HOW TO TURN YOUR FAVORITE MEALS INTO NEGATIVE CALORIE EFFECT MEALS

Don’t throw away that old family recipe. Chances are you can modify it, turning a fattening food into a fat-burning food. If you cut out the fatty ingredients, you cut out a lot of useless calories. And if you boost the complex carbohydrates, you can increase your metabolism, helping you burn calories faster.

Doing that means substituting other ingredients in place of meats, dairy products, and oils, which tend to be very fatty and have no complex carbohydrate at all. Sometimes just one or two changes is all you need. Other times, you will want to give a recipe a major facelift.

In the following pages, you will find everything you need to get started: easy tips for modifying recipes, twelve sample recipes that show just how to do it, plus nutrition analyses that show how well you can get rid of extra calories and fat.

The idea is not to eliminate all the calories from your recipes. The important thing is to reduce the fat content and to build in more calorie-burning complex carbohydrate.

Reducing Fats and Oils

Fats and oils are the most calorie-dense parts of any food, with 9 calories per gram, compared to only 4 calories per gram of carbohydrate or protein.

       •  When you fry foods, use a nonstick pan. Avoid deep frying. If you need to add a little oil to prevent sticking, use a spray oil.

       •  Remember to sauté onions and garlic or other vegetables in water instead of oil. Just simmer a quarter-cup of water in a saucepan, and add the vegetables, heating for about five minutes. Or, for a little extra flavor, use vegetable stock, wine, or dry sherry.

       •  Steaming or baking add no fat at all. Steamer racks work wonderfully for vegetables.

       •  When you bake, the amount of oil or shortening in recipes is often arbitrary and can easily be cut in half or less, with no noticeable change in the taste. Sometimes you can leave it out altogether, and substitute mashed banana, applesauce, or canned pumpkin.

       •  For pies, leave off the top crust. A fat-free pie crust can be made by mixing one cup of Grape-Nuts cereal and a quarter-cup of apple juice concentrate, patting the mixture into a piepan, and baking for ten minutes. Let it cool before you fill it.

       •  Add a sprinkle of lemon or lime to green vegetables or salads, instead of butter or oil. Delicious fat-free salad dressings are now available at all grocery stores.

       •  In salad dressing recipes, use water, vegetable stock, or seasoned rice vinegar instead of oil.

       •  In sauce recipes made with flour, liquid, and oil or fat, you can easily leave out the oil or fat. Toast the flour in a dry pan over medium heat to brown it, then add the liquid and seasonings called for in the recipe. Stir with a whisk to remove lumps, and heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.

       •  When nuts or peanut butter are used in recipes, they add loads of fat. You can omit them, or replace them with crunchy vegetable or fruit chunks, or Grape-Nuts cereal, depending on the type of recipe you are making.

Replacing Meat

Remember that when you replace meats, chicken, and fish with healthier ingredients, your waistline gets a real break, because all meats have substantial amounts of fat and not a speck of calorie-burning complex carbohydrate. Health food stores have products that make the switch easy.

       •  A full range of meatless hot dogs, burgers, and luncheon “meats” is available. Most are made from soybeans or wheat, and many are fat-free. Try different brands. Many are as tasty as they are healthful.

       •  To replace ground beef in spaghetti sauce, chili, sloppy joes, etc., use texturized vegetable protein (TVP). It is a fat-free soy product that is virtually indistinguishable from ground beef.

       •  To replace chunks of meat in stews, soups, or stir-fries, try seitan. It is an amazing product, made from wheat. Like TVP, it is fat-free and very much like the real thing.

       •  Tempeh is made from soybeans. It is typically marinated in soy sauce or other sauces and then grilled or barbecued. Health food stores also sell it already marinated in burger sizes. You just heat it in your toaster oven, and slip it in a bun.

       •  Instead of meat in tacos or chili, use pinto or black beans.

Replacing Dairy Products

Most dairy products are loaded with fat, and even the skim versions have no complex carbohydrate at all. Here are healthier choices.

       •  Health food stores now stock a huge range of delicious milk substitutes. Choose those with the lowest fat content. Making the transition from cow’s milk to soy or rice milk is as easy as switching from whole milk to skim.

       •  You will also find many ice cream and yogurt substitutes, some of which are zero fat.

       •  To add a cheeselike taste to pizza, spaghetti, or casseroles, try nutritional yeast flakes (not baking or brewer’s yeast), which are sold at all health food stores.

       •  For soup recipes that normally call for cream or butter, a potato provides a neat trick. Dice and boil a potato until it is just tender. Then put the potato and its cooking water into a blender, puree it, and add it to the soup.

Replacing Eggs

Eggs are loaded with fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, none of which help your waistline—or your arteries—at all.

       •  For binding loaves or burgers, try cooked oatmeal, mashed potato, fine bread crumbs, or tomato paste.

       •  For baking recipes that call for one or two eggs, just leave them out, and add a little extra water to keep the intended moisture content. If more than two eggs are called for, commercial egg replacers are available at health food stores, or substitute the following for each egg:

           •  an egg-sized piece of mashed banana, applesauce, canned pumpkin, or pureed soft tofu

           •  a tablespoon of flaxseeds with ¼ cup water, pureed in a blender

           •  2 tablespoons cornstarch

           •  1 tablespoon soy flour mixed with 2 tablespoons water.