Enjoy Healthful Guilt-Free Holidays

With a little bit of planning and modification of your favorite holiday foods, you can enjoy many of your same great recipes with a lot less guilt.

A recipe is actually a chemical formula and each ingredient has a function for the taste texture and appearance of the end product. It’s important to know which ingredients can be changed and by how much.

You can reduce the fat in a recipe by one-third and still get a tasty product. For cakes and quick breads, you should have two tablespoons of fat for every cup of flour. In baked breads, cakes and brownies, you can substitute ½ cup of unsweetened applesauce for ½ cup of the oil if the recipe calls for one cup of oil. Every tablespoon of oil you leave out saves about 120 calories. There are many reduced fat and fat-free products on the market. Reduced-fat margarine has water added to it so the liquid in a recipe should be reduced if you are using this type of product.

Foods that contain sugar are a holiday must for most families. Sugar can be reduced by one-third with good results. When you are baking cakes and cookies, you need to use ½ cup of sugar for every cup of flour. For quick breads and muffins, one tablespoon of sugar is needed for every cup of flour. When you reduce the sugar, the flavor of the product can be enhanced by adding vanilla, cinnamon or another appropriate flavoring.

Salt is an American favorite but must be used only in moderation by many people with high blood pressure. Salt is a flavor enhancer that many people do not want to eliminate. Citrus juices, herbs and salt-free spice blends can be used to add that special pizzazz to your favorite recipe.

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend that we make half our grain choices whole grains. Consider baking with whole grain flour. You can replace ¼ to ½ of the white flour in a recipe with whole grain or bran flour. You can make your own oat bran by grinding oatmeal in a blender to a flour consistency. Oat bran flour can replace ¼ of the flour in a recipe. This does not save calories but it does add nutrient value and fiber.

With a little bit of planning and a few modifications, you’ll be well on your way to a guilt-free holiday season.

Last update: Monday, August 14, 2006

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