Cooking for Mom on Mother's Day?
Easy Ways to Savor the Favor and Purge the Fat

©All articles are copyright of Dr. Susan Mitchell and Practicalories, Inc. and cannot be reprinted or used without permission. To obtain permission, please contact Dr. Mitchell.

Moms, are you hoping that someone is going to cook for you on Mother’s Day? Maybe you’re cooking for your Mom instead. How about the way you cook? Is it different from your Mom’s? The way that many of us cook now is very different from the way that our Moms cooked. I grew up in Tennessee and my Mom cooked breakfast for us as kids every single day. I’m not talking about cereal either. She would typically make scrambled eggs with bacon or sausage (I know, I know…you’re thinking…and you’re a nutritionist?), along with toast (sometimes homemade biscuits) and orange juice. I don’t recall ever leaving for school without breakfast. It was just the way it was. You had breakfast before you went to school. And cooking methods were also different. I remember my Mom would cook green beans ALL DAY LONG…know what I mean…put them on the stove and hours later they’re still simmering away. They went from bright green and crisp to dark green and mushy. Now we microwave green beans for a couple of minutes or blanch them quickly.

Do you think that cutting the fat when you cook also means cutting the flavor of the food? Changing the way we cook to improve our health doesn’t have to mean losing the flavor of food. In fact, the flavor of the food can be enhanced with herbs and spices and let the taste come through instead of being drowned by fat.

Some of these fat busting tips you may do already and others you’ve heard of. All work nicely in most any recipe without altering the flavor profile. For example, I use fat free sweetened condensed milk in a pecan bar that calls for the regular. No taste difference. I also use the fat free sweetened condensed milk for making key lime pie.

Food doesn’t have to lose its flavor just because you purge the fat. In fact the real flavor of food comes through and can even be enhanced with fresh herbs and spices. Cook something special for your Mom and try some of these easy tips. Happy Mother’s Day!