Looking for healthy recipes? Don't let the nutrients and calories in a recipe turn you off. You can transform almost any recipe to reduce calories, fat, or sodium or to boost calcium or fiber. You can modify recipes in several ways: change the ingredients, adjust the preparation method or reduce the portion size. When changing ingredients, think about why they are used in the recipe. When ingredients have a functional purpose, such as eggs or sugar in baked foods, try to change one ingredient at a time and in small quantities. If you are new to recipe makeovers, start with stove-top or casserole dishes. As an easy substitution, try modified products such as reduced-fat cheese, sodium-reduced soup, low fat sour cream, and low fat evaporated milk.

Peanut butter is simply peanuts that are roasted and ground into a paste. The texture - smooth, chunky, or crunchy - doesn't affect the nutritional content. All are good sources of protein! Some have added ingredients such as salt, sugar and hydrogenated fat for flavour and texture. "Natural" peanut butters - containing peanuts only - do not contain stabilizer to keep the oil and solids from separating. You can pour off some of the oil to make it lower in fat but may risk the peanut butter becoming too stiff to spread. If preferred, mix it well, or turn the jar upside down to let the oil run through - this will at least distribute it more evenly.

Vinaigrette is a lighter choice than most creamy salad dressings. You can adjust the proportions in homemade vinaigrette to suit your taste and nutritional needs. For a low-fat version, make it with two parts vinegar to one part oil, instead of the other way around. Experiment with different types of vinegar. Other than white, red wine, cider, or rice vinegar, try the latest balsamic vinegar from Italy. Balsamic vinegar is an Italian wine vinegar that has been aged for years. No other vinegar can compare to its wonderful smell and flavour!

Summer picnics can present safety hazards if the food is not handled properly. To prevent food-borne illness, keep everything that comes in contact with food clean. Wash your hands before handling food. Keep hot food hot. Cook and hold cooked foods at temperatures higher than 140 degrees F (60º C) to prevent bacteria growth. Keep cold food cold. Store cold food at temperatures below 40 degrees F (4º C). Foods containing meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and milk products should never be allowed to sit at room temperature for longer than two hours.

Frozen fish can be just as nutritious and delicious as fresh fish if you follow a few simple guidelines. Buy seafood that is solidly frozen, mild in odor, free of ice crystals and freezer burn. Freezer burn is indicated by drying and discoloration. The package shouldn't be damaged or water stained. And it should be stored below the frost line in the store's display freezer. Also check the sell by date, if it has one, for a quality product.

For many people, the most challenging part of low-fat cooking is creating moist and tasty meals without using rich sauces. Many traditional sauces contain too much saturated fat, cholesterol and calories from butter, cream and egg yolks. However, in today's market place, you can buy ready-made low-fat cooking sauces - just look for less than 3 grams of fat per serving. If you prefer to make your own low-fat sauces, try the following modifications. Use skim or 2% evaporated milk instead of cream; use low-fat cheese or part-skim instead of high-fat cheese; use flour or cornstarch to thicken instead of egg yolk; or use meat drippings (au jus) or a fruit sauce (cranberry or apple) instead of fatty gravies.

Want the creaminess but not all the fat in your sauces? Try 2% evaporated milk in place of cream in recipes. Evaporated milk has been treated by a heating process, reducing it's moisture content so it has a thicker and creamier consistency. It's approximately 50% more concentrated in energy and nutrients. Evaporated milk is an excellent source of protein and calcium and is fortified with vitamins A and D. You can find evaporated milk on the grocery shelf but once it's opened, it needs refrigeration.

Although eggs are found in the dairy case, they are actually part of the meat and alternatives group. One to two eggs (1 serving) almost fulfill half the recommended servings (2 to 3 per day) suggested by Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. To enjoy all the benefits that eggs provide, cook them until they're done. Eggs and egg-rich foods are a perfect medium for salmonella to grow. Avoid foods with raw eggs, such as Caesar salad, homemade ice cream, mayonnaise and eggnog - unless they're made with an unopened carton of pasteurized eggs.

Fresh herbs offer a flavour advantage when trimming fat and salt from our cooking. Herbs, which grow in temperate climates, come from fragrant leaves of plants. To keep fresh herbs longer, treat them like a bouquet of flowers. Snip the stem ends, then stand them in a glass of water. Cover them with a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator; change the water every couple of days. When cooking with fresh herbs, chop them finely to release more flavour and aroma, and add them toward the end of the cooking time so their flavour won't be lost.

When buying canned fish, choose water-packed over oil-packed varieties. Even when the oil is drained away, fish packed in oil has significantly more fat than those packed in water. For more calcium, crush salmon bones and include them as they are an excellent source of calcium. Three ounces of salmon eaten with the bones has about 200 milligrams of calcium, almost as much as 6 ounces of milk. Also include the salmon skin and juices in your recipe because they contain omega 3 fatty acids, which may help in lowering the risk of heart disease.

Barbecuing is a great way to cook in the summer - low fat and no mess in the kitchen! Before you put your food on the grill, adjust the grill so the food cooks evenly, inside and outside. Don't forget to clean the grill between each use. Remove the charred food debris to reduce exposure to bacteria and possible cancer-causing substances. Grill meat, poultry and seafood until it's cooked throughout, but not charred. Charring may produce cancer-causing compounds, called heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs). It's smart to scrape off any charred areas and avoid eating the "black stuff". To avoid cross contamination, use clean utensils and a clean dish to carry the cooked food to the table - not the same ones you used to bring raw meat to the grill.

Most fish has less fat than other protein-rich foods, including meat and poultry with skin. And most of the fat in seafood is polyunsaturated. Fish that's white or light in colour, such as orange roughy, perch, snapper, halibut, and sole has less fat than fish that is firm and darker in colour, such as mackerel, salmon, and blue fin tuna. Fattier fish tends to be better for grilling and roasting because it doesn't dry out as quickly and it holds its shape better. Lean fish is great for baking, microwaving, and poaching. If you want to grill or roast leaner fish, use a marinade or a sauce to keep the fish moist.

To reduce fat in baking, try buttermilk in place of sour cream, butter, and margarine in biscuits, muffins, snack squares and other breads. Buttermilk is made by adding "friendly" bacterial cultures to milk, usually low-fat milk. The bacterial culture produces its unique flavour, aroma, acidity, and thick texture. Despite its name, butter is not added.

Looking for a healthy dessert? Try grapes. The natural sweetness of juicy grapes is light and refreshing. There are many varieties of grapes but the more popular table varieties include the small, green Thompson Seedless, the deliciously red seedless, and the very flavourful Concord. Regardless of the variety, choose plump grapes that are firmly attached to their stems. Check the fruit for full colour and absence of discolourations. Green grapes are best if some yellow is mixed with green, but there should be no evidence of browning or whitening at the stem end. Store unwashed grapes in the refrigerator in a plastic bag, and use within a week. Grapes are a source of fibre. There are 70 calories in a cup of Concord grapes, and about 100 in a cup of Thompson Seedless.

Many consumers question the safety of pesticides and fertilizers used in farming. Avoiding fresh produce in your diet is not the answer. At this time, the benefits of fruits and vegetables outweigh the known risk of these chemicals. However, washing produce thoroughly with warm soapy water to remove any chemical residues is a good practice. Buying organically grown produce may be an option for those who want to support sustainable agriculture and environmentally responsible food production. But there is no guarantee that the food is actually completely free of pesticide residues.