As I lost weight, I often thought about how to eat like a “regular” person. Not a regular person who goes out to eat 10 times a week or eats junk all day long – but a regular, healthy-minded person. I didn’t want to eat special food that was just intended for me. I wanted to lose weight using real food that I could continue eating if I ever got to my goal weight.
That desire made me avoid purchasing frozen diet meals, diet shakes or even traditional processed diet foods such as diet bars, etc. Instead, I worked within my own guidelines to fashion meals that worked for both myself and my family.
I found that it was important that we still ate together and still were able to enjoy some of our favorite meals. Not all – fried chicken and the like were definite no-no’s. But other dishes that we all enjoyed such as tacos, chicken pot pie, certain casseroles and pasta dishes were some that I didn’t want to give up.
So, like many of you, I substituted ingredients and played around with spices to bring the fat/calorie content down while still retaining the flavor of the dishes. My family never complained, so either I got close enough to the original that no one noticed, or the new improved dish was a good enough substitute!
I thought it might be helpful to post some of my normal substitutions and then enlist your help in seeing how you substitute foods in order to make your favorite dishes healthier.
Rarely, if ever saute’ in oil. I use homemade chicken broth or plain water.
Soak my own beans rather than use canned beans which are high in sodium.
Avoid adding butter or oil to most foods.
Use creamed soups very sparingly – like once or twice a year.
When making lasagna, I only sprinkle cheese on top – none in the middle.
Serve lots of vegetables and dish out small servings if the main dish is higher in calories.
For chicken pot pie, I don’t use a bottom crust, then use half a crust and cut it into strips.
Over the years, I can often look at a recipe and decide if I can make it healthier. Most of the time it works out – but we have had some dismal failures where we end up eating sandwiches for dinner!
How do you serve your family’s favorite foods in a healthier way? Diane
oooooh Im stealing the BEANS IDEA!!
For me I just do the best I can every day. Some days it’s butter and oil and others Im mixing ground flax seed and using that to replace eggs in a recipe.
Just try my best every day.
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my biggest change is not mixing thing together. I always use spaghetti example as it is the easiest to see. Sauce, meat, noodles, veggies all in different serving bowls. girls eat noodles and sauce together with veggies on the side. oldest eats veggies on side, then sauce, noodles, meat together. husband eats veggies and sauce and meat together. I eat sauce and veggies together.
one girl is a vegetarian;
one girl is a vegan;
I am partial vegetarian and watch carbs like crazy;
husband watches carbs like crazy;
oldest eats most everything.
We too do NOT heat oil in anyway. Use raw extra virgin olive oil on some things – but never heated (destroys the benefits of the healthy fat).
Eating mostly from home is one of the biggest positive changes we have made. We have a few places we will eat out as they are careful to cook to our specifications. Restaurant food was a BIG part of my weight problem.
Cooking vegetables in broth instead of oil is an interesting suggestion. I’ll have to try that!
Since I started losing weight the way I eat has changed almost entirely. I used to be a vegetarian and now I eat meat. So, I haven’t actually adapted many of my old stand by dishes to my new way of life. Instead, we’ve discovered new healthy dishes. I have thought that it might be time to go look at some of those old recipes though, and see if I can’t make them work for my way of eating now.
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Making meals to keep the whole family happy has been by far my greatest challenge! I have an extremely picky husband who also needs to lose weight. He gave me free reign to plan and cook our meals but it certainly wasn’t easy. He has flexed a lot but I still want him to be happy. I now have about 6 weeks worth of menus for each of us that are all pretty healthy, still allow a few treats and account for the fact that he’s larger than me (and thus, can eat more calories and slightly larger portions). With this I also have grocery lists already made that I can just print out. It took many MANY hours to prepare these menus but now it’s pretty easy. I love my system. I also keep my favorite recipes online in sparkpeople.com and track all of my daily food intake through there to make sure I’m staying in line.
In the end it’s worked well for me.
I don’t fry food anymore. The food I used to fry, I now cook in normal water and spice it up.
We love pasta dishes but these days we don’t grate a whole block of cheese over it anymore. In fact, we don’t eat any cheese or sauces with it anymore. Something to get used to but when use to it, it is really nice though.
We usually ate a lot of canned veggies. These days I buy the same veggies, just fresh or frozen and cook it my way with less salt/sodium.
Instead of using cream in a dish, I use natural yogurt.
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I add lots more vegetables to improve healthfulness and reduce calories. I make a meatloaf using either lean beef or turkey and add steamed chopped carrots, chopped peppers and onions, ground sun-dried tomatoes, canned chopped tomatoes and chopped (defrosted) frozen chard or collard greens so that the combined volume of vegetables is almost half. I use oatmeal soaked in milk in place of bread but season in the usual manner. We really enjoy this meatloaf, it’s moist and flavorful due to the vegetable content. I limit my carbs, so if I’ve got a craving for pasta I add enough vegetables so there are roughly equal volumes of pasta and vegetables. And sometimes when I want a particular food but in small quantity, I’ll add a bit to a salad. For example, our kids fly home at Christmas but not at Thanksgiving, when it’s just the two of us. So I make smoked turkey legs on the grill and serve with a mixed green salad with chopped vegetables, both dried and fresh fruit including cranberries, cubed roasted sweet potato and wild rice. The flavors of Thanksgiving without all the excess.
I do the same types of things in my food preparation and choices that you do, Diane! I’m really glad that we both found a way that works. I would venture a guess that it would work for anyone
I use a lot more FF or LF items like sour cream, cheese and then use them sparingly. I fry very very very seldom but will fake fry in the oven.
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I pan saute a lot, but I measure out the oil instead just dumping it in. I find I only need a teaspoon to give me that good flavor and color.
When I bake things, I swap out a lot of the fat for applesauce or pumpkin. Surprisingly, pumpkin doesn’t really taste like much in small amounts but add a lot of moistness.
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I use a refillable sprayer for my olive oil (like the Misto.) So when recipes call for 1-2 tbs of olive oil, I just spray my pan and that is normally enough oil for the whole dish.
I also use a smaller amount of full fat cheese rather than compromise by using more fat free cheese.
When recipes call for a certain amount of vegetables, I will always add more to help bulk up the dish without adding too many extra calories.
I think it’s also important to ease the family into healthier foods rather than spring tofu on them right away. I also make their old favorites every once in a while. I’m the one with the overeating issues, not them!
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I never thought I’d see myself saying this, but…
-I use whole wheat pasta now, which I rarely do pasta anyway.
-I substitute ground turkey for ground beef about 90% of the time. Or I have a boca burger myself while the family eats whole beef burgers.
-I have always soaked and cooked my own beans.
-I use turkey sausage in red beans and rice now.
I have to be honest and say there are some dishes I will not change because they just don’t taste the same without, let’s say, bacon. So, we eat smaller portions of those dishes.
Hey Diane, I am blessed with the most wonderful wife who cooks for me! The reason I am telling you this is because I am quite a capable cook as those were my first jobs for 10 years as a youth. Nowadays the only meals I cook are the holiday turkeys. No tofu coming anytime soon but I do use less margarine and the no hydrogenated oils at that.
So I guess I am saying that we splurge during holiday meals and are good the rest of the time. I’m a sandwich guy that eats a lot of boca, turkey, black bean because the wife and I like it and we lose weight.
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Diane.. like you, I do many of the same things.. when I cook!
For a suggestion on oil for some people, they sell those pump spritzers so that instead of using the yucky spray stuff like Pam, you can pour the oil in to this spritzer & use so much less then just dumping oil in plus a healthier alternative than those spray things…
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Hi, Diane. I actually am grateful for energy bars–although I don’t buy the “meal replacement” ones, I usually have a small bag of nuts, a snack sized energy bar, a piece of chicken/turkey/soy jerky and a small bag of crackers or pretzels in my purse or at my desk at work. Having found out that if I get ravenous, I am tempted to eat everything that’s not nailed down, and that if I’m walking around, I can get into melt down mode, it’s helpful to have things like bars even if they’re processed (although some are less so like Kind or Soyjoy.)
I used to eat more diet frozen meals for lunch when I was first learning portion control–I eat them more during winter when I don’t want to leave the office due to weather and want something hot and don’t have any leftovers. I have found that there are substitutions for most things–everything from using black beans in brownies to using Dreamfields pasta that has less available carbs. I now cook more than I used to. I have a lot of different condiments in my kitchen–different sauces, etc. I have a number of pump spray containers that you fill with oil and spray on rather than pour for my cooking oils. So I will saute with just a smidge of oil and then add broth which finishes the dish with steam.
I like websites and newsletters that have adapted recipes so I can enjoy healthier lighter meals. Eating Well and Cooking Light magazines’ recipes can be found on their sites, and there is Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien who has some fun substitutes for higher calorie things. For example, making a pumpkin “latte” with unsweetened almond milk and REAL canned pumpkin and a little stevia and pumpkin pie spice with your coffee has a lot more nutrition and a lot less calories than you can find at Starbucks… You can “faux fry” in the oven by dredging your chicken breast in egg whites/substitute and “breading” made with bran cereal and seasonings for less fat and more fiber… I also find recipes through several of the gals who blog about food and fitness.
The nice thing is that there are now a lot of options for those of us seeking healthier substitutions. There are now lots of thin buns and bagel thins so you don’t have to eat a huge gob of bread. Reduced fat cheeses abound. I think it’s easier to eat healthier without it feeling like “health food” than ever.
Hmm, I can’t say I make a bunch of changes. I just tend to select recipes that aren’t very bad to begin with. I will often substitute cream and half n’ half out for 2%, but I fully admit to using a lot of fat when cooking. Artificial junk is my bigger concern, so I’d rather make higher calorie, whole food from scratch for my family than lower calorie, nutritionally compromised stuff. Most of my standby recipes are less than 500 calories for a serving, including veggies and fruit on the side, so I don’t think I have a habit of cooking stuff that needs much modification.
One trick I do often use is feeding us all in individual bowls or divided plates. We tend to eat less main course and more veggies that way
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I find that adding veggies bulks up normally high calorie meals. Sometimes when we’re in a pinch, we’ll take a box of mac and cheese or pasta, throw in a ton of veggies and some tuna or chicken, and it makes a really quick and easy meal with at least some nutritional value.
Also, I love 96% ff beef or grass fed beef. I cannot do ground turkey (yuk), but we always make burgers or meatloaf or anything ground beef with the lowfat stuff.
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Good tips.
Thanks for sharing.
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Hm, I guess my challenges are a little different as my cooking (when I do it) is quite healthy already so no need to change recipes on that end. In fact, I would say you gotta be careful not to go over to the other extreme with this one:
Avoid adding butter or oil to most foods.
For me, it’s bad if I do not add oil to my (cooked in water) vegetables because then, I get too little fat and it results in extra cravings for sweets (which contain fat but of course, much less healthy!). YMMV.
I am very fond of having serving bowls on the table and only taking a little onto one’s plate at once. Helps pace yourself.
One trick I do often use is feeding us all in individual bowls or divided plates. We tend to eat less main course and more veggies that way
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I think it’s so important to make changes that you can live with forever. I also try to make vegetables and fruits the main part of our meals. Right now, I make a lot of “creamy” vegetable-based soups without cream by pureeing the veggies after cooking them with my immersion blender. We all love the soups, and it’s a great way to use up all the veggies in my CSA boxes. I also have a cheese crater that crates cheese very finely. I love cheese, but I try to only eat a little bit at a time, and very finely grated cheese is a great way to make it “go longer.”
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I use canned beans but I pay extra for the no salt added kind — same thing with canned tomatoes etc.
Everything is baked now…
In general, the tactic is to use the lesser evil of whatever options are at my disposal.
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Hm, I guess my challenges are a little different as my cooking (when I do it) is quite healthy already so no need to change recipes on that end. In fact, I would say you gotta be careful not to go over to the other extreme with this one:
Avoid adding butter or oil to most foods.
For me, it’s bad if I do not add oil to my (cooked in water) vegetables because then, I get too little fat and it results in extra cravings for sweets (which contain fat but of course, much less healthy!). YMMV.
I am very fond of having serving bowls on the table and only taking a little onto one’s plate at once. Helps pace yourself.
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