fried eggs, fries and ketchup.

#79

Spaghetti with garlic, oil, and hot pepper.

#80

rice soysauce butter

#81

Seared sliced kielbasa with wing sauce, stirred into Velveeta shells and cheese.