Reply #39: I tend to find recipes I know I like and then adapt them. But I've learned a few tips

[grace0418]

if you're interested. If you're looking for recipes, I was surprised to find that many recipes in Cooking Light magazine are not too bad, and can be adapted to be even healthier.

Anyway, one easy tip is this: substitution can make most recipes much healthier. Try replacing white rice with brown rice. Many restaurants even offer this as an option now. Replace pasta and bread with 100% whole grain pasta and bread. The 100% whole grain part is key, because many, many breads out there say "whole wheat" or "multi-grain". The problem is that companies can put that label on their bread even if the bread is 99% refined white flour and 1% whole wheat. That's when reading labels becomes very important. If you're near a Trader Joe's, their sprouted grain breads are FANTASTIC (and I was a person who hated the idea of switching to bread full of "branches and twigs"), low cal, low carb, high fiber. Replace white potatoes with sweet potatoes. Forget marshmallows, just roast them to bring out their natural sweetness and mash them with a little extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, and chili powder. The spicy kick is a great counterpoint to the rich sweetness. Replace iceberg lettuce with baby spinach or arugula or mesclun to get more nutrition from your salads. Replace refined white sugar with agave nectar, and use less. It's all natural, low-glycemic (good for diabetics), and tastes so much better than any of those awful fake sweeteners.

Get to know the "superfoods" and eat them often. Some are beans, berries, tofu, walnuts, almonds, kale and other dark greens, broccoli, yogurt (not the stuff with oreo cookies, of course), salmon, oats, flax seed meal, garlic, sweet potatoes, avocado, tomato. The lists vary a bit, but I find these foods on most lists. Fortunately, I really like many of these foods, so it's really not such a hardship to work them into my diet.

Lastly, here's a few tricks, if not full on recipes...

Thicken soups and sauces with pureed beans. I buy cans of beans when they're on sale and keep them around for convenience when I don't have time to cook them from dried. I just take the lid off, stick my immersion blend right in the can, and puree them. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can process them or use a regular blender, but ask for an immersion blender on your next birthday. They are a wonderful, incredibly useful tool for making lots of healthy dishes. Anyway, back to the puree...just pour it into your soup or sauce to get the desired thickness and added health benefits.

Sprinkle flax see meal over just about anything, yogurt, salad, soup, cereal. It's incredibly good for you and has a nutty taste and texture.

Chop veggies into bite-size chunks. Carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, asparagus, brussels sprouts, eggplant, beets, cauliflower, almost any veggie you like will work. Toss with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh or dried herbs that you like, and lay them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Put in the oven anywhere from 350 to 400, if you're baking something else, you just have to watch them. Roast until they are soft and nicely caramelized. Put them in a big bowl on the table. People will DEVOUR them. They are good hot, cold and room temperature. Leftovers are good in salads, wraps and pasta sauces.

Used mashed avocado instead of mayonnaise. It's still got calories, so use sparingly, but it's got a lot more nutrition and healthy fats.