| Cooking Tips
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Try some of the following tips to save on calories, fat, sodium and sugar.
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| 1. |
To cut down on fat: |
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| Instead of... |
Use... |
| Whole milk |
Low fat or non-fat milk |
| Evaporated milk |
Evaporated skim milk |
| Light cream |
Evaporated skim milk |
| Butter |
Soft margarine or vegetable oil |
| Shortening |
Margarine |
| Mayonnaise |
Light mayonnaise or Fat free salad dressing |
| 1 whole egg |
1/4 cup egg substitute or 2 egg whites |
| Cheese |
Low fat cheese |
| Fat for "greasing" pan |
Non-stick cooking spray |
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- Save any recipes calling for deep frying for special occasions;
- Remove and discard the skin from chicken and other poultry;
- Use a non-stick pan to cut down on the amount of oil used.
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| 2. |
To cut down on the sodium in your diet, here are a few suggestions. |
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- Use half the added salt called for in recipes;
- Be aware that seasonings like onion salt, garlic salt, celery salt and seasoning salt is
about 95% salt. You may want to use minced onions or onion flakes, chopped garlic or garlic
powder and other fresh herbs and spices or ones with no added salt to flavour your
foods;
- Substitute low-sodium soy sauce for regular soy sauce;
- Cut down or eliminate stock cubes in making soup; instead use natural ingredients such as
chicken and beef bones, vegetable ends, mushroom stalks, nuts & beans to make soup stocks;
- Use only a small amount of smoked meat, fish, poultry or pickled vegetables to give flavor
to the food. Do not use additional salt as the food is highly salted already.
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| 3. |
To reduce sugar in the diet |
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- Cut down by 1/3 in most recipes. If a recipe says 1 cup, use 2/3 cup. This works best in
making puddings, desserts, cakes, and muffins.
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| 4. |
Increase fiber by: |
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- Substituting brown rice for white rice (or use half & half initially until you get used to the
taste of brown rice);
- Using whole grain flour instead of refined flour in baking;
- Cooking vegetables with their skins on.
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