by Ina Winslow

Created on: July 04, 2007

Here are a few essential ingredients for every cook who hopes to replace fatty dishes with nutritious, low-fat meals:

Creativity
Patience
Willingness to read food labels
A sense of adventure

These, plus a few simple cooking rules, will enable you to succeed in producing healthy, low-fat, great tasting meals. You can even transform many of your favorite, high-fat dishes into tasty, healthful alternatives.

Rule 1: Choose ingredients with the lowest fat content. When cooking foods like meats or dairy products, read the labels and always choose the foods that are lowest in fat and, especially, lowest in saturated fat. For instance, buy lean or even super-lean ground meat or poultry. With cheeses, it is a general rule that white and soft cheeses usually have less fat than yellow, hard cheeses. But there are exceptions, so be sure to read cheese labels to compare fat content. The same rule applies to all ingredients you choose for cooking. Choose the lowest-fat alternatives based on the nutrition labels.

Rule 2: Substitute low-fat ingredients in recipes whenever possible. Cooking oils like canola are lower in saturated fats than shortening. Some of the most popular cheeses, like mozzarella and Swiss, are also available in low-fat or even nonfat varieties. They can be successfully substituted in many recipes with no discernible difference in taste or texture. Some baked goods taste surprisingly good when applesauce is substituted for cooking oil. Many recipes that require milk can be made successfully with skim milk. As you read new recipes or prepare to make old favorites, keep an open mind to possible substitutions you can make to decrease the fat content. Be willing to experiment.

Rule 3: Choose cooking methods that don't rely on high-fat ingredients. For instance, broil, bake, steam, or microwave instead of frying. Fried foods absorb fats from the oils used to cook them. But many recipes that traditionally involve frying can be made another way. For example, instead of deep-frying French fries, thin-slice the potatoes and make "oven fried" cottage fries on a cookie sheet prepared with non-stick spray. In recipes that call for basting, instead of basting with butter or fatty cooking juices, microwave an entre or bake it in foil to maintain the moisture of its own natural juices.

Rule 3: Use spices and other flavorful ingredients to make up for the lost "flavor" of frying in oil. For example, try seasoning your cottage fries with Old Bay for a side dish to pair with a seafood entree.

Rule 4: Be creative, willing to experiment, and have patience! My own experience with a favorite noodle recipe is a perfect example of the value of creativity and patience. When I first decided to adopt a low-fat diet, I thought I would have to give up my mother's egg noodle recipe because its main ingredients included sour cream and onions sauted in butter. I easily substituted a low-fat, low-cholesterol table spread for the butter. But I was repeatedly disappointed with attempts to use imitation sour cream, or even nonfat sour cream. In each case either the flavor or texture-or sometimes both-turned out to be unsatisfying. Then a friend introduced me to a Greek style, organic, nonfat yogurt that had the same consistency as sour cream and a surprisingly similar flavor. The noodle dish tastes wonderful, and no one eating it would guess that it contains nonfat yogurt instead of sour cream.

These are just a few, simple examples of how substituting low-fat ingredients, changing cooking methods, and adjusting favorite recipes can cut fat-and even calories-to produce satisfying, healthful meals. Cook, eat, and enjoy, and may you still have room for (low-fat) dessert!

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