Healthy Meal and Recipe Makeovers

You love Caesar salad, but the dressing alone has more than 160 calories and 17 grams of fat per serving. The solution? Give meals a healthy makeover by replacing or reducing various ingredients.   

Suggested Recipes:

Chicken Bok Choy Stir Fry
Baklava (Low Fat Low Cal Version)
Grilled Salmon with Tomato-Ginger Relish

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your favorite foods or give up flavor, it just means finding healthier ways to prepare them.  Making a few small changes within a recipe and using healthier cooking techniques can make big differences in the nutritional outcome.    

Here are some tips and tricks on how to modify your recipes to healthier versions:

Reduce Fat
Many recipes call for whole milk, cream, butter, eggs and other ingredients with a high fat content. Reducing the amount of fat in your recipe is not very difficult and only requires some easy substitutions. Skim milk can be substituted for whole milk. Instead of using cream, prepare meals with skim evaporated milk. Take two egg whites instead of one whole egg. Replace or reduce butter and oil included in the recipe by using fruit purees such as applesauce, pureed figs or mashed bananas. Alternatively, use fruit-based fat replacers found in the baking aisle of your local grocery store.

Fighting Sodium in the kitchen
As part of a healthy diet, reduce the amount of salt you eat. However, keep in mind that the amount of salt cannot be reduced for foods that require salt for leavening. For all recipes that do not require yeast, try reducing the amount of salt by one-half or eliminating it completely. If you absolutely cannot live without salt, use salt replacements found at the grocery store.

Battling a Sweet Tooth
While all of us crave sweets from time to time, too much sugar is neither good for our teeth nor for our health. When preparing food, try reducing the amount of sugar by one-half. Add spices such as nutmeg, vanilla extract or cinnamon to enhance the sweetness of the food.

Take the Healthy Road
With a few healthy choices you can boost the nutritional value of the food you are eating. Avoid processed and refined foods. Instead, use products made with natural ingredients and more nutrients. For example, use whole-wheat pasta instead of refined pasta. Whole-wheat pasta contains bran and germ so it has many vitamins, minerals and fiber, which are missing in refined pasta. If a recipe calls for ingredients such as nuts, shredded coconut, or frosting, leave them out. They are not really necessary and only add extra calories and fat to your meal.  

Use Healthier Cooking Techniques
Opt for healthier cooking techniques such as grilling, baking, broiling and steaming to cut fat and calories. Avoid basting meat or vegetables in fat and use fat free vegetable broth, wine or fruit juice instead. To reduce calories and fat further, use a nonstick pan and cooking spray.

Old Habits Die Hard
It’s only normal that we all have a marked preference for certain less healthy food items. If it is impossible to change a recipe that you really like, don’t throw it out! Instead, prepare a smaller portion of it and combine it with a fresh salad or some other healthy food item and voila! You have a delicious and healthy meal.

Suggested Recipes:

Gazpacho Salad
Carrots (California Orange Style)
Dak's Whole Grain Oat Bread (Bread Machine)
Healthy and Tasty Ancient Grain Salad
Peach-Ginger-Grape Fizz