Put Your Recipes On A Diet

Cooking at home is the perfect opportunity to make up for those heavy restaurant meals and fast food lunches. Here, you have complete control over recipe ingredients. Here are two easy things you can do right now to put your own recipes on a diet:

• Cut down on the total amount of fat in your recipes by reducing the amount of oil, 
  butter, margarine, high fat dairy and meats, and other sources of fat.
  

• Replace fats that are high in saturated fat (butter, dairy products, meats) and trans 
  fats (vegetable shortening, hard margarine, “hydrogenated” fats) with olive oil or Canola oils and soft tub margarines without trans fats.   

What if it doesn’t work?  
Not of all of your favorite higher fat recipes will turn out well when you try to reduce the fat and substitute lower fat ingredients. What are your options?

1.   Replace fat and saturated fat in steps, not all at once. Start with the most important fat source in the recipe. For example, try using ½ oil and ½ butter, then use only oil. Otherwise, it can become a new recipe that no longer resembles your favorite.

2.   Reduce the fat slowly, not all at once. Removing all the fat in a recipe can ruin the final product, making for a tasteless food with a spongy or tough texture.

3.    If your favorite recipe is not a winner when the fat is reduced, you’ve got a few choices: have your favorite recipe less often, as a treat; or simply cut down on the serving size that you have. Serve this dish with very low fat side dishes, and have fruit as a dessert. That way, you’re diluting the fat of the whole meal, and you still can enjoy your favorite recipe without compromising your goals.

Finding New Favorites

Putting your favorite recipes “on a diet” will allow you to enjoy your old favorites without harm. But the easiest way to cook lower fat meals at home is start with a low fat recipe, one that lists the total grams of fat and calories, so you don’t have to “do the math”. Those of you who are already eating this way probably find that high fat foods often taste too rich and heavy – and your preference has changed to lighter fare. The key is to find what works for you and for those you cook for, and to make eating a healthy and pleasurable experience.

Scallops in Wine 

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

• 1/3 cup chopped onions

• 1 ½  Tablespoons minced shallots or green onions

• 1 ½ lb. scallops, washed, sliced

• ½ cup all-purpose unbleached flour

• 1  Tablespoon soft margarine

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• ¾ cup dry white wine

• ½ cup vermouth

• 1 bay leaf

• 4 tomatoes, chopped

• 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano

• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley

• Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, heat oil and sauté onions and shallots. Toss scallops with flour to coat. Shake off excess flour. Add scallops to onions. Stir quickly, 2-3 minutes to combine. In another skillet, heat margarine, olive oil and garlic. Add wine, vermouth, bay leaf, tomatoes, oregano and parley. Cook about 2 minutes; add scallops. Stir to combine and cook about 4 to 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at once. Makes 6 servings.

Recipe from: William Castelli, MD and Glen Griffin, MD, The New Good Fat Bad Fat,  Fisher Books, 1997

Nutrition Information per serving:

• Calories: 274

• Fat: 9.4 grams

• Saturated Fat: 1.5 grams

• Protein: 20.4 grams

• Carbohydrate: 17.2 grams

• Cholesterol: 36 mg

• Sodium: 531 mg

Eating Guidelines per serving:

3 very lean meat, 1 fat, 1 vegetable, ½ Grains/bread

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