SHAPE UP
Need a tip for losing weight? Eat at home

By Charles Stuart Platkin

But even eating at home can have a negative effect on your waistline, depending on how you cook. Here are a few tips for keeping your kitchen "light."

Use artificial sweeteners

The word on the street is that Splenda (sucralose) can be used to replace sugar in almost all cooking, including baking, because it doesn't lose sweetness with high heat. Sucralose is one of the safest sugar substitutes on the market.

Pile on the veggies

Next time you cook up burgers, use lean ground beef instead of regular, or, for even less fat, try ground turkey. Give your burger some extra texture and flavor by mixing the meat with chopped mushrooms, peppers and onions (also try water chestnuts or oil-free sun-dried tomatoes).

You'll have the same-size burger, but it will be significantly lower in calories — plus you'll also be getting the health benefits of all those vegetables.

Replace whole dairy products

You can replace almost any dairy product (for example, cheese, milk, sour cream) in a recipe with a low-fat or nonfat version, saving a significant number of calories.

For instance, chef Terry Conlan, author of "Fresh" (Favorite Recipes Press, 2002), and executive chef at the Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas, says his single favorite product for cooking is fat-free sweetened condensed milk.

"It does everything that whole condensed milk will do for a lot less calories," Conlan says. "We use it to make flan, cream pies, roasted tomato bisque and much more."

He also recommends melting reduced-fat or no-fat cream cheese to use in lieu of heavy cream or half-and-half. For example, he makes a quick and easy key-lime pie using fat-free sweetened condensed milk with a combination of fat-free and reduced-fat cream cheese.

Pound it out

Using a mallet to pound chicken (and other meats) tenderizes it and makes your food appear larger. In fact, I have my local supermarket pound out my boneless, skinless chicken breasts so they are paper-thin, allowing for very rapid cooking using almost no oil.

Juice it

Using a juicer to create sauces is another way to cut calories. Scott Uehlein, executive chef at Canyon Ranch Spa in Tucson, Ariz., finds that many vegetables and fruits can be juiced into a great-tasting sauce to replace the creamy, buttery sauces often used to flavor foods.

Uehlein's favorite tip is to juice a ripe pineapple to use as a sweet-and-sour dip or to brush on steamed, grilled, baked or broiled foods during the cooking process. He especially likes it with lobster tails. If you don't own a juicer, food processors and mixers often have juicing attachments available.

Make it thick and tasty

One of my favorite cooking tricks is to use cornstarch as an instant, fat-free thickener for sauces and gravies. Just mix some cornstarch in cold water and add it to your stir fry. Sauté vegetables with nonfat spray, seasoning and lemon juice; add cornstarch, and then toss with pasta instead of making a cream-based pasta sauce.

Or add cornstarch to meat juices to create a thick gravy without the added fat, offers famed healthy-cooking expert Cary Neff, author of "Conscious Cuisine" (Sourcebooks Trade, 2002) and culinary consultant to Jenny Craig.

Pureed vegetables are another way to thicken sauces and stews. "Just a bit of cooked, pureed potato thickens 'cream' of asparagus soup so that no cream is needed. The same is true with pureed beans in veggie soup," says Jorj Morgan, author of the forthcoming book "Fresh Traditions" (Cumberland House, August 2004).

Use herbs and spices

Whereas a bland "diet" meal can be boring, highly flavored condiments help satisfy the senses. "Use a variety of vinegars such as raspberry, balsamic and red wine," suggests Melanie R. Polk, director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research.

You can also use low-fat vinaigrette dressing for your cooking. "By coating vegetables, chicken or other foods with a low-fat vinaigrette, you avoid the fattening oils (one tablespoon of oil has 120 calories) with flavorful results," Neff says.

You can also experiment with unusual condiments such as liquid smoke, www.colgin.com. "Liquid smoke is a seasoning made from water and concentrated smoke that mimics the flavor of smoked meats. It can be used to enhance almost anything, but especially split pea soup, braised greens and baked beans, and it has virtually no calories," says Lawrence J. Cheskin, professor of medicine and human nutrition at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of "Recipes for Weight Loss" (Rebus, 2003).

Polk also suggests using fresh herbs. "There's nothing like cutting fresh herbs such as thyme, cilantro or rosemary and adding them to cooked grains, grilled chicken or fresh green beans."

In addition, culinary experts recommend cooking with fat-free, low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth as a way to avoid using oil.

Send your unique "calorie-saving cooking tip" to info@thedietdetective.com. If your idea is published, you'll receive a $20 check and a free copy of the forthcoming book "The Automatic Diet" (Hudson Street Press/Penguin Group).

Charles Stuart Platkin is a syndicated health, nutrition and fitness columnist. Write to info@thedietdetective.com.