Do you find your good nutrition intentions thwarted by recipe ingredients like shortening, whole milk, butter, cream, and sugar? Cooking at home not only can save calories and money, it empowers you to know exactly what is going into your food. So don’t get frustrated by choosing a seemingly healthy recipe only to find out that it is not as wholesome as you thought. All you need are a few good substitutions in your back pocket to be the healthy, master chef or baker.

Here is a list of baking substitutions that will expand your recipe index. You can choose those recipes that you love and make them better for you with a few switches and swaps.

• Use non-hydrogenated oils or trans-fat free margarines instead of butter 
• Use evaporated skim milk instead of heavy cream
• Replace half the amount of cooking oil in a recipe with an equal amount of applesauce or pureed prunes or figs.
• Swap half the amount of white flour for whole wheat flour
• Grease your baking pans, molds, and sheets with cooking spray instead of butter and flour
• Safely cut the original amount of sugar in half
  • If you like to use sugar substitutes, follow the label instructions for substitutions
• Replace shortening with the same amount of butter
• Cut the fat in half and replace the difference with buttermilk in quick breads
• Use 2 egg whites in place of one whole egg
• For recipes that use several eggs, swap half the number of eggs for the equivalent in egg substitute
• Cut the amount of fruits or nuts in half and add to the top of cakes or breads instead of mixing in
• Use skim milk or 1 percent over whole milk
• Swap 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for an ounce of unsweetened chocolate
• Use non, fat plain yogurt or non-fat sour cream instead of regular sour cream
• Use cake flour instead of white flour for crusts. This allows you to cut back on the butter slightly.
• Cut out at least some of the salt
• Use spices like cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg or citrus zest to replace flavors
• Replace cream cheese with skim ricotta cheese or half the cream cheese with low fat cream cheese
• Whipped cream can be totally replaced by chilling a can of evaporated milk  for 12 hours and adding 1 teaspoon lemon juice before whipping until stiff.
• Evaporated milk in a recipe can be switched for evaporated skim milk

What are your best healthy substitutions and what have you successfully swapped out? Tell us your secrets and your recipes.

Remember, just because you are able to cut out some fat and sugar, does not mean that you get to have more. Portion size is just as important! Have fun concocting and making small changes to improve your health!

Next time, we’ll dish over some great cooking substitutions.