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Your kitchen is stocked and you鈥檙e ready to go. Now it鈥檚 time to think about how you can add more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains to your day while watching your refined carbohydrates, sugar, and fat intake.
This week, try one or two of the ideas listed below to bring your favorite recipes in line with recommendations for a healthy diet. You can also find new recipes online such as Greek Chicken With Tomatoes, Olives and Feta, Tuscan White Bean Salad, and Crunchy Green Beans With Carmelized Onions. Fruits and Vegetables
- Add fresh or dried fruits like chopped apples, raisins, prunes, kiwi, or orange sections to green leafy salads.
- Add chopped carrots, broccoli, or a mix of your favorite vegetables to soups, salads, meat loaf, and casseroles.
- Substitute applesauce for oil in muffins, quick breads, and cakes. Use pureed prunes or baby food prunes instead of oil in brownies or chocolate cake.
Beans and Peas
- Add your favorite canned beans to soups, stews, and salads.
- Flavor beans with onion, garlic, and herbs for added flavor without added fat.
- Try different bean dishes: split pea soup, vegetarian chili with kidney beans or white bean chili, black beans over rice, bean tostados, and tacos, black-eyed peas with garlic and red pepper, or three-bean salad made with green beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans.
Grains
- Substitute whole-wheat flour for up to half of the white flour called for in a recipe.
- Add 1/4 cup bran or quick-cooking oatmeal to your meat loaf or casserole.
- Make muffins using oatmeal, bran, or whole-wheat flour.
- Try whole-wheat pasta for a fiber boost.
- Use whole cornmeal when making cornbread.
Milk, Cheese, and Yogurt
- Use evaporated skim milk instead of whole milk or cream in baked goods, sauces, and soups.
- Use low-fat or non-fat yogurt to replace all or part of the sour cream or mayonnaise in a recipe. Replace all or part of ricotta cheese with low-fat cottage cheese. Use a puree of cooked potatoes, onion, and celery as a creamy base for soups instead of dairy cream or half-and-half.
- Sharp cheese gives extra flavor so that less can be used. This helps trim the fat.
- Select yogurt or milk products without added sugar or flavorings. Mix in fresh fruit for a flavor boost.
Meats, Poultry, and Fish
- Let vegetables, beans, rice and pasta be the stars of your main dished - use meats as the side dish.
- Choose lean meats - look for the words "loin" or "round" in the name. Trim meat of all visible fat before cooking. Cook poultry with the skin on to keep it moist, but remove skin before eating to reduce the fat.
- Choose canned fish packed in water instead of oil. Drain thoroughly before mixing with your favorite dressing or condiment.
- Use low-fat cooking methods like roasting, baking, broiling, steaming, or poaching. Limit deep fat frying and saut‚ing in a lot of oil or margarine. Use either a cooking spray, broth, water or a well-seasoned cast iron pan to saut‚ meats. If you must use oil or margarine, cut the amount in half.
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