[laurlaur429]

This can be anything from baking substitutions to substituting healthier foods for their less healty counterparts My personal favorites include:

Apple Sauce for butter or oil in baking (or you can use bananas )
Zero calorie baking sweetener for sugar
Egg whites instead of yolks
Eating popchips instead of regular chips (they're soooo good!)
Arctic Zero or pinkberry instead of ice cream
Soy milk instead of cow's milk (it's less heavy and super delicious!)

What are some of your favorites?

[RHay]

Hmmm thank you for the new ideas! I love soy milk and apple sauce.

[124chicksinger]

Fage or Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream. Goes great with fresh fruit and makes a delicious veg dip (onion, leek) and has protein and less calories. yum

www.skinnytaste.com no bake cheesecake instead of the real stuff. It takes care of my craving just fine.

Mac&cheese made with added cauliflower to replace some of the pasta.

Skim milk latte instead of whole - I cannot tell the difference.

[laurlaur429]

ooh I love cauliflower, I'll have to try the mac and cheese idea!

[mizzie]

124chicksinger - Thank you, thank you for linking that web page. I've been on there for the last half hour saving recipes that look delicious! This will really shake up my meals, as I'm getting thoroughly sick of a lot of my food. I can't wait to try some of these out!

[smashley52683]

Originally Posted by mizzie

124chicksinger - Thank you, thank you for linking that web page. I've been on there for the last half hour saving recipes that look delicious! This will really shake up my meals, as I'm getting thoroughly sick of a lot of my food. I can't wait to try some of these out!

Ditto what she said!!! I have saved a bunch of recipes and even made one tonight. FYI: The Baked Oatmeal with blueberries and bananas is delish My 14 month old went crazy for it!!!

[Erinyes74]

Coconut milk instead of cow's milk in smoothies (I am hypothyroid, so I avoid intentional soy intake). You notice the lack of "creaminess" when you have coconut milk in cereal, but with smoothies, you won't miss a beat.

I also use coconut oil as a cooking oil now. It's a good fat with a really neutral taste.

Finely diced cauliflower for rice. I keep a big bag of frozen diced cauliflower in the freezer and just microwave it covered for a few seconds when I want some.

I use pumpkin all over the place-- as a chili thickener, especially. This is really excellent with turkey and black beans, but pumpkin goes great with beef chilis too.

[jessica2231]

I find that hot tea and hot apple cider are great substitutes for snacking at night. drink some hot apple cider and it cuts your cravings.

[sontaikle]

I've heard of using cauliflower instead of macaroni for macaroni and cheese. It's something I've thought about doing since I really loved macaroni and cheese but I just can't eat it any more now that I know how many calories it is.

My brother and I would be the only ones to eat it in the house, and I wound up having the following conversation with him:

Me: you know some people use cauliflower instead of macaroni to make macaroni and cheese. We should try it.
Brother: No
Me: Why not?
Brother: You just don't mess with macaroni and cheese. No

LOL my brother. I think I'll have to try it one day for myself

[greencrazed]

My current favorite is spaghetti squash for pasta. It is ridiculously low in calories (42 calories per cup) and just as filling as pasta(220 calories or so per cup). I had two cups of spaghetti squash for dinner in place of regular noodles and I'm STUFFED!

I also love unsweetened almond milk in my coffee and cereal (40 calories a cup) vs. low fat milk (120? calories or so per cup).

Happy eating!

[canadianwoman]

Avocado spread on bread instead of butter.

[mariamherrera]

laughing cow cheese instead of cream cheese on my bagels

[shadowclaw]

I'm a big fan of almond milk... the unsweetened variety only has 40 calories per cup (compared to 90 in skim milk). I think it tastes the same as a skim, maybe even better.

I also like using fat free cream cheese either as a spread or in different recipes. If putting on bread or veggies, I usually go for flavored stuff (strawberry, onion and chives, etc) because plain doesn't taste that great on its own, but plain is great for making things like alfredo sauce and really cuts back on the calories.

I love using no calorie sweeteners in drinks, and I've done some experimenting with baking using splenda, and the results were pretty good. I made a pretty good low calorie muffin not too long ago, and I think I used applesauce for oil in it.