Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life (33 page)

By keeping a selection of the following items on hand, you can prepare a healthful meal on a moment’s notice. Some of the items are ingredients that show up frequently in recipes. Others are healthful, quick-to-prepare alternatives for those days when there just isn’t time to cook.

The recipes in this chapter provide a wide variety of delicious low-fat foods. In addition, your own recipes can be made more healthful by using the following guidelines:

• Small changes in cooking techniques can reduce fat significantly with little or no effect on the final flavor of the dish.

• Steam or bake food instead of frying. Avoid deep-fried foods.

• Use nonstick pots and pans, which allow foods to be prepared with little or no added fat.

• Instead of sautéing vegetables in oil, braise them: Heat approximately ½ cup of liquid (water, vegetable stock, wine, dry sherry) in a large pot or skillet. Add the vegetables to be sautéed, then cover and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender. This normally takes about five minutes. Add small amounts of additional liquid if the vegetables begin to stick.

• When absolutely necessary to sauté or fry in oil, nonstick vegetable oil sprays allow you to do so with a fraction of the fat.

• Use a steamer rack to cook vegetables, and a steamer or microwave oven to reheat foods that would otherwise stick to the pan.

•
Use a fat-free dressing on salads. Several commercial varieties are available, or try the recipes beginning. Seasoned rice vinegar and lemon juice are also good on salads.

• Try eating cooked vegetables plain, or with a bit of seasoned rice vinegar or lemon juice, instead of olive oil or butter. Fat-free salad dressings are also delicious on cooked vegetables.

• Oil in salad dressing recipes can be replaced with vegetable stock or water. You can also use seasoned rice vinegar (mild and slightly sweet) to replace the oil. Add it to the recipe in addition to any other vinegar. For a thicker dressing, the oil may be replaced with a cornstarch and water mixture as follows: Whisk 1 tablespoon cornstarch with 1 cup water. Heat in a small saucepan, stirring constantly, until thick and clear. Refrigerate. Use in place of oil in any salad dressing recipe. May be kept refrigerated for up to three weeks.

• Cream soups are usually prepared with heavy cream or with butter-based sauces. A fat-free alternative for making soup thick and “creamy” is to add a potato. For soups that will be pureed, simply cook and puree the potato along with the other soup ingredients. For other soups, cook a scrubbed and diced potato in enough water to cover it. When the potato is fork-tender, puree it in its cooking water in the blender and add it to the soup.

• Sauces are traditionally prepared with fat, flour, and liquid. To omit the fat, toast the flour in a dry pan over medium heat until it is lightly browned. Add the liquid and any seasonings. Whisk to remove all lumps, then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

• Avocados and coconut should be regarded as practically pure fat and consumed in very limited quantities, if at all.

• Nuts and seeds are 80 to 90 percent fat. Omitting them from recipes will eliminate significant fat. When you remove nuts, you lose texture as well as flavor. Try replacing them with a crunchy vegetable or fruit to add texture to the dish. In some baking recipes, Grape-Nuts cereal may be substituted for nuts.

• When you are craving ice cream, consider fruit sorbet or one of the low-fat nondairy frozen desserts listed. Or try one of the recipes in this book.

• The amount of fat in recipes for baked goods is sometimes arbitrary and can easily be reduced. For example, most carrot cake recipes call for 1 cup of oil, yet this amount can be reduced to ⅓ or ½ cup with no noticeable effect on the cake.

• Eliminating fat completely from baked goods may affect the texture and will require some experimentation. In some recipes, the fat can be removed with no other modification. In other recipes, applesauce, mashed banana, or canned pumpkin may be substituted for all or part of the fat.

• Prepare pies with a single crust to reduce fat and calories (about 100 fewer
calories per serving). Crumb crusts may be prepared with less fat than traditional flour-based crusts, or try the Fat-Free Pie Crust.

Omitting eggs from baked goods will reduce the fat and cholesterol significantly. If the recipe calls for one or two eggs, just leave them out, adding a couple of extra tablespoons of water for each egg to maintain the intended moisture content. If more than two eggs are called for, substitute one of the following for each egg:

• 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) pureed soft tofu
  

• ½ banana, mashed
  

• ⅓ cup applesauce or canned pumpkin
  

• 1 tablespoon flaxseeds pureed in a blender with ¼ cup water
  

• 1 heaping tablespoon soy flour mixed with 2 tablespoons water
  

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  

• Ener-G egg replacer—a mixture of potato starch, flour, and leavening—is available at most health food stores. Use according to directions.
  

To replace eggs that are used for binding, such as in burgers or loaves, try:

• Mashed potato
  

• Quick-cooking rolled oats
  

• Cooked oatmeal
  

• Fine bread crumbs
  

• Tomato paste
  

Several commercial products substitute nicely for meat in recipes. In addition to the suggestions below, see the section on Transition Foods for other substitutes.

•
Texturized vegetable protein (TVP)
. TVP is made from soybeans, and has a texture and taste much like ground meat. Use it in spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, or chili. Available at health food stores.

•
Seitan (“say-tan”
). Also known as wheat meat, this is a chewy meat substitute made from wheat protein. It is delicious in stir-fries, stroganoff, or stews, or wherever strips or chunks of meat would be used. Seitan is usually sold marinated
with soy sauce and spices in plastic tubs in the refrigerator case of your health food store.

•
Tempeh (“tem-pay”
). A fermented soybean product with a unique flavor and a texture similar to very tender meat, it can be marinated, then barbecued or grilled. It can also be cubed for kabobs or stews. Tempeh is available in a variety of styles, mixed with various vegetables and grains. Each has a unique flavor, so experiment to determine your favorite. Tempeh is also available as ready-to-heat burgers. Check the refrigerator or freezer sections of your health food store.

There are several excellent options for replacing cow’s milk in your diet.

•
Soymilk
. Available in several flavors, soymilk can be used as a beverage, on cereal, or in cooking to replace dairy milk or cream. There are many different brands, each with its own unique taste, so experiment to find one that you like. The original soymilks were quite high in fat (50% of calories from fat). However, many companies are now making low-fat and fat-free versions.

•
Rice milk
. The most widely marketed brand of rice milk is Rice Dream, which is available in a variety of flavors at most health food stores. Made from brown rice, Rice Dream is lighter in color and milder in flavor than soymilks. Fifteen percent of its calories come from fat. Like soymilk, it can be used as a beverage, on cereal, or in cooking.

•
Fruit juice
. While the idea may sound strange at first, fruit juice is a delicious substitute for milk on cereal. Fruit juice may also be substituted for milk in many baked goods.

A sprinkle of nutritional yeast can lend a cheeselike taste to pizza, spaghetti, or casseroles without the high fat and cholesterol of cheese. Nutritional yeast flakes are available in health food stores. Be sure to purchase
nutritional yeast
, not baking yeast.

Another alternative is Cashew Cheese, which has the appearance and taste of a mild cheddar cheese sauce, and can be served on macaroni. This is a transition food, and is fairly high in fat (59% of calories from fat).

The desire for salty foods is an acquired taste, and your taste buds can be retrained to appreciate the true flavors of food without the overbearing flavor of salt. Begin by progressively decreasing the amount of salt you use in cooking. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of salt, reduce it to ¾ teaspoon, then to ½ teaspoon, and so forth. As you gradually reduce the amount of salt you add to cooked foods, your taste for salt will diminish quite painlessly.

A number of sodium-free seasoning mixes are available to help you add flavor without adding salt. These come in shaker bottles, ready to put on the table in place of the salt shaker. Try Mrs. Dash or Parsley Patch for a variety of delicious flavors. Many unsalted snack foods are available, though you should be sure your selection is also low in fat. Guiltless Gourmet and Basically Baked tortilla chips are both fat-free and salt-free. Snyder’s makes unsalted pretzels with no added fat.

In this section you will find breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus for three weeks, based on recipes that are low in fat, high in fiber, and contain no cholesterol. These will help you get started with planning and shopping for a week’s worth of meals at a time.

You may be most comfortable following the menus as written, or you may wish to pick and choose among the various menus and create your own. Don’t hesitate to change the order of the menus or use ones you particularly like as often as you wish. Also, any fruits or vegetables that are specified in the menus may be replaced by others you prefer or that are in season.

Each of the menus contains several items to provide variety and plenty of food for people who are active. If you find this to be too much food, just omit an item. Do not, however, restrict calories in an attempt to hasten weight loss. Doing so will tend to lower your metabolism and ultimately slow weight loss.

A few of the menus use transition foods in order to familiarize you with these products. As mentioned earlier, these foods tend to be higher in fat than is optimal in the long run, and they may be omitted if desired.

Although the 21-Day Meal Plan in this chapter indicates a different menu for each meal, you will probably need fewer menus than this because leftovers will often provide a second meal. Dinner leftovers make wonderful lunches, or can be used for a second dinner. Remember, leftovers are a time-saving ally. For this reason, you may want to prepare double batches of recipes (cooking a double batch does not take twice as long, yet it provides twice as many meals). If the food will be used within a week, simply store it in airtight containers in the refrigerator. If you have more than a week’s worth, divide it into usable portions and freeze it in airtight containers. I can’t begin to tell you how welcome this “already ready” food will look after a long day at work.

Soups and stews make particularly good leftovers. They keep well in the refrigerator or freezer, and in many cases their flavors actually improve with reheating. I generally prepare a large pot of soup once or twice each week. I serve it for dinner the night I prepare it, along with bread and a green salad. Then I use it for lunches or as a main or side course for future dinners.