4 secrets to cooking healthier

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by Julie White

By following a few basic principles, you'll be well on the way towards healthier cooking. You don't need to sacrifice flavour, meaning you can have your cake and eat it too!

1. Change your cookware: The first thing to do is get good non-stick cookware, particularly a fry pan. With good non-stick cookware you can reduce the amount of fat needed. This makes fat-free cooking possible!

2. Reduce fat by using oil spray: It allows you to achieve caramelisation or browning of food which adds flavour and texture, without drowning in fat.

3. Swap your ingredients: Change your recipes by eliminating, reducing or replacing ingredients. Some ingredients can be eliminated totally if they are high in fat, better still though, replace them with something similar or reduce the amount used.

Some examples include:

Your recipe requires:	Substitute with:
Dry bread crumbs	Rolled oats or oat bran
Butter, margarine or oil in baking	Applesauce for half of the amount of butter required.
Cream	Low fat cream or evaporated skim milk
Eggs	Two egg whites for each egg
Flour (plain)	Swap half for wholemeal flour
Fruit canned in syrup	Fruit canned in natural juices
Sugar	In most recipes you can reduce the amount of sugar by half. Increase sweetness by adding nutmeg, cinnamon or vanilla.

4. Increase nutritional value: Add bulk with plant based foods that aren’t calorie dense. These are fruit & vegetables, grains, lentils, seeds, nuts - you’ll increase the fibre, vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content of your meal making it a healthier choice.

If that all seems too hard, then send it to me and I’ll ”Recipe Overhaul” it for you. Email help@weighitup.com.au