Healthier alternitives

AMOMONAJOURNEYTOCHANGEHERLIFE

So what are foods you have modified that you just love and don't want to completely give up but don't want them to go in the red either? What did you do to modify them or find a close healthier alternative? Please share brands and recipes.

frogmommy

Fat free Greek yogurt is a great substitute for sour cream on potatoes or Mexican food, a great substitute for sour cream/mayo in a dip recipe and a great substitute in baking. For potatoes, I mix in a few teaspoons of chives and top the potato. In Mexican food, I add a dash of ground chipotle pepper. As a dip, I take a half cup of yogurt, mix in an ounce of lowfat feta or lowfat blue cheese, a garlic clove and some salt and pepper. This is great with cucumbers or other veggies as a dip.

stormieweather

I switched from Publix (no sugar added) Moose Tracks Ice Cream to Edy's Juice bars. The ice cream was 240 calories for 1 cup and 12g of fat. The Edy's Juice bars are 80 calories and zero fat (and all natural).

I use La Tortilla Low Carb, High Fiber tortilla's because they're only 80 calories and 3g fat. Other brands in a similar size are 130+ calories and 5+g fat.

I switched from low fat cottage cheese to fat free cottage cheese because my protein was under and my fat was over.

I use Dreamfields pasta instead of the others. It tastes great and doesn't affect my blood sugar like most pastas.

For a while, I ate low fat or fat free (sandwich) cheese, but honestly...I'd rather have organic, full fat cheese...so I just use it sparingly.

I like pancakes, but detest all the cruddy ingredients in most mixes, so I now use Hodgson Mills or Arrowhead Mills Buckwheat mix.

I used to eat boxed, microwave meals for lunch every day (not bad stuff, just "processed"). Instead, I now bring in a bag with tortillas, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, onion, organic ham/turkey and cheese and make my own fresh wrap for lunch every day. More protein and less calories. Yumm!

Because I cut out all artificial ingredients, preservatives, msg and hfcs from my foods, I've had to change a LOT of my eating habits. So many foods are now on my no-no list, but I've found it quite interesting to learn to make new, healthier (and dang tasty) dishes instead.

Mellie13

Most of my recipes I have "healthified". I just go down the ingredient list and switch out what I can. I only use ground turkey (97/7) and that helps a lot. I also try to use 100% whole wheat/grain whenever I can. I hardly ever use salt or butter/margarine. It's the little things that add up. You can see what your changes do here http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Good luck!

surlydave

I will second that on both the Greek yogurt and the La Tortilla Factory tortillas.

I am also a recent fan of Flatout flatbreads. Not just for substitutes for bread/buns, but I am a HUGE pizza lover. It has been hard giving that up. Flatout's website has many recipes for making pizza with their wraps (the normal ones are maybe 130 cal, the light ones 90). Now here's the kicker - you can put them in the oven, but they main recipes actually suggest putting them on the grill. I was totally skeptical that these wraps, that are amazingly soft, could hold up as a pizza crust. I tried it last night for the first time, and they were awesome!

AMOMONAJOURNEYTOCHANGEHERLIFE

I used to eat an everything bagel with a ton of cream cheese and butter. But now I eat half of an everything bagel with low fat cream cheese and no butter.

I used to eat a baked potato with bacon, cheese, butter, and sour cream, salt and pepper BLAH!!!!!!!!!! Now I eat a baked potato with low fat cottage cheese and garlic and pepper or a little bit of salsa and low fat cream cheese and I measure it. Oh and sometimes I use a 1/4 cup of light shredded cheddar cheese as a treat I do love melted cheese.

jeweljade

I use applesauce in baking now in the place of butter and oil. I eat all whole wheat everything now. And I eat fresh or frozen veggis in the place of canned.

Sumatra

I have altered a lot of my recipes, but it's mostly because we don't eat a lot of ingredients. For years we haven't eaten anything with high fructose corn syrup, all white flour, nitrates, MSG, artificial sweeteners, artificial food coloring, and the list goes on and on.

We use all natural, plain, fat free yogurt in pretty much anything that calls for mayo or sour cream. Our daughters even love this yogurt, without anything in it.

You can use applesauce to replace any butter/oil in recipes and it still tastes really good, even better sometimes. I usually do not replace all the butter/oil, because to me it makes things a little oddly spongy.

I also usually use about 1/2 the sugar that recipes call for, and you usually cannot even tell. They still taste sweet, but not overly sweet.

You can usually replace all of the white flour, with whole wheat flour. Occasionally, I leave about 1/4 of the total amount of flour as white flour because it can make a difference in the consistency, but it usually does not matter.

I know I use a lot of substitutes, but this is all I can think of right now...I need my breakfast!!!

abyt42

My mom used to make a stuffed potato (dirigible) that I LOVED (twenty five years ago.) After the potatoes were baked, we'd mash the potatoes with butter, then add a brick of cubed cheddar, a brick of cubed jack, a chopped onion, cubed ham and cubed turkey.

My dirigibles, which my kids LOVE are stuffed with lightly cooked onions, broccoli, grated carrot, red bell pepper, roasted garlic, mushrooms and 1 C (for 4 large potatoes) of shredded cheddar cheese. They're not the fat bombs my mom's were, that's for sure.