Among other things, a proper diet is important for health.  What are
everybody's favorite decently healthy recipes?  

49 responses total.

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I've been making soups which are meatless and lower or non-fat.
Soups that normally are rich with cream, now cream-less but still
have the same texture (hint: canned evaported *skim* milk).
Soups without meat.  Soups with more beans.

Also, I've been again putzing with my crock-pot, putting together
lower-fat meals that will cook while I'm at work and be ready to
serve without hassle.  Most of these recipes are working just fine
but crock-pots are a little unpredictable, so there have been a 
couple of disposal masterpieces.

I learned early on that uncooked beans, rice or pastas don't cook well in a
slow cooker or crock pot and these seem to be the staple or filler in many
lower fat recipes...simply use canned beans or cook up your beans, rice and
pasta ahead of time to be added as needed. also larger chunks of vegetables
don't cook well.  and raw fresh vegetables and  quicker cooking ones combined
don't work one is mushy the other too hard..:) If you are converting a recipe
simply adjust a bit and it should turn out great and much more  conveinent...

You are right, crock-pot recipes are not easily converted from 
oven recipes.  So I bought this little recipe book that does all
translating, and so far so good.  

We've also been experimenting with homemade pizza.  Cheeseless
vegetable pizzas, focaccias, Boboli shells with non-fat cheeses,
and goat cheese on pita pizzas.  Fun stuff.

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thankyou for linking it, valerie....i've been being brainless lately.  :)

have you figured out how to make a foccia with less oil? much as i love the
stuff, it's just got so much....

red beans and rice....YUM!!!!!  :)
and low fat and everythng!!!

No trick, really.  Just omit or use less oil.  With focaccia
it's all added to the top, along with salt, and I just don't
add what I don't want.

Everytime I hear the word "focaccia" I smile.

Eh?  I don't think I quite got that ...

I still use boxed brownie mixes, but I never use the oil they call for...I
always use water and the brownies always turn out just dandy!

That was a "no fat" comment by remmers.

  This isn't a recipe, but I find that I'm a lot more apt to eat
carrots if I buy the bags of pre-peeled carrot pieces.  I go
through a bag of those pretty quickly, while unpeeled carrots
sometimes turn colors other than orange before I throw them out.

freida, I have been told you can substitute lowfat mayonase or applesauce for
the oil in a devil's food cake or brownie mix and the results will be moist
and delicious.

hey headdoc, the applesauce sounds good, but not the mayo...

Applesauce works, and so does prune puree - the cookbook I have with 
that sort of translation infoormation recommends baby food prunes. I've

tried a cake made with applesauce, I think, and it was nummy. (Applesauce
will work in anything baked, just about, but the prunes need to be
masked by the dark color of the chocolate.)

Cathy what is the name of the cookbook you use?
mayonaise doesn't have that mayonaise tase besides most is made with egg and
oil I don't know what low fat is made with however.

hi cathy!!!!!  :)  i wondered if that was you, but marc never told me that
you had shown up, so now i know.  :)   (wave!!!)

i;ve seen things with prune puree, but i haven't tried anything yet, due to
lck of time....:)

on the other hand, i did try my hand at bagels again...and it seems to be
fairly healthy, as it only contains 1 egg....:)

The cookbook is 'Healthy Homestyle Cooking' by...umm...Evelyn Tribole (not
sure on the first name but the last is right). I haven't had a chance to
try much from it, but I'd recommend it based on what I have.

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with egg whites i believe you are susposed to whip them a bit before adding
or add water to it..in cake recipes when you  use egg whites in place of oil
and  yolks of he eggs they usually add water.
now on some recipes subsitutiing lower fat items doesn't always work..like
a low fat butter doesn't work in some baked goods with out some adjusting.
don't know about low fat mayo or even fat free..
all in all it tekes taking the time to experiment or prepare something I have
been lazy about..:(

I have read that Applesauce can be used to replace I believe the eggs in some
recipes...or maybe...oh I forget...I'll have to ask my wife...
bbl

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Honey needs to hunt up her applesauce subsitute recipes cookbook for bubu
and anyone else who needs a recipe

Can  somebody give me a calories  list?

Calorie lists can be hundreds of pages long.  Your most comprehensive source
is the USDA list, The Nutritive Value of Common Foods.  Other, smaller lists
are available at every supermarket checkout counter.

There are probably websites that list calories as well (help me here, you
advanced technology types).

A word of advice though:  Calorie counts are not very helpful when choosing
foods. If I could only get one piece of information about a food, I would ask
for grams of fat per serving.  And usually you will want to know the
carbohydrate and protein content as well.  A 100 calorie potato chip is NOT
an equal alternative to a 100 calorie apple, or carton of yogurt.  

Try http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/   You can get calories for
different quantitites of practically any food you can imagine. Also, all other
nutritional values of that food. (1 kumquat = 63 kcal...)

  I must be misreading that..  A single kumquat = 63,000 calories?
  With that much energy I'd think there'd be some way to use them
  as a weapon..

kcal = kilocalorie = Calorie.  The calorie is the "natural" unit of 
measure in physics and the defined scientific standard worldwide, but the
kcal is more convenient in dietary usage.  Things get abbreviated with use,
and calorie has come to mean kcal when the subject is food.

Exactly. I was pleased that that site has adopted correct terminology.  A
calorie is 4.184 joules (exactly). The use of the term calorie for the
kilocalorie in diet needs to be abandoned. Perhaps the best thing would be
to just go directly to stating energy quantities in joules, and avoid the
confusion of calorie vs kilocalorie completely.

Given the bigger numbers that would result and America's generally high
stupidity inertial coefficient, I'd look for that change to be made about
the same time as the conversion to 100-minute hours...

btw... here's another good site for food/nutrition info:
        http://www.phys.com/

re:0, I'm not sure that I have a favorite 'healthy' recipe yet. But in the
past few months, I've been doing a bit more cooking from 'scratch' instead
of strictly frozen, canned, or premade food items. I've also cut way down on
my pop and instead, am drinking a lot more water. So in the past couple months
or so, I've lost about 10-12 pounds. Which means I need to keep on cooking
on my own on a regular basis. Oh, and I've cut down somewhat on my fastfood
meals as well.  :-)

Another grex lost even more than that by giving up pop and getting some
exercise.  Congratulations on making these changes and sticking to it.

congratulations denise!

Thanks! :-)  This is partly why I've been posting/asking so many questions
about cooking and food lately! Once I get a couple other projects out of the
way, I'll try and spend a bit more time trying to focus on the exercise thing,
too.

Muscles burn fat.

That "fact" has recently come under scrutiny and is now being questioned.

"Another grex lost even more than that by giving up pop and getting some
exercise."   I'm sure there probably has been. :-)  But as long as I'm not
gaining any more and even better is the losing some is fine with me. I'll be
even happier if it continues, even if its at a somewhat slower rate so the
weight will stay off.  In time, I'll be trying to incorporate more exercise
in my day to day life. But for now, one step at a time [no pun intended]; I
want/need to be comfortable with my current goals [more goals than just the
food aspect] and keeping them going before I add something else. I'm prone
to getting overwhelmed pretty easily and then I'm apt to do nothing at all.

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