Healthy Substitutions

[Buk]

I love Gourmet Nutrition, but I also come across recipies that look really good from other sources that aren't necessarily health concious. I am looking for some good substitutions and healty varieties.
What is the best thing to use for flower? a particular variety(brown rice, whole wheat) or something entirely different. How about bread crumbs - last night I replaced with wheat bran?

Does anyone have a good source for common healty substitutions, and how I can educate myself on how much better or how bad these things still are. Is flower bad, are the different varities good, or just not as bad? What ingredients make a meal unhealthy? When is it better to substitute than to omit?

This is a very general post, but some ideas and some sources could be very helpful to putting together a cool resource.

[RipStone]

Fiber one cereal instead of bread crumbs. Whole wheat or soy flour insteand of white flour.

[TrainingGirl]

In place of bread crumbs, I put oats in a food processor and grind them up. They work great in my turkey meatloaf...I know...meatloaf...but it is yummy.

And like RipStone said...whole wheat flour for white.

Sometimes if I'm trying to decrease the fat in a dish, I'll use egg whites in place of whole eggs. 2 whites = 1 whole egg.

You want to try to use whole grain products and unprocessed ingredients in meals.

[cappuccino]

You can use unsweetened applesauce for oil when baking.

[RacerBill]

I've used lowfat yogurt in place of heavy cream or sour cream in quite a few sauces and other recipes, and it works quite well. It will have a little yogurt tang to it and won't taste exactly the same as if you used cream, but your guests will never know that you've altered the recipe. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Sally Schneider's book A New Way To Cook has a lot of "lightened" versions of old French and American classics, plus a lot of other dishes.

[ShannonC]

I like to use chicken broth in place of oil in my stir fries, I find it adds a really great flavor too.

[gobbla]

lately I've been subbing cottage cheese for mayonaise in my tuna\chicken\ham salads at about 1:1 with the meat.

it's a little different, especially nummy when you toast\broil it (on a sandwich).

[BamaDave]

I use oat bran and ground flax in place of bread crumbs in salmon patties... although I think that's exactly what Johnka uses in his recipe for salmon loaf. Whatever the case, these make good "filler" for recipes that call for bread crumbs.