Tools Needed for Low Fat Cooking

Series Summary

Dieting is made easier by cooking at home. Learning how to cook a low fat meal can be difficult. Using a low calorie or low fat substitute for a high calorie or fatty ingredient is often the first step in low fat cooking. Sometimes finding those ingredients or knowing what to add can be a challenge. Foods must not contain more than three grams of fat per serving if they are labeled “low fat.” To be “fat free,” there must be less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving. Get great tips for low fat cooking in this series of expert video clips. Learn more about using low fat substitutes for baking, flavoring and sautéing. Our expert gives an introduction to low fat cooking with a comparison of “good fats” versus “bad fats.” Learn more about proteins in the form of low fat meat substitutes, nut substitutes and egg substitutes. Dairy products can be high in fat content, but if you watch these videos, you can learn more about cream cheese and heavy cream substitutes used in low fat cooking. Our expert offers tips for cooking and ideas for low fat cooking tools in these informational videos.

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Kirsten Herbes, I’m a registered dietitian and health educator. You can visit my website at www.wellnessrd.com. Today I’m going to talk about some of the necessary tools of the trade for low fat cooking. The first item that you should have in your kitchen pantry is a nonstick skillet. Most of us are familiar with skillets obviously we use a lot of aluminum skillets and cast-iron skillets, unfortunately those require a lot of extra fat to prevent the food from sticking, so you definitely want to invest some dollars in a good quality nonstick pan. Most of them are Teflon coated, any sort of nonstick substance will work, but the more dollars you invest, the better quality pan you will have. Another item that you definitely want to invest some money in is a good spatula, most of us have a metal spatula at home, the metal spatula however is not very appropriate for the nonstick pan because it will scrape off the nonstick substance at the bottom of the pan. So you just want to invest a few dollars in a good rubber spatula and you can get these at any general kitchen supply store. another piece of equipment that most folks don’t have in their kitchen is something called a steamer inset. A steamer inset is used mainly for vegetable cooking, you use it to steam your vegetables and any standard pot, the inset is adjustable, you can use any pot that you may have at home. You simply put the inset inside the pot, add a little bit of water at the bottom of the pot, add your vegetables, put a lid on it and steam it for about 5 to 7 minutes, it does not require the addition of any oil or butter for flavoring or for preventing the food to stick. Another item that you want to have is the appropriate measuring device for the food that you’re cooking. A liquid measuring cup is used exactly for that, for liquid ingredients only, do not attempt to measure your dry ingredients in this because they won’t come out to the same amount. You want to invest in one of these, a one to two cup measurer is usually adequate, you also want to invest in a set of good dry ingredient measuring cups. They usually come in a set from a quarter of a cup to a full cup size, you can get these at any general kitchen supply store. lastly as we’re talking about measuring ingredients, measuring spoons are also very important. Measuring spoons again you can find at any supply store and these should not replace your regular kitchen spoons, kitchen spoons are not the same size as regular measuring spoons. "