Healthy recipe swaps for the holidays and beyond

Looking for ways to prevent weight gain and eat healthier this holiday season?

Look no further than nutrition.va.gov. Veterans often ask me for “better recipes” or “a cookbook.” Some feel the recipes they use at home are no longer useful now that they are trying to make healthier food choices. And we do have some wonderful cookbooks to share with them.

Click on the links and scroll halfway down the page to look at the One Pot Meals Cookbook, Healthy Cooking at Home Cookbook, or any of the others and download.

Before you ditch your favorite recipes in favor of new ones, try this: Substitute a few healthier and lower calorie ingredients in your already-yummy family recipes. One of my favorite substitutions uses non-fat Greek yogurt wherever a recipe calls for sour cream. Each two-tablespoon serving of plain non-fat Greek yogurt is 34 calories and 5 grams of fat less than the same serving of sour cream.

Substitute avocado puree for butter or lard

A couple of ingredient substitutions and we’re talking real savings

One recipe demonstrates this Spinach Artichoke Dip, a great party appetizer. Or consider swapping ground turkey breast instead of the ground beef in a comfort food such as Italian Meatloaf (which already contains extra shredded and chopped veggies for added fiber and antioxidants) to decrease the fat and calories per serving even more.

Even better: Decrease calories by 30-75 per ounce of meat by substituting with vegetables in your recipes.

Holiday baking traditions can continue while also benefiting from healthy ingredient substitutions. You may have heard of using unsweetened applesauce in place of half the oil.

Here are some more: Swap 1 cup of mashed, ripe banana or avocado puree for 1 cup of butter, lard or shortening. Sub some canola or olive oil for some of the butter to make the recipe more heart-healthy (but not lower in calories). Keep in mind that these swaps can change baking times, so consider experimenting with your current recipe or find a recipe which already uses the healthier choice.

100 fewer calories a day = 10 pounds weight loss in a year

You may be thinking “that doesn’t sound like much of a reduction.” Another way to look at calorie savings is this: Consuming 100 fewer calories per day will translate to a ten-pound weight loss in a year. Small changes add up over time.

Other calorie-saving ideas are found in the VA MOVE! Workbook. See “Hannah’s How-To: Eat Fewer Calories” for more healthy substitutions (on page 6 of Module 3).

Reach out to a VA dietitian at your VA clinic for help in customizing your recipes to improve your personal health. And check out Healthy Teaching Kitchen classes for hands-on practice.