Healthy Tip of the Week:   

Recipe Makeovers: 5 Ways to Create Healthy Recipes

Use these techniques to reduce the fat, calories, and sodium in your favorite recipes.  

• Fat - For baked goods, use half the butter, shortening, or oil and replace the other half with unsweetened applesauce, mashed banana, or prune puree. You can also use commercially prepared fruit-based fat replacers found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores.  
• Sugar - Reduce the amount of sugar by one-third to one-half. Instead, add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, or flavorings such as vanilla extract or almond flavoring to boost sweetness.  
• Salt - Reduce salt by one-half in baked goods that don't require yeast. (For foods that require yeast, don't reduce the amount of salt, which is necessary for leavening. Without salt, such foods may become dense and flat.) For most main dishes, salads, soups, and other foods, you can reduce the salt by one-half or eliminate it completely.  

2. Make a healthy substitution: Healthy substitutions not only reduce the amount of fat, calories, and salt in your recipes, but also can boost the nutritional content. 

• Pasta - Use whole-wheat pasta instead of enriched pasta. You'll triple the fiber and reduce the number of calories.  
• Milk - Prepare a dessert with fat-free milk instead of whole milk to save 66 calories and almost 8 grams of fat per cup.  
• Meat - When making casseroles, scale back on meat, poultry or fish and increase the amount of vegetables. You'll save on calories and fat while gaining more vitamins, minerals, and fiber.  

3. Cut back some ingredients: In some recipes, you can eliminate an ingredient altogether or scale back the amount you use.  

• Toppings - Eliminate items you generally add out of habit or for appearance, such as frosting, coconut or whipped cream toppings, which are all high in fat and calories.  
• Condiments - Cut condiments, such as pickles, olives, butter, mayonnaise, syrup, jelly and mustard, which can have large amounts of salt, sugar, fat, and calories. Use less soy sauce than a recipe calls for to decrease the amount of salt.  
• Cheese - If a recipe calls for 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, use 1./2 cup instead.  

4. Change cooking and prep techniques: Healthy cooking techniques can capture the flavor and nutrients of your food without adding excessive amounts of fat, oil, or salt. Try these preparation techniques for healthy recipes.  

• Cooking method - Healthy cooking techniques include braising, broiling, grilling, poaching, sauteing, and steaming.  
• Basting liquid - If the directions say to baste the meat or vegetables in oil or drippings, use a small amount of wine, fruit juice, vegetable juice, or fat-free vegetable broth instead.  
• Nonstick cookware - Using nonstick pans or spraying pans with nonstick spray will further reduce the amount of fat and calories added to your meals.  

5. Downsize the portion size: No matter how much you reduce, switch or omit ingredients, some recipes may still be high in sugar, fat, or salt. You can help your diet by cutting back on the portion size instead.  

• Slow down - Eat your meals more slowly to give your body a chance to register the fat that you're filling up. Put your fork down between bites if necessary. You'll eat less in the long run.  
• Check portion sizes - Many portions today are so large you may not realize what a true portion or serving is. Train yourself by using smaller plates, spoons, and cups. And learn to use common visual cues to understand servings - one serving of whole-grain cooked pasta is about the same size as a hockey puck, for instance.  
• Plan ahead when eating out - It is easy to go overboard when eating out. Take precautions such as splitting a dish with a dining companion, skipping the bread basket for a doggie bag and packing up half your meal.  

6. Putting it all together to create healthy recipes: Before plunging ahead with a recipe, look it over and think about what you can change to turn it into a healthy recipe. Make notes of any alterations, so you can refer to them the next time you prepare the recipe. You may have to make a recipe a few times before you get the results you want. But finding the right combination of ingredients - for the desired taste, consistency, and nutrients - is well worth the trouble.