Favourite 'lighter' alternatives?

JJA14

I absolutely love Japanese chicken Katsu curry, but all that frying isn't great and is also quite tricky at home.
HOWEVER...
Last night I made a fantastic one using hairy dieters crispy chicken (but using panko breadcrumbs) and a lighter version of the katsu curry sauce from bbcgoodfood. Absolutely yum - hunbby said it knocked spots off Yo Sushi's. Deffinately making again!

What recipes have you lightened up and were they successful?

Foamroller

I just made Puttanesca (tomato sauce with, olives, caper berries, garlic and anchovy) with shirataki fettucini AND zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti. I made the zucchini for the first time today 30 kcal for 186 gram is a great substitute. Shirataki also works very well in asian stir fries.

There's also cauliflower rice or mash to sub foods like rice and potato. Sometimes I make sushi with cauliflower rice and avocado.

A small bag of pork rinds (45 g) is my absolute fav go-to snack and emergency snack. They are at 280 kcal and although they are not so much lower calorie wise than a bag of potato chips, they make me feel fuller and unlike starchy snacks, less likely to drive me into a binge. I also get some collagen, which supposedly is good for joint and fascia health (I suffer from inflammation).

I've also frozen sugar free lemonade that I made a bit stronger in taste than usual into ice cube trays. Sometimes popping out a few when I crave for something sweet does the trick.

Another treat I allow is 20 g 86% dark chocolate and 15 g hazelnut. Or 125 g of defrosted raspberries with sukrin to sweeten it works too at 90 kcal.

I'm thinking about starting to make sugar free jello and gummy bears as said collagen is something I need. For example something like this:
http://dessertswithbenefits.com/healthy-homemade-gummy-bears/

On my mind is also to make sugar free ice cream, but I'm not sure if I "have to" get an ice cream machine.

JJA14

Lots of great ideas - I'm going to keep some of these on the fridge!
- I keep meaning to try cauliflower rice. I'll do it this week!

orlcam

Checkout the Fasting Day FD recipe ideas LUNCH and DINNER thread, and the snack one too...lots of good ideas.

One of my goto dishes is the chicken/mushroom Tikka Masala. I don't use ghee but get away with a few sprays of Pam butter then I add some light sour cream and no fat yogurt to get some creaminess back into the dish. I can get under 600 calories on almost 2 lbs of curry.

Southern/Cajun style blackening of fish and shrimp (mussels too) is a good alternative to frying. There is a list of ingredients to make your own seasoning in the "Blackened Tilapia with Dill Sauce over Cole Slaw" recipe in the lunch/dinner thread mentioned above.

Another "big" thing is draining and rinsing (w/hot water) ground beef/pork after thoroughly cooking...in some cases (70/30 ground beef) you can reduce the calories by half.

feisty_bucket

Re: collagen

amazon.com/Great-Lakes-Gelatin-Collagen-Hydrolysate/dp/B005KG7EDU/

This stuff is pretty cool - I add a serving (two tablespoons) whenever I use protein powder and it doesn't change the flavor.

Supposedly the edge this stuff has is a different amino acid profile than just the muscle meat we typically eat.

Foamroller

@Feisty. Ty for the share. I'll see if iHerb retails it. More often than not sellers on Amazon won't ship to my country And food products are even worse to get through customs. I live in a country that believes it's best at everything, which clearly isn't true