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Fat Free Doesn’t Have To Mean Flavor Free

Merri Lou Dobler Correspondent

Fat-free cream cheese, yogurt and sour cream. Egg whites. Evaporated skim milk.

Substitutes like these can help you cut the fat in home cooking.

Barb Griffith, a Spokane nutritionist, knows how to take out the fat and keep in the flavor. Her popular “Fat Free Cooking” classes, non-credit courses offered through the Community Colleges of Spokane, are whole-meal preparations with little or no fat.

Griffith, who’s been teaching classes for eight years, found lots of demand for her recipes.

“Everyone wanted to know what my techniques were, so I’ve taken a lot of recipes and modified them,” she says.

Griffith emphasizes how quick and easy it is to cook without fat. Her chocolate chip cookies, for instance, have only one gram of fat each. Many store brands average five grams of fat or more per cookie.

“Without butter in the chocolate chip cookies, you don’t have to cream it,” she says of the dough. “You just throw the ingredients together and stir it up, put it on your pan.”

Griffith’s recipes are collected in a cookbook, titled “Fat Free Cookbook,” which is available for $16. Write to her at 9986 N. Newport Highway, Suite 304, Spokane, WA 99218.

Keep the fat low in your cooking tonight using Griffith’s recipe for Spicy Chicken or Fish Sticks. Select lean boneless chicken breasts or white fish fillets. Roll them in bowls of flour, egg whites and bread crumbs for a flavorful seasoned breading.

Stir-fry your favorite vegetables, warm up whole grain rolls and scoop out some fat-free sorbet. A healthy dinner for all!

Spicy Chicken or Fish Sticks

From “Fat Free Cookbook” by Barb Griffith of Spokane

1 pound chicken breast or fish fillet strips

2 tablespoons flour

3 egg whites, slightly beaten

1 cup seasoned bread crumb dressing, crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with vegetable spray. Roll chicken or fish strips in flour first. Dip in egg whites. Roll in seasoned crumbs. Place on cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until cooked.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving (using chicken): 312 calories, 42 grams protein, 5 grams fat (14 percent fat calories), 96 milligrams cholesterol, 308 milligrams sodium.

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