How To Make Recipes Healthier 

This is a simple list of baking and cooking tips for making healthier recipes.  No matter what time of the year, we should turn our recipes into healthy choices for our families.

With all good intentions, sometimes our attempts to a make a recipe 'healthy' produces a poor product.  And that's frustrating when we don't have groceries to waste or have time to whip up another batch.  Now, this is not a complete list, but it's a good start in the right direction.  If you have a tried and tested tip or method to making cooking or baking healthy without sacrificing flavors and textures, PLEASE LET US KNOW ABOUT IT.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

REDUCE SUGAR

• You can usually reduce sugar in a recipe by 1/4 to 1/3 in cookies, pies, and quick breads.  Although, it may not work well in cakes.
• Up to 1/2 cup of sugar may be substituted with a sugar substitute.
• Adding vanilla extract in baking goods gives the essence of sweetness that makes up for the reduced sugar.

REDUCE FAT

• You can usually reduce fat in a recipe by 1/4 to 1/3 in cookies, pies, and quick breads without affecting the product.
• Replace half of the fat in a recipe with unsweetened applesauce, low-fat yogurt, or prune puree.
• Use lower-fat versions of the ingredients called for in a recipe, such as 1% or skim milk rather than whole, use low-fat cheeses, etc.
• When buying meats, select the leanest cuts.  Cough up for the leanest ground meats with a meat/fat ratio of 90/10 or better.  The meat may seem expensive, but it's cheaper than by-pass surgery on your heart or monthly prescriptions of cholesterol medications.

REDUCE CHOLESTEROL

• Use two egg whites in the place of one whole egg.
• Use healthy egg substitutes, such as Better N'eggs.

REDUCE SALT

• Use half the amount of salt called for in a recipe.  In some dishes, you can totally omit salt.  For example, cooking rice or pasta.  However, DO NOT eliminate salt from yeast bread or rolls; it is essential for yeast action.
• Rather than using salt for seasoning, try spices, herbs, vinegar, flavoring extracts, fruit peal, or your own blend of seasonings.

So there's a very good start.  You don't have to use all these tips all at the same time.  In fact, if you work back gradually reducing the ingredient, of your choice, in your recipes, eventually you & your family won't even notice that it's missing.

Like I mentioned earlier, if you have a tried and tested tip or method to making cooking or baking healthy without sacrificing flavors and textures, PLEASE LET US KNOW ABOUT IT.  The more we know, the better choices we can make for ourselves and our family.