Reducing the amount of fat and cholesterol in your diet doesn't mean meals have to become dry and tasteless. It just means swapping out one ingredient that isn’t so good for you with another that tastes delicious and is better for you like applesauce, yogurt or fruit juice. Those substitutions sound pretty good, don’t they?

Whether you need to lose weight or just trim the fat, the following ingredient substitutions can help you achieve your dietary goals.

Bacon ---- Substitute with turkey bacon, Canadian bacon, smoked turkey
Butter, margarine, shortening, or oil in baked goods ---- Substitute with applesauce for half of the butter, shortening, or oil.*
Eggs ---- Substitute with two egg whites or ¼ cup egg substitute for each whole egg.
Ground beef ---- Substitute with Laura's Lean Beef
Oil-based marinades ---- Substitute with wine, balsamic vinegar, fruit juice or fat-free broth
Sour cream ---- Substitute with fat-free plain yogurt or fat-free/low-fat sour cream

* Helpful Tip: You may need to reduce baking time by 25%

Here's one of my favorite recipes for banana bread using applesauce replacing part of the butter:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (this replaces 1/4 cup butter or margarine)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp. vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas

1. Sift flour, salt, and soda.
2. Beat sugar and margarine. Then add applesauce, vanilla, eggs, milk, & vinegar
3. Add this to dry mixture and then mix in bananas.
4. Pour into 1 bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Keep checking the bread after 45 minutes, the baking time can vary with the substitution of the applesauce.

If you have any good recipes where you throw out the fat, we would love to read them! Just comment below!