A Better-for-You Meat Marinade

Marinate your meat or poultry in oils and spices? Heck no! Not when you can do these dishes a healthy and delicious turn with this twist: wine or fruit juice marinades.

Oil-based marinades can make a high-fat meal even fattier. But a low-fat marinade that relies on fruit for flavor can add moist taste, help control calories, and even cut down on harmful by-products produced by high-heat cooking.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
The key is to choose a marinade that is light on oil and high in spices and relies on vinegar, wine, or diluted juice for the majority of the liquids.

• The next time you marinate beef or poultry, enjoy the rich flavor in this low-fat marinade: Rosemary-Red Wine Marinade.
• For pork and fish, try this fruity-spicy tropical marinade: Pineapple-Chipotle Marinade.

More Smart Swaps
The authors of The Mayo Clinic Diet have a host of great cooking and baking ideas that help make holiday favorites better for your waistline. Just think how great it will feel to be ahead of the game when the New Year's race to lose weight hits! Here are two more strategies for cutting down on fat and calories and adding flavor at the same time:

• Saute vegetables in fat-free broth with just a smidge of better-for-you oil, like canola, olive, or peanut. Use this technique to make juicy Green Beans with Caramelized Red Onions.
• Bake cakes, bars, and cookies with half of the recommended amount of fat and oil while replacing the other half with prune puree or applesauce. Make a batch of these moist Orange Spice Molasses Cookies baked with applesauce.

Find more fabulous-in-your-mouth, friendly-to-your-waist holiday recipes in the RealAge Recipe Finder.

RealAge Benefit

Making healthful substitutions when cooking can make your RealAge 3 to 12 years younger. Take the RealAge Test!

References

Actively patrolling your health can make your RealAge as much as 12 years younger. Take the RealAge Test  Copyright 2010 RealAge