The countdown to Christmas has begun and so too is the planning for your party menu. There are many healthy alternatives to the traditional Christmas dinner. But there are also some fantastic Party Food Recipes for this busy season.
You don’t have to use an ingredient just because it is called for in a recipe. By substituting or reducing ingredients, you can modify your favorite recipes to make them healthier or less fat. This fact sheet shows you how to reduce the amount of sugar, salt, and calories in your recipes.
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Plan ahead and buy the foods you need to lose weight or control calories. Stick to the list.
Purchase low-fat dairy products, such as skimmed milk.
Fish and poultry are lower in saturated fat than red meat.
The majority of salad dressings sold in stores are mostly fats, and the oil is the main source. Some contain cream, eggs and cheese. Water is usually the first ingredient in a fat-free dressing, followed by sugar (in any form), vinegar, and spices. Corn syrup, spices and lemon juice or tomato sauce are sometimes added to a fat-free dressing.
Buy skinless, lean portions of chicken and grind it yourself at home to ensure that the ground meat you consume is low in fat.
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Skewers – They allow you to control your portion size and burn fat instantly. You can have a few bites of fish or meat, while the bulk of your meal is colorful vegetables like capsicum, cherry tomatoes, onions, quarters and corn.
Roasting rack: This fat-reducing device works by allowing the fat to drip into a pan beneath the elevated rack. The roast is left with less fat compared to if the meat was allowed sit in its own grease.
Nonstick Cookware:A pan with a non-stick surface allows you to cook your food using only a thin layer of oil. Instead of frying a chicken breast and coating it with batter, you could sauté it in a nonstick pan to virtually eliminate fat.
A cheese grater: This will allow you to measure the right amount of cheese. The most popular types of this type of cheese can have as much fat as marbling red meat. The grater must also include a slicer to make ultra-thin slices of cheese with less effort than using a knife.
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Avoid butter, lard, and other sources of fat whenever possible. Replace them with unsaturated fatty acids, such as olive oil or corn oil. Vegetables, oils like corn oil, groundnut, safflower, sunflower or olive oil.
Instead of deep frying onion rings, bake them for a steak side dish.
Toast bread cubes instead of frying them to make croutons.
In recipes for cookies and cakes, replace one whole egg by two egg whites. The yolk contains the fat and cholesterol.
Use sweet spices like cinnamon and allspice to compensate for the flavor that is lost as fat is reduced. Orange rind can also add flavour.
You can use fruit-juice to replace some of the fats in cake.
Try making pies with a single crust. For example, you can use 1 cup of crumbs from cream crackers and 3 tablespoons soft margarine.
Soft drop cookies are generally lower in fat than rolled biscuits.
Dressings
Change the proportions to give your old Vinaigrette an updated, slimmer look. Try a ratio of one to one instead of the usual three to one. The standard version has 90 calories per teaspoon. You’ll get about 30 calories instead.
To get a thick, creamy texture for dressings and dips you can use low-fat cottage or cream cheese, low-fat yogurt or skimmed milk as the base. Flavor with herbs and spices.
Sauces & Dips
Try pureed red peppers instead of tartar sauce heavy on mayonnaise for fish.
Beans give dips a creamy texture, without adding fat. Try this hors-d’oeuvre: pureed kidney beans with red chilly powder and powdered cumin seeds, along with lime juice, olive oils, and salsa. Add chopped onion and coriander to the mix.
Beat a cup yogurt cheese with a few tablespoons chopped spring onions.
Fill up the Fiber
Baked goods with whole grains, such as crack-wheat or oatmeal muffins.
Fruits set in jellies can be substituted for fruit juices.
Sprinkle bran over soups, sandwiches, and sliced fruits …. You can use bran for just about any purpose you desire.
