108 Part I: Eating Right with Every Bite
but does add a rich, robust flavor. A quick flambé may not burn off all the
alcohol, whereas a wine reduction sauce leaves little if any alcohol content.
Heat and time are the keys. Obviously, uncooked foods with alcohol retain
the most alcohol.
In most cases you have to use your own judgment on substituting alcohol in
recipes. Sweet recipes require different substitutions than savory. Amounts
also make a difference. For example, you don’t want to use a quarter cup of
almond extract to replace the same amount of amaretto liqueur. And remember,
even with reasonable replacements, the final product won’t be what the
original recipe intended.
Making Healthy Substitutions
When it comes to providing a healthier alternative for your or your family’s
meal plan, substituting ingredients is a great way to decrease calories while
increasing flavor and nutrition. However, it’s important to understand that
not all substitutions are created equal, and while something may save you
calories from fat, it may possibly increase calories in other areas such as
from sugar.
Product labels are designed to sell. So understanding how to read the back
of the labels where the nutritional information is located helps to get past
appealing labels and keep your pantry free of unhealthy substitutions. The
front product label is usually colorful and highlights words such as natural,
10% more, now with more fiber, made with less sugar, and fat free. Although
these claims are true, what they’re not telling you is in most cases they have
increased other areas of the formulation to bring back flavor that was lost
during the making of the product. Generally sugar and/or sodium content is
increased, especially in fat-free and low-fat products.
The healthy-substitution market is filled with new products on a monthly
basis, and some are worth mentioning:
✓ Salad dressing: Always use vinaigrette dressing instead of cream based.
A great product is vinegar-based spray salad dressing. It adds a ton of
flavor with the added benefit of no calories or fat.
✓ Butter: “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray is a good product that adds
almost no calories or fat but covers your food and adds butter flavor.
✓ Eggs: Eggs are healthy, but do contain saturated fat, so you can make
them healthier by just using the egg whites or egg substitutes. Egg
substitutes are made from real egg whites with the benefits of added
vitamins and minerals. The yellow color comes from the added beta
carotene.
