Warm weather ought to make it easier to eat healthy, but many summer foods contain artery-clogging fats. Here are some traditional summer recipes made over, plus one or two naturally healthy dishes.
1. Southwestern Burgers
These tasty, low fat burgers use extra-lean ground beef combined with mashed black beans to reduce fat content and make moist, flavorful patties. The jalapeno pepper, cumin and cilantro add a nice little kick. Use a hotter chile pepper if you prefer, or omit it altogether if you want a more subtle flavor.
2. Barbecued Pork Chops
Lean pork chops make a nice change from eating chicken, and the leanest cutsfrom the loinare leaner than chicken thighs, so don't feel guilty about eating pork chops from time to time. As with all meats, be sure to trim any excess fat before cooking. These barbecued pork chops are tangy and delicious.
3. Curried Fish Kebabs
Halibut or cod are ideal for these succulent, low-fat curried fish kebabs, marinated in a low fat yogurt-based marinade.
4. Mediterranean Salad
A delicious low fat Mediterranean salad featuring cannellini beans, roasted peppers, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts on a bed of arugula. This Mediterranean salad would make a terrific low fat lunch or a light supper.
5. Chicken Caesar Salad
Caesar salads can be huge fat traps with their creamy dressings and deep-fried croutons. Not this one. Make your own tangy, low fat Caesar salad dressing, and use either fat-free croutons from the grocery store or bake your own croutons.
6. Macaroni Salad
This makes a great picnic salad. Use elbow macaroni or ditaloni, the short tube pasta. It's fine to increase the amount of fat-free mayonnaise and yogurt to half a cup each if you want more of the dressing. It won't affect the fat content to any significant degree.
7. Potato Salad
A low fat creamy, tangy potato salad made with small white potatoes, and red onion, with a yogurt and mustard-mayonnaise dressing.
8. Easy Low Fat Coleslaw
A quick and easy low fat coleslaw using ready-shredded coleslaw mix, fat-free mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, sugar and celery seed.
9. Summer Cheesecake
Cheesecake is such a rich dessert that you really need only a small piece. Here's a low fat version that uses a mix of light and fat-free cream cheese and low-fat cottage cheese to shave off a significant number of fat calories. Top with fresh berries.
10. Tropical Fruit Salad
You can't beat fruit salad for a low-fat sweet treat. This tropical fruit salad makes the most of delicious summer fruit. It's really perfect by itself, but you can add a little low-fat vanilla yogurt or fat-free whipped topping if you like.











