Do you have recipes that you love but are afraid to prepare because they contain too many calories or too much fat? Try a recipe makeover. These guidelines can help you turn those calorie-laden "befores" into lower calorie "afters".
Baked goods and desserts
- Use diet margarine instead of regular margarine, shortening or butter. (Make sure your margarine is trans-fat free, avoiding products with any hydrogenated vegetable oil on the ingredient list.)
- Instead of oil, try one-half applesauce/one-half nonfat milk, or one-half oil and one-half applesauce. If possible, replace oil completely with applesauce (this works best in cakes, brownies and zucchini bread).
- Use a graham cracker crust instead of a traditional pie crust - traditional crusts are usually made from lard or shortening, with more than 50% of calories from fat.
- Reduce nuts and coconut by 50% and chocolate chips by 25-50%.
- Reduce sugar by 25% - it won't change the taste appreciably, especially if you use more of the sweet spices(vanilla, cinnamon, etc.)
- Replace half of the white flour with whole-wheat flour to increase fiber and nutritional value.
Casseroles and main dishes
- Use nonfat plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
- Use two egg whites in place of every whole egg - this will eliminate cholesterol and save fat calories. For baked goods and quiches, beat egg whites until stiff to add volume.
- Use evaporated skim milk instead of cream, and use nonfat or low-fat milk instead of whole milk.
- Instead of cream cheese, substitute one of the following: light cream cheese; blenderized cottage cheese combined with 1 tablespoon lemon juice; one-half tofu and one-half ricotta cheese.
- Saute in wine, chicken broth or vegetable oil spray instead of oil.
- Use low-fat cheese instead of regular cheese.
FYI
You'll save 240 fat calories by replacing 2 tbs. butter with 2 tbs. broth or wine.
