Quick substitutions for any recipe
We know — you have a weakness for your mom’s macaroni and cheese, or lasagna, or really any fat- and calorie-laden comfort food dish that doesn’t exactly fit the parameters of health food. What’s a Skinny girl to do? Well, you can always email us your recipe and we can help you modify it. But if you’re in a rush, there are a few simple tips that can make just about any recipe more figure-friendly. Just keep in mind that “healthifying” a recipe does change it a little. So sometimes you may need to experiment with a few different substitutions until you’re happy with the final product.First of all, some things to remember:
• Choose lean cuts of meat and poultry instead of what the original recipe calls for.
• You can replace ground beef with ground white meat turkey.
• Roast or bake poultry with skin (to retain the flavor) but serve without to reduce calories and fat.
• Make your own dressings with a vinegar base instead of buying dressing or serving with heavy cream based dressing.
• Replace mayo with mustard when possible, and if not, replace with light mayo.
• Reduce sugar in a recipe by ¼ cup increments each time you make the recipe until desired sweetness is reached.
| When the recipe calls for | Replace with |
| 1 whole egg | 2 egg whites or ¼ cup egg substitute |
| 1 cup sugar | ½- ¾ cup sugar |
| Butter/margarine | Smart Balance butter |
| Sour cream | Nonfat sour cream |
| Cream cheese | Light cream cheese |
| Sauce with butter or drippings | Make sauce with wine, fat free broth, or fruit juice |
| Vegetable oil for frying | Non stick vegetable spray |
| 2/3 cup oil | Replace 1/3 with applesauce and use 1/3 fat |
| Whole milk | Skim milk |
| Ricotta cheese | Part skim or nonfat ricotta |
| Cottage cheese | 1% or nonfat cottage cheese |
| 2 pie crusts | 1 pie crust on the bottom |
—Karen Kattan
