It's the Little Things that Count

Here's something you might want to hear: You can have your cake... and eat it too! (and NO, it does not have to be topped with brussel sprouts like this one for it to be okay. Every once in awhile, its okay to have a cheat meal or treat yourself. In fact, your body may actually get confused and you may have a spike it your metabolism if you eat well otherwise. Everyone needs a little healthy fat in their diet every once in awhile for many processes and reasons. Also, mentally everyone needs to have a little something to indulge in... like I have previously stated, within reason. Obviously you should go for healthier options the majority of the time, but we all slip up every once in awhile...

One great solution to this problem is making SMALL changes to your cooking/baking to make the overall result much better for you (AND STILL TASTE GOOD!) Just because something is made with olive oil instead of butter or stevia instead of sugar doesn't mean its going to be a total let down of a dish.
I remember when I was training I would still cook with lots of color, spices, and pizazz to keep my healthy food delicious. People would always tell me my meals looked surprisingly good for how healthy they had to be.
Try some of these substitutions in your next dish!:

• Use unsweetened applesauce or plain nonfat yogurt (or even avocado) instead of butter or oil in baking recipes. It keeps things moist, and naturally sweetens it.
• Always try to avoid butter at all costs. (SORRY Paula Deen...) Depending on what you are cooking use olive oil, canola oil, or even a smart balance or earth balance butter substitute if you have to. You can easily sautee and stir fry without oil by using pam and adding small amounts of water as necessary.
• Instead of cream or full fat milk, try using evaporated nonfat milk or regular nonfat milk accordingly.
• Try reducing the amount of sugar in things. Most recipes call for more sugar than is necessary. You can also use a splenda/stevia blend, agave, honey, or sugar free maple syrup in place of brown sugar. You usually don't need to add as much with these as you would with sugar.
• Unless it will totally change the texture or binding agents of your recipe try substituting 2 egg whites for 1 egg.
• Sour cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, and cheeses of all types can all be replaced with low or even fat free versions! The amount of calories you can save by switching is astounding.
• Instead of fat to thicken recipes like soups try using a vegetable puree.
• Top pancakes with things like berries, sugar-free syrup, or nonfat yogurt.
• Instead of heavy salad dressings and dips try topping with salsa, hummus, or a homemade balsamic vinegar, garlic, spice and mustard puree.
• Replace white flour with whole wheat flour, oats, or oat flour.
• Replace enriched white rice with brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat cous cous, jasmine rice, wild basmati rice, etc.
• When using chocolate chips, try replacing some of them with dried fruit and/or use dark chocolate!
• Instead of your traditional jif or skippy peanut butter try unsalted natural (or even fresh ground) peanut or almond butter. They lack the sugar, salt, corn syrup, and other additives.
• Instead of ground beef, try ground turkey breast.
• When cooking, avoid adding salt. Try using garlic powder, onions, herbs, and other spices to your dish. Its amazing how much flavor you can add without the additional sodium. Your heart also will thank you.

I hope some of these recommendations help you to clean up your meals and still enjoy them. Feel free to let me know how any uses of them go for you! I might have some more specific tricks for you if it doesn't workout the way you hoped!

P.S. Eating butter has this kind of effect:

JUST KIDDING, of course... but still haha. Keep it in moderation!