ladyinthemists' WW Point Counters

ladyinthemists · Site Admin Joined: 22 Sep 2006 Posts: 106

We've all been there: You sit down to dinner and wish you had just room in your POINTS budget to have a super supper. Well, now you can! With a simple ingredient swap here or a lightened-up cooking technique there, you can get more food without going over your POINTS Target. See our top 11 healthy cooking tips, below. Plus, WeightWatchers.com Community users share some favorite ways to trim back on fat and calories.

1. Sauté your vegetables in a little chicken or vegetable broth instead of butter or oil. That's a POINTS value of zero for the broth versus a POINTS value of 1 (per teaspoon) for butter or oil.

2. Thicken soups with prepared instant mashed potatoes instead of heavy cream. The instant spuds have just a POINTS value of 3 for 1/2 cup, versus a POINTS value of 12 per 1/2 cup of cream.

3. Opt for a strong-flavored cheese. You'll get much more flavor from crumbled blue cheese, for instance, than from shredded cheddar, so you can maximize taste with a lesser amount.

4. Chop and toast nuts to cut back on the total amount of nuts needed in a recipe. Toasting maximizes their flavor, and chopping them allows you to cover more "ground." Also, experiment with using toasted rolled oats in lieu of nuts in some baked goods.

5. Make your own whole milk substitute. Swap it for fat-free milk and add a little fat-free yogurt, pureed tofu or powdered skim milk to thicken it up.

6. Swap applesauce for 1/3 of the total butter or oil in a cookie or cake recipe (light-coloured batters) — or substitute pureed prunes for that same amount if you're making a chocolaty dessert. You'll add moisture while subtracting calories.

7. Many people know that you can use fat-free egg substitute in place of whole eggs. But did you know that you can substitute 2 egg whites for 1 whole egg in most recipes? Then, to make egg-based dishes like frittatas and casseroles look more authentic, try adding a little turmeric to the whites for a more natural appearance.

8. Use pureed silken or soft tofu in place of cream in dressings and pasta dishes.

9. Replace the mayonnaise in tuna, egg, pasta and chicken salads with pureed, seasoned silken tofu or plain low-fat yogurt, dressed up with your favorite diced vegetables and seasonings.

10. Make your own taco shells by hanging soft fat-free tortillas directly over an oven rack and baking at 400°F until crisp.

11. Chop, grate, shred. You can top a casserole with much less shredded cheese than cheese cubes or slices. The same goes for shaved chocolate, shredded coconut, chopped nuts and other foods with high POINTS values.