Lighten Up Your Favorite Recipes

The most obvious place to begin when shaping up your recipes is with the ingredients. Replacing high-calorie items with lower-fat and lower-sugar versions is a good place to start.

• Think baked tortilla and potato chips instead of fried ones
• Use low-fat or nonfat sour cream, mayonnaise, cheese, cream cheese and salad dressing instead of full-fat versions
• Substitute evaporated skim milk or buttermilk in place of cream (for everything except whipping)
• To thicken soups, gravies, and sauces, use puréed vegetables, mashed potatoes, or a slurry of cornstarch and cold water instead of cream or roux.
• It's a painless sacrifice to use leaner cuts of meat too: skinless chicken breast, pork loin, ground turkey breast and beef round and flank steak are all good choices.
• Start turning to non-meat sources for some of your protein needs, too: beans come in all kinds of interesting varieties, as do tofu and soy-based meat substitutes.
• Try whole grains in place of refined ones more often. You just may find that you prefer the taste of whole wheat bread, brown rice, bulgur, barley and quinoa over white bread and white rice.

Expand your seasoning repertoire: instead of reaching for the cheese when something needs a flavor boost, acquaint yourself with a wider array of flavorful, low-calorie ingredients.

• There are dozens of varieties of vinegars to try, not to mention citrus juices and zest.
• Add richness without adding fat by caramelizing your onions and roasting your vegetables at high heat, rather than just steaming them.
• If the spices and herbs you use most are more than a year old, toss them out and start with fresh ones--you'll be amazed at the flavor difference that fresh spices can make.
• Hint: you can buy dried herbs and spices in bulk at a fraction of the cost of bottled ones in most health food stores and large supermarkets.
• While you're at it, coax maximum flavor out of spices (not herbs) right before adding them to your recipe by toasting them in a sauté pan over medium heat until fragrant.

In addition to making ingredient substitutions, think about the proportions of your recipes. In most of the dishes that are generally considered verboten for dieters, the quantities of fat and simple carbohydrates (white flour, white sugar) are sky-high in proportion to the complex carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables and whole grains) and lean protein. Instead of a piled-high plate of fettuccine Alfredo and a few slices of garlic bread for dinner, try starting with a salad, followed by a plate of fettuccine and vegetable Alfredo, in which at least half the pasta has been replaced by steamed fresh vegetables. The plate will look beautiful, and your tummy will get just as full. The same idea goes for all kinds of food:

• In omelets and scrambles, decrease the amount of eggs and make up the volume with veggies.
• Stretch out the mixture for meatloaf, meatballs and burgers by adding finely diced vegetables, too.

In baking, not only can you substitute some of the fat with fruit purées, but you can also cut back on the sugar by 1/4 to 1/3 without missing it.

• Add a little extra vanilla or cinnamon to enhance the perception of sweetness.
• You can replace up to half of the white flour in a recipe with whole wheat flour.
• Incorporate fruits and vegetables into your baking, too! Add shredded carrot, zucchini or apple to muffin batter.
• Drop a few handfuls of frozen berries into a batch of pancake batter.

It's easy to add lots of excess fat to a dish when cooking it. While sautéing, the fat content can sneak up on you: each splash of oil or pat of butter makes the calorie content add up fast. Instead, use a spray mister to lightly coat the pan with just enough oil to help the food brown, and after that, add small amounts of water, broth or juice to keep the food from sticking to the pan and burning.

Send your favorite fried foods to reform school by "oven-frying" them.

• Dip the item in flour and shaking off the excess.
• Next, dunk them in beaten egg whites, followed by a dip in plateful of breadcrumbs or crushed cereal.
• Add flavor to the coating by mixing in salt and freshly ground pepper, chopped herbs, or grated Parmesan cheese.
• Bake on a nonstick pan at about 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) until the inside is done and the outside is golden and crunchy.

This technique is especially good with chicken strips, pork chops, seafood and all kinds of vegetables, especially eggplant, zucchini, onion rings, green tomatoes, and lightly steamed broccoli or potatoes. Don't forget the dipping sauce! Instead of tartar sauce and salad dressings, try all the wonderful varieties of mustards and salsas out there, or just use reduced calorie versions of your traditional favorites.

If you're ready to shape up your lifestyle for good, invest in some high-quality nonstick pans. Using nonstick sauté pans and saucepans means you don't need to add extra fat in order to keep your food from sticking to the pan. Also make use of your broiler pan and roasting rack, and let the fat drain off of the meat. Use paper towels to blot excess fat off ground beef and pork. Most food actually tastes better when it's cooked this way--since the surface gets nicely browned--instead of boiling in its own juices.

As an alternative to nonstick baking sheets, you can just line the pans with parchment paper: parchment is coated on both sides with a thin layer of food-grade silicone to avoid sticking. Use muffin liners rather than greasing the muffin cups. For best results, cake pans should still be greased or sprayed before using, even nonstick pans.