| 10 Tips for Making Healthier Meals | |
By selecting healthier fare when you go for another helping instead of the entrée, you'll take in fewer extra calories and fat while adding more fiber. A second round of small portions of a variety of dishes will be much more satisfying than a little more of the main dish.
An even better alternative to second helpings is to get up and get your mind off eating. Taking a walk or playing with the family pet are great diversions. By moving on, you may find you're not still hungry after all, and forgo seconds entirely.
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Pretend you've gone vegetarian for a while. If you're still hungry after the main course, choose vegetables as seconds, rather than meat- or bread-based dishes. Try to choose healthier options like steamed or boiled veggies instead of casseroles or those topped off with butter or cheese.
Got milk? Trade it in for the powdered variety when baking and you'll save yourself a lot of fats and calories. A visitor wrote in to suggest that using evaporated skim milk in her favorite recipes instead of cream or milk has been one of the changes that led her to an 80 pound weight loss! Add equal parts water to replace milk or use it straight from the can as a substitute in recipes calling for heavy cream.
Instead of pie or cake for dessert, offer fruit-based fare like fondue, fruit cocktail, yogurt parfait, or, simply a fresh piece fruit. Not only will this reduce the fat and calorie content of your meal's finale, most folks find fruit more refreshing than sweets. After all, by dessert we're usually eating out of sheer habit anyway, not from hunger, so why "waist" the calories? You'll be surprised at how easy it really is to satisfy your sweet tooth.
When making sundaes for the kids, choose sugar free ice cream or reduced- or non-fat frozen yogurt. Non-fat, reduced-calorie whipped topping is almost identical in flavor and texture to its higher-calorie counterpart. Try topping sundaes with all-fruit spread rather than chocolate or caramel syrup. If portions tend to get out of control, serve less ice cream in smaller dishes.
Try some fat-fighting baking substitutions: Use 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder to replace 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate in desserts; crushed graham crackers are a healthier alternative to pie crusts; replace 1 egg with 2 egg whites or ¼ cup of egg substitute; replace half of the oil in dessert recipes with an equal amount of unsweetened applesauce; use reduced- or non-fat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream on pies.
