The Divine Art of Modification

An easy way to get your family to eat healthier, without protest, without whining, without expensive healthy eating cookbooks, is to modify those recipes you are already using.  This can prove especially difficult for all you like mysister, who for the love of all that is good cannot change stray from the written recipe.  But, this can be super simple.  Remember two things:

1. Cut fats in half;  still retain a little fat in the recipe for best results (remember, all fats are not bad).  If recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, use 1/2. If it calls for 1 cup oil, use 1/2.  You may add pureed fruit like applesauce if you are nervous about the result to make up the other half, but it is not necessary.
2. Cut sugar by 1/2. This will most likely not affect the consistency of your product, it will only affect the sweetness, which needs to be dialed down anyway.

These two substitutions work amazingly well in breads and cookies.  So I modified my favorite zucchini bread recipe that normally calls for 1 cup of oil, and 2 cups of sugar.  I used 1/2 cup of oil, 1/2 cup of applesauce.  Then changed the 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup.  Wah-lah. Low fat, less sugar, no artificial sweetners, no preservatives, plus some great vitamins and minerals to boot from the zucchini.  Here isthe recipein it’s modified form.  If you haven’t yet, I typed up a handout for a church class about healthy eating.  You candownload ithere for other substitution ideas.

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