I have been mildly obsessed with Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen. It's probably more of a pipe dream I have of Cooking Network stardom (The Food Network is for sell-outs ha!)...anyway, although I love this book and have currently made 12 recipes from it, it's not exactly friendly to those getting married, on diets or just wanting to see their feet on a daily basis.
How the heck is one supposed to lighten up a recipe?
Here are a few rules:
*Once you figure out cooking, you'll realize that a recipe is something...of a guideline. Baking is an exact science and because I find rules to be confining to development within Maslow's higherarchy of needs, I typically throw them out the door. I have also jacked up several recipes over the course of my life time so proceed with caution.
- If a recipe calls for oil in the pan you can get away with non-stick spray. This will net you 100-200+ Calories saved in a dish.
- Use low-fat dairy in just about everything except for cream sauces. I suggest using 75% of the cream a recipe calls for (you can play around with half and half too).
- Old favorites like Velveeta Shells and Cheese can actually not be as horrific for you as the food label indicates, use about 3/4 the amount of the fake cheese packet and during your last minute of cooking: throw in a bag of frozen broccoli to cook with the pasta, drain and throw in the 'liquid gold'. This will save about 50-75 Calories per serving and makes your measly 1 cup portion grow to about 1 2/3 cups for the same 250-300 Calories.
- You can throw a bag (or two or three) of frozen vegetables in about any pasta recipe.
- Whip can icing with a hand held mixer for 1 minute and gently fold in 1 cup of low calorie frozen whipped topping, this cuts icing calories on desserts.
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| Let's Go Pens! |
