Cooking Tips for Making Recipes More Healthy

Today I am working on completing some online health lessons that we have available through our company where we can earn points to go towards cash. I happened to stumble across this lesson on cooking tips so I thought I would share. The lesson basically explains how to tweak certain ingredients in recipes to make them healthier and about half the fat of the original recipe. Enjoy :)

Common Substitutions

There are many common substitutions that can be used to improve the nutritional value of foods and recipes.

Regular potato chips >> Baked potato chips

Whole milk >> Skim milk

Regular corn chips >>Baked tortilla chips

Butter/margarine >> Vegetable oil

Regular ice cream >> Fat-free frozen yogurt

Regular bacon >> Turkey bacon

Whole-milk cheese >> Skim-milk cheese

Oil-packed tuna >> Water-packed tuna

Regular cream cheese >> Fat-free cream cheese

Dark meat chicken >> White meat chicken

Bleached flour bread products >> Whole grain bread

Whole eggs >> Egg substitutes/egg whites

Oil (baked recipes) >> Applesauce or pureed fruits

Regular sour cream >> Fat-free sour cream or plain yogurt (drained)

If a recipe asks for this:	Use this instead:
1 cup Butter	½ cup butter or oil
1 cup Sugar	½ cup sugar
3 whole egg	1 whole egge and 2 egg whites
8 ounces beef	4 ounces beef
½ cup oil	¼ cup oil
1 Tbsp salt	1 tsp salt

Traditional Lasagna

This is a typical list of ingredients for a traditional lasagna recipe. Notice which ingredients are high in fat and what changes could be made to make the lasagna healthier.

A pan of lasagna can be made healthier and still taste as good as it looks!

1 pound ground beef

¾ chopped onion

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 16 oz can of tomatoes

2 6 oz cans of tomato paste

2 cups water

1 Tbsp of parsley

2 tsp’s salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp of garlic powder

½ tsp of pepper

½ tsp of dried oregano

8 oz lasagna noodles

1 pound ricotta cheese

8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Healthier Lasagna Version

Here's what the list of ingredients would look like after we have applied the principles of substitution and modification.

1 pound extra lean ground beef

¾ chopped onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 16 oz can of salt-free tomatoes

2 6 oz cans of salt-free tomato paste

2 cups water

1 Tbsp of parsley

2 pinch of salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp of garlic powder

½ tsp of pepper

½ tsp of dried oregano

8 oz whole wheat lasagna noodles

1 ½ cups fat-free ricotta cheese

8 oz shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

¼ cup grated reduced-fat parmesan cheese

1 ½ cups fat-free cottage cheese

Health Savings

Traditional Recipe (per serving)

790 calories

41 fat grams    

1646 mg sodium

Healthier Recipe (per serving)

467 calories

16 fat grams

464 mg sodium

Look at the "health savings" you get when you change from a traditional to a healthier way of preparing lasagna.

DID YOU KNOW?

You're more likely to start cooking more nutritionally if foods taste good to you. Try reducing the high-fat ingredients by about half and substituting an ingredient lower in fat for the other half. For example, reduce the butter in chocolate chip cookies by half and substitute applesauce for the other half. Chances are, you won't notice much of a difference, and you may even reduce the butter even more the next time!

Taking Things a Step Further

You could improve the nutritional value of the traditional lasagna even further by substituting chopped broccoli, spinach or mushrooms for all or part of the beef.

DID YOU KNOW?

Taking this extra step can reduce the calories and fat by about half.

Lasagna - Heavenly for the Heart and Taste Buds

Adding vegetables to the lasagna increases the amount of vitamins and minerals in the meal – making it even healthier.

Health Savings = 8 grams of fat = 72 calories per serving