Many people shy away from trying to make their favorite recipes healthier out of fear that they won’t taste as good.  Many substitutions in your favorite recipes are un-noticeable to your taste buds but can make a great impact on improving your health.

Try some of these simple tips the next time you’re in the kitchen:

• Reduce the fat but keep the taste and texture
• Use lite cream cheese, cottage cheese, feta cheese, or ricotta cheese.  You will keep the texture and taste while cutting fat.
• Use skim milk or 1% milk instead of whole milk.  If a recipe calls for heavy cream, use a lower fat milk and add some flour to thicken the consistency.
• Replace some or all of the butter with a substitute (e.g. Sunsweet Lighter Bake – made from fruit) or unsweetened applesauce.
  
• Reduce the sugar but keep the sweetness
• You can reduce the amount of sugar in a recipe by 1/3 to ½ by using other flavorings.  For example, cinnamon or vanilla extract will enhance sweetness.
  
• Reduce the salt
• Most baking recipes call for salt, but it often isn’t needed or can be cut in half.  The exception is for recipes calling for yeast; for these the full amount of salt is needed for proper leavening.
  
• Go exotic
• Try experimenting with spices used in other countries.  Using flavorful seasonings like curry or garlic can make a dish tasty and reduce the need for salt, sweet and fat (the typical seasonings of choice for the American diet) by one-half except in baked good that require yeast. Recipes with yeast need the full amount of salt for leavening.

For more tips on healthier cooking, try “Recipe Makeovers: 5 Ways to Make Your Recipes Healthier” from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recceipes/NU00584.