Since people have started talking about low-fat cooking in another
item, it seemed appropriate to have an item specifically geared
to low-fat cooking and other tips for paring down the fat in your
diet.

38 responses total.

I'd like to hear what other people put on bread and bagels and
such if they don't use butter (or margarine)...  I know bread
(esp. whole grain bread) is a wonderful addition to the diet,
but lots of butter is *not*, yet I really love bread with butter.
Help!

Try jelly only; no fat.

Sliced bananas and a drizzle of honey.  Add a few sunflower 
seeds and you have breakfast.  The butter or margarine isn't
missed at all.  I've also developed a fondness for the fake
cream cheese products; they're not fat-free but they are much
lower.

There are also no-fat cheese food products.  They don't taste like cheese,but
they are something rather than nothing.

I was at Williams-Sonoma today while they were doing a demo-tasting
of a pecan pumpkin butter spread.  The ingredients: pumpkin, sugar,
lemon juice, pecan and spices.  That's it, so other than whatever
fat is naturally in the pecans there shouldn't be much to count.
I tried it spread on a piece of whole wheat bread and it was 
very tasty, enough so that I purchased a 14 ounce jar for $6.50.

Some of this same spread had been added to bread which was
brewing in their bread machine but I didn't stay around to taste it.

Just this PM I bought no fat Philly Cream Cheese (whipped) at Merchant of
Vino and spread on a multigrain dark bread, it was quite good.  I fantasized
the real Phildelphia Cream Cheese taste and just about made it.  Those
of us who adore cheese really have a hard time reducing fat intake but
maybe P&G's "simplesse" when its in production with the right spices, will
be a good substitute.  Of course, in a few years they'll discover that
low fat diets cause warts.

Almost warts, but not quite.  You may notice your skin getting rougher, and
there might be hardened fat (I don't know what you call them) coming out
of your skin pores after accumulating there for a while.  I think most women
are familiar with the process of cleaning that with certain cosmetics anyway.
But the lowered fat intake seems to create more of the hardened kind of it.

Today I purchased one of those cone-shaped filters which are used
to drain moisture from yogurt leaving behind something that's more
the consistency of a thick sour cream or cream cheese.  I've tasted
a spinach dip that was made using this condensed yogurt and it was very
good.  Has anyone had any experience with this product?

No.  Where did you get it?

Kitchen Port, $9.95.  Think I'll try it out tomorrow with orange
and poppyseed muffins - the recipe calls for sour cream and I'll
substitute this yogurt cheese.

I haven't used it personally, but two dairy-fiend friends of mine
have, and recommend them highly.

Well, I ended up making Dried Cherry muffins instead, adding a full
cup of yogurt cheese instead of buttermilk, and decreasing the amount 
of oil.  They came out quite good, with what I'd describe as a sour
cream-like tartness.  

I've never used the special cone things...  I've been making
yogurt cheese for years using a colander lined with plain
white paper towels.  works great!  I've used this stuff as
a substitute for mayo in several cold bean and rice type
salads (I despise mayo).  It works very well.  It's also
nice as a substitute for sour cream on top of chili and the
like.

  I thought that this sort of thing was what cheesecloth was for..

That's what I've always used, Mike.  

Cheesecloth is great, if you have some.  Most of the times that I
get inspired to make yogurt cheese, I don't have any cheesecloth.
I actually have some on hand right now, since I bought it 
especially for a recipe.

Well, I'd never heard of this until recently and am pleased with
this filter cone.  When the cheese is done the cone gets popped into
the dishwasher until the next time it's needed.  When the yogurt cheese
is mixed with a little cinnamon sugar it's especially nice on thick
toast or bagels.  So far I've been using it up fast enough that it
hasn't gone bad.  How long will yogurt cheese keep, refrigerated?

I've had some in the past that lasted for several weeks...  It may
have gotten a bit sourer toward the end, though I'm not sure.

I just got a Graham Kerr catalog, and he sells a yogurt strainer.
Looks interesting.  I might order one, just to avoid using up
paper towels.

Speaking of low fat foods. . .I sent to H & H Bagels in NYC for three dozen
of the World's Best Bagels and they were delivered to my house in less than
24 hours.  They are low fat but when one eats three or four at a sitting, I
guess that doesn't much matter.  Let me tell you folks, for low fat these are 
heaven.  Even with lowfat cream cheese.

my mom lives one block away from H & H bagels.
definitely a yummy neighborhood to grow up in!

Would someone else please start a more up-to-date Fate Free Item?  I would
be interested in reading and/or contributing to it...er Fat Free!

Why not just add responses to this item?  Having two or more items
about the same subject is confusing.  Just because there hasn't been
any activity for several months doesn't mean you can't revive this item,
either.

Definitely!
Tom - you also might want to see the "Updating recipes for the 1990's"
item, if you haven't run across it already.  It's got some discussion
of low-fat recipe modifications, etc.

Fat Free items are fine for the cooking conference, but Fate Free items
belong in enigma.

It seems to be our Fate that the Fat Free cheese items have corn
products in them instead (ALLERGY ALERT) ...  so continue avoiding 
dairy, which is sensible for our family during colds-&-flu season anyway.

another pern allergic to corn products? wow  - i thought that
one pern allergic to corn products was "way out."  Friend of
mine is quite allergic - maybe the two of you ought to exchange notes?

Corn allergy is not that uncommon.  I was mildly sensitive as a
youngster but seem to have outgrown it.

It seems to be much more common than is recognized.  I don't know if the
life-threatening-symptoms variety is common, but when I cut out corn trying
to mitigate a lot of abdominal distress, not only did it help with that
but also with insomnia, heart pounding, night sweats, & that type of thing.
(**Dramatic** difference.)  Both our kids show behavioral reactions which
sure look similar.

Hard rolls (You know, from the east). I live in northern Michigan and can,t
even buy a decent loaf of bread. I have been dying for a hard roll. I need a
recipe before I go crazy. I have a oven that can handle it. Please!

if you have a julia child's cookbook, check in there...she has the BEST
hard-roll/french bread recipe...i'll find it and post in a day or two.
one quick note, though:  NOT low fat in any way shape or form.

Bill, you can use a white break recipe or french bread recipe.  While
the bread is in the oven, mist it with COLD water 2 or 3 times while
baking.  You will get a hard crust on your rolls or bread this way. (But
they will not get very brown).

<abchan looks around and wonders if anyone has any more advice about cutting
down on fat as she is attempting to lose some weight (doctor's orders)>

<remmers advises abchan to cut down on the fudge (just read item
 55 resp 17)>

Abchan, check the health conf dieting item.
Best low-fat tip I have: discover friut.

Re: 33 <abchan informs remmers that this fudge was for  a special occasion
and that before this past week, she hadn't had fudge in over two years> :)

Re: 34 I don't suppose the dieting item is linked here or anything... is it?
Fruit is good but the problem is that with my erratic lifestyle, I need to
carry around bags of fruit to eat it or I'll forget it's in the fridge and
it'll go bad.  But it's a thought.

There are some fairly portable fruit variants, such as little boxes of
raisins, or baby carrots (okay, so they're a vegetable, not a fruit), apples,
and little tubs of apple sauce.  Dunno if any of those help....

Fruit can have a high sugar content, esp. things like raisins that are
concentrated by some process or another.

Carrying around bags of fruit and veggies is more trouble, but it's mostly
likely the easiest way of getting lighter food into your diet.

There is a fairly new item called Vruit, which is a vegetable/fruit juice.
It comes in little portable boxes and is great for times when you were going
to do something stupid like eat a candy bar.  

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