Substitute Ingredients for Healthful Dishes

Many delicious but fattening baked goods can be made healthier by substituting for a few ingredients in the recipe. With a little experimentation, you can compile a repertoire of tasty and nutritious desserts, and your family won't know the difference. The key is to replace the high-fat or high-caloric ingredients in your recipe with alternatives that are lower in fat and calories. Here are some guidelines:

• For a starting base for salad dressings and meat marinades, use lemon juice mixed with vinegar.
• Instead of sweetening with sugar or molasses, add a small amount of aspartame or another non-nutritive sweetener.
• For sauces, casseroles, and desserts that call for cream, use evaporated skim milk instead.
• When baking breads, cakes, scones, muffins, or cookies, substitute applesauce for a portion of the called-for oil.
• Finally, for people like me, who couldn't imagine going a day without chocolate, you can substitute three tablespoons of cocoa powder for every ounce of unsweetened chocolate called for in your favorite cookie, brownie, or fudge recipe.

More on: Healthy Meals for Families

Excerpted from:

From Raising Healthy Eaters: 100 Tips for Parents by Henry Legere, M.D. Copyright © 2004. Used by arrangement with The Perseus Books Group.

To order this book visit perseusbooksgroup.com.