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Explanation about how healthy recipe choices can enhance permanent weight loss - Strategies for Staying Healthy. Also refer to beef, butter, oil, cottage cheese, mozzarella, bake, fry, mayonnaise, yogurt, pumpkin, Ron Kurtus, School for Champions. Copyright © Restrictions

Healthy Recipe Choices for Permanent Weight Loss

by Jill Fleming, MS, RD (7 August 2004)

The key to healthy cooking is to decrease the fat and calories while at the same time adding nutritional value to the food. You are only successful if you have not sacrificed the quality of the final product. I have a number of cooking tips that are healthy and will help you lose weight.

Questions you may have include:

• What are some good recipes?
• How do you keep track of healthy tips?
• Should I tell others how healthy the food is?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson. Health Disclaimer

Favorite tips

Here are my favorite tips:

Rinsing ground beef

Rinse your ground beef with hot water. Do this after browning and draining it. This will decrease the fat content in the meat by up to 50% without removing the flavor. Do not add your spices and vegetables until after you have rinsed the meat.

Substitute for butter

Substitute chicken broth for butter. This works well for all rice, pasta or stuffing dishes. Remember to spray your casserole dish with cooking spray to prevent sticking.

Sauté

Sauté in wine or chicken/beef broth instead of oil. This works well for a stir-fry.

Remove oil

Remove the oil from your marinade. Instead add something acidic such as fruit juice, nonfat Italian salad dressing or wine.

Substitute cottage cheese

Substitute nonfat cottage cheese for most of the cheese. This works well for the center layers of your pasta dishes, such as lasagna.

Substitute mozzarella

Substitute mozzarella cheese for cheddar cheese. This change will decrease the fat content by half.

Bake instead of deep-fried

Bake your favorite foods that are normally deep-fried:

Toss your food into a plastic bag that contains a beaten egg white.

Next, roll your pieces into finely ground, seasoned breadcrumbs.

Then arrange your pieces in a single layer onto a cooking sheet that has been lightly coated with canola oil (monounsaturated fat) cooking spray.

Bake your food at 350 degrees for anywhere from 7 to 40 minutes, depending on what you are oven-frying. Potatoes that have been cut into French fries will take the longest, whereas cheese curds will be done the quickest.

Use skim milk

Use skim milk instead of whole, 2% or 1%. You may not enjoy drinking skim milk, but in your recipes, you will not notice the difference. You will save 8 grams of fat per cup over whole milk.

Use light cream cheese

Use light cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese. You will not sacrifice taste with this substitute, yet you will cut your fat intake

Sour cream

Use fat free sour cream instead of regular sour cream. This is an excellent tip for vegetable dips.

Mayonnaise

Use reduced-fat mayonnaise or Miracle Whip Light instead of regular mayonnaise. Fat free mayonnaise and fat free Miracle Whip taste synthetic.

Substitute with yogurt

Substitute with yogurt or pumpkin for oil in your baked goods. This will add nutritional value to your cake, muffins or brownies as well as remove the fat. This substitute does not work well for cookies, as they will become more cake-like.

Use egg whites

Use 2 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg. This will work for the majority of your recipes.

Record your changes

Record your recipe changes. Keep 3x5 index cards in your kitchen. Record your recipe changes while you are cooking, including baking temperature and time. Once your family has tasted the recipe, make comments on the bottom of the card. If the product needs to be revised further, you will have a starting point.

Don't brag

Don’t tell everyone that the food is healthy! Resist the urge to brag about your healthy dish. Most people who are told that they are eating something "good for them" will immediately think that the food is bland or not as good as the original.

Summary

Even if you only use a few of these simple healthy cooking choices, you can dramatically reduce your overall fat intake.  Fad diets will come and go, but a low-fat diet that is full of fruits and vegetables continues to be the best proven method of weight loss and disease prevention.

Answers to Readers' Questions

You get more energy when you eat good food

Resources

The following are resources on this subject.

Websites

Foodfit.com - Healthy cooking and eating

HealthRecipes.com - Good listing of recipes

General Health Resources

Books

Thin People Don't Clean Their Plates: Simple Lifestyle Choices for Permanent Weight Loss by Jill Fleming; Inspiration Presentations Press (2005) $22.95 - Common sense guideline to making permanent changes in one's lifestyle and body.

Top-rated books on General Healthy Diets

Top-rated books on General Health

Miscellaneous

Mini-quiz to check your understanding

1. What does rinsing ground beef with hot water do?

2. What can you substitute for oil when you bake?

3. What is wrong with telling people the food is good for their health?

If you got all three correct, you are on your way to becoming a Champion in being Healthy. If you had problems, you had better look over the material again.

Author

Jill Fleming is a Registered Dietitian with a Masters degree in Nutrition. She is a highly sought-after inspirational weight loss speaker who motivates individuals to take control of their weight using simple lifestyle choices, called THIN CHOICES.  She has been teaching these successful weight loss techniques for the past 11 years. 

She is the author of the book Thin People Don't Clean Their Plates. Jill feels that she is the bridge between thin people and those who want to be thin.  Jill can teach anyone these non-diet strategies through her seminars and her book. Jill can help you cross the bridge to begin living and looking like the thin person that is waiting inside of you.

For more information on how to request Jill to speak at your organization’s next gathering, go to www.thinchoices.com , call toll free (866) 482-1159 or email Jill directly at Jill@thinchoices.com.  Jill is also available to answer your weight loss questions at the website. 

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Healthy Recipe Choices for Permanent Weight Loss