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.


Healthy oil

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

Eggs

Instead of whole eggs, try 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute for each whole egg.

Evaporated milk

Evaporated milk

Evaporated skim milk can be substituted equally with regular evaporated milk.

Bagel with cream cheese

Cream cheese

Substitute fat-free or low-fat cream cheese or low-fat cottage cheese (pureed until smooth) for regular cream cheese.

Tostada

Sour cream

Replace sour cream with fat-free plain yogurt or fat-free/low-fat sour cream.

Mayonnaise

Mayo

Try plain yogurt as a substitute for mayonnaise.

Cooking with salt

Sodium

Replace table salt with cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, onion powder, oregano, paprika, black pepper or rubbed sage.

Spoons of sugar

Sugar

Cut the amount of sugar by half.

Bowl of fresh fruit

Canned fruit

Instead of canned fruit in heavy syrup, use fresh fruit or canned fruit in its own juices or water.

Plain yogurt

Yogurt

Use plain yogurt instead of fruit-flavored yogurt.

Making dough with flour

White flour

Substitute ½ cup of wheat flour for 1 cup of white flour.

Stuffed bell peppers with bread crumbs

Bread crumbs

Replace plain bread crumbs with oatmeal or bran cereal.

Whole-grain bread

White bread

Use wheat bread or whole-grain bread instead of white bread.