Low-fat meals are just as easy to prepare and can be just as tasty as higher-fat alternatives. By choosing healthy ingredients and controlling the amount of oil you use when cooking, you lower the fat content of your favorite breakfasts, dinners and snacks.
Breakfast
Many traditional breakfast foods are already low in fat. If you enjoy cereal for breakfast, cut the fat content by switching to fat-free milk. If you want to eat pancakes or waffles, make your own from scratch rather than using prepackaged pancake mix, which can have hidden fat in the ingredients. If you have a good nonstick pan, you don't need oil or butter. Syrup without butter is a fat-free topping. Fresh fruit makes a good fat-free topping, or you can heat a little jam in the microwave to make a fruit syrup. If you want eggs for breakfast, try poaching or boiling eggs instead of frying or scrambling them. For scrambled eggs, use a nonstick pan and keep the cooking temperature low so that there is no need to add any fat. Turkey sausage and turkey bacon are lower-fat alternatives to the regular pork or beef kind.
Dinner
There are low-fat alternatives to most favorite dinners. If you substitute meat and poultry elements with lower-fat cuts, you reduce the amount of fat in a meal considerably. Replace ground beef with ground turkey or chicken for meals such as hamburgers, lasagna and tacos. If you want a pasta dish, use a tomato-based sauce instead of a cream or cheese sauce. If you make your own from onions, garlic and fresh or canned tomatoes, you control the fat content. An Asian-style stir-fry made from sliced vegetables such as onions, bell peppers, snap peas, mushrooms and canned water chestnuts is an easy low-fat dinner. Garlic, ginger and soy sauce add extra flavor without adding fat. A low-fat alternative to fries as a side dish is potato wedges. Scrub potatoes, cut them into thick wedges, coat with no more than a tablespoon of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and bake at 350º Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes.
Snacks
Snacks can have some of the highest fat content of any food items. Having a stock of sweet rather than salty snacks cuts down on fat consumption. A handful of jelly beans is a better alternative to potato chips. If you want a salty snack, try crackers rather than chips. Popcorn is a delicious and filling low-fat snack. Pop your own rather than purchasing microwavable bags, which are very high in fat. If you make your own popcorn in a saucepan, you only need a small drop of oil per serving. Sprinkle salt or sugar on the corn depending on your taste. If you crave ice cream as a snack, eat fruit sorbet or frozen yogurt instead. Make individual low-fat frozen yogurt servings by placing containers of your favorite store-bought yogurt in the freezer for a few hours.
Tags: rather than, make your, fat-free topping, frozen yogurt, make your from, your favorite, your from
