13 Ways to Love Your Recipes
Use these ingredient substitutions to cut down on calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium in your favorite recipes but keep the flavor.
Butter, margarine, shortening or oil
Replace 1 cup of butter with ¾ cup of a healthy oil (avocado, canola, corn, olive or sunflower). Applesauce or prune puree can replace half of the butter or shortening in recipes for baked goods.
Eggs
Instead of whole eggs, try 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute for each whole egg.
Evaporated milk
Evaporated skim milk can be substituted equally with regular evaporated milk.
Cream cheese
Substitute fat-free or low-fat cream cheese or low-fat cottage cheese (pureed until smooth) for regular cream cheese.
Sour cream
Replace sour cream with fat-free plain yogurt or fat-free/low-fat sour cream.
Mayo
Try plain yogurt as a substitute for mayonnaise.
Sodium
Replace table salt with cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, onion powder, oregano, paprika, black pepper or rubbed sage.
Sugar
Cut the amount of sugar by half.
Canned fruit
Instead of canned fruit in heavy syrup, use fresh fruit or canned fruit in its own juices or water.
Yogurt
Use plain yogurt instead of fruit-flavored yogurt.
White flour
Substitute ½ cup of wheat flour for 1 cup of white flour.
Bread crumbs
Replace plain bread crumbs with oatmeal or bran cereal.
White bread
Use wheat bread or whole-grain bread instead of white bread.