10 Tips for Fixing Heart Healthy Recipes

Do you remember Grandma's apple cobbler? Is spaghetti one of your favorite meals? You can still eat these things, but new versions of them, if you know how to swap ingredients. Here are 10 tips for fixing heart healthy recipes.

1. Replace eggs wih a cholesterol-free egg substitute. If you don't have a substitute on hand, you may use egg whites. According to the American Heart Association, two egg whites may be substituted for a whole egg in baking recipes.

2. Use fat free (skim) milk. This one change saves you calories and lowers your cholesterol level.

3. Choose non-fat cheese. For better melting Dr. Richard Collins, author of The Cooking Cardiologist, recommends soaking the cheese in milk for a few minutes before adding it to recipes.

4. Add fiber -- fresh fruit, dried fruit, vegetables, and grains -- whenever possible. Fiber is good for you and fills you up.

5. Cook with plant oils, such as olive, corn, and canola. If you're sauteing food, add a teaspoon of butter to the oil for flavor. Use as little oil as possible.

6. Swap unsweetened applesauce for shortening in baking recipes. But cooking is chemistry and, for best results, you may have to add a teaspoon of oil.

7. Hold the salt. Excess salt raises your blood pressure. Insstead of salt Mayo Clinic recommends citrus zest, fresh and dried herbs. To bring out the flavor of dried herbs rub them with your fingers before adding them to the recipe.

8. Cut back on sugar. Recipes made with half the sugar may taste just as sweet. Instead of sugar you may use Splenda, a no-calorie sweetener made from sugar, or half Splenda and half sugar.

9. Go lean on protein. Buy lean cuts of beef, skinless chicken, extra lean chops and fish. Some recipes, like spaghetti sauce with mushrooms, may not need protein at all.

10. Eat normal (not supersized) servings. According to the Univesity of Missouri Extension Service, large servings add up to 200-500 calories a day, which can add up to 20-50 extra pounds a year.

A few ingredient changes can have a huge impact on your heart health. Before you know it these swaps will be automatic. The heart is your body's main pump so take care of it.

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 26 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. Her latest book, Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief, written with Lois Krahn, MD, is availble on http://www.amazon.com. Go to http://www.harriethodgson.com for more information on her work. Hodgson is hard at work on her next book, Doctor in the House: An Inside Look at Medical Marriage.

MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES

Making Pancake Batter the Night Before (with Recipe)
Mornings are hectic. If you make your pancake batter the night before, that will save you precious minutes.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake Creates National Zucchini Shortage
There are few garden vegetable that are prolific as zucchini squash. Around my part of the northeast, beginning in mid summer till frost, zucchini squash is the number one garden commodity.

Save Time with No-Bake Cookies
Whether you don't want to heat up the kitchen or the demands of getting the kids out the door are upon you, it's nice to have a few no-bake cookie recipes on hand. We thought we would share some of our favorites with you.

Raisin Roll Delight
Ingredients: ž cup cold water plus 2 Tablesps (very important) 6 Tablesps butter (ž stick) ž cup vital wheat gluten flour 1/3 cup unbleached, all-purpose wheat (white) flour trace of salt (two light shakes or to taste) 1 ˝ ounces of raisins 3 eggs * 1 egg whitePreheat oven to 425F. Have ready one large, nonstick, heavy-gauge metal cookie sheet.

Weight Loss Recipe: Spicy Chicken Cacciatore
Just because you are watching your weight, doesn't mean the whole family can't enjoy your health enhancing meals! The kids will love "Spicy Chicken Cacciatore" and you will love it because it is so low in calories and fat!Long term weight loss isn't about hunger, misery and crash dieting. It's a whole new way of learning to prepare nutritious food that your body needs and enjoys.

Tasty Rice Pudding
1 cup - uncooked rice1 teaspoon - vanillaa pinch of salt ( if desire)3 sticks - cinnamon1/3 cup - sugar2 1/2 cups water12 0z. - evaporated milkBring water to boil for at least 7 minutes with cinnamon sticks, stir in rice.

Cookbook Publishing - The Basic Ingredients and the Secrets to Success
You are about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life -- publishing a cook book! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is truly a fun, exciting and challenging project - more than you can imagine. Like me, you can publish your own wildly successful cook book.

Do You Know How Many Ways There Are To Eat A Cat Head Biscuit?
A time honored Southern tradition, the infamous "Cat Head" biscuit has become as much an icon of southern cooking as fried chicken. Just say the words "Cat Head Biscuits" almost anywhere in the South and you will instantly conjure up memories childhood and of mouthwateringly delicious meals.

Steaks
Eating steak has always been a symbol of prosperity. During the turn of the century, steak houses were patronized by the elite.

How to Make Your Own Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream
Sometimes, when you have set yourself in the weight loss journey, you may miss your old friends: snacks.But life does not have to be miserable for you to lose weight.

Sot Suppe (Norwegian Sweet Soup)
My mother was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded our small Wisconsin dairy farm in the late 1800s. When my mother was a child, sweet soup was a traditional part of Christmas Eve, served cold with julekake, lefse, Christmas bread, or open-faced sandwiches.

All-Wheat Superb Rolls
Note: The stone ground whole-wheat flour adds only 1.3 Teasps of flour to each roll (our of a total of 18 rolls).

Mouth Watering Memphis Style Pork Ribs
The Memphis Style pork rib is one of the most popular and mouth watering styles of rib preparation. One of the reasons for the popularity with the Memphis Style rib is its unique blend of barbeque tradition and flavorful seasonings.

Italian Recipes - Top 3 Dinner Recipes That You Should Prepare Tonight!
If you are wondering what to prepare for dinner tonight, then you can always try these easy recipes. It's quick and affordable.

Rice Noodles with Tomatoes and Tuna -A Savoury Gluten-free Alternative to Pasta
Ok. I never thought that the day would come when I would sing the praises of a rice noodle.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
Homemade cookies from scratch in 20 minutes!!? 2 six-ounce packages of butterscotch chips? 1 1/2 cups of chunky peanut butter? 4 to 5 cups of corn flakes? 1 cup dry roasted peanutsMelt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter together in a large microwave-safe bowl in the microwave.Then stir in 4 to 5 cups of corn flakes and 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts.

A Victory Garden
In the early nineteen forties,women shopped with ration stamps that limited the amount of groceries they bought in order to support the war effort. To supplement the their meager rations, they grew vegetable gardens in spare plots of land and also in their own back yards.

The Official Parenting Cheesecake Recipe
Whoever writes all those fancy cookbooks has never been a parent. To begin with, the pages are never spill-proof, almost guaranteeing that somewhere in the middle of mixing ingredients, a spill will cover the remaining two ingredients listed.

Weight Loss Recipe: Crustless Quiche
Crust-less QuicheQuick and easy, this meal is great either hot or cold. Stores well in the refrigerator and can be frozen.

Low Fat Flaming Bananas Treat
Nutritional Information: Serves 3, Fat: 8 g, Cal: 299, KJ: 1256, WW: 5 PointsThis is yet another one of my favourite low fat banana recipes. You can impress your guests with your culinary skills when cooking this one! (It's just amazing how a little bit of fire on your food can mesmerise your audience.