5 Easy Ingredient Swaps For Healthy Recipes

These easy ingredient swaps will provide you with healthier meals and recipe ideas! These options are perfect for those healthy recipes you want!

Summer is slowly approaching and most of us are still working hard to get that summer body. When it comes to food, we’re always looking for ways to make a recipe more nutritious while also maintaining flavor. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list below of the 5 best food swaps for healthy recipes to make you favorite guilty pleasures, just as pleasurable… and less guilty!

1. Replace Brown Rice for Quinoa

While quinoa and brown rice are very similar in calories, quinoa is rich in major nutrients such as fiber, riboflavin, and iron. Quinoa can be used in many ways such as including it in a summer salad, a breakfast bowl, or even in a mock fried rice dish.

2. Replace Spaghetti for Zoodles

Pasta is the best friend of many, but its carb-filled goodness can be addicting and even lead to bloating & weight gain when eaten in addition to pasta sauces. Try to swap out spaghetti for zoodles (a.k.a zucchini noodles) for a much healthier obsession.

3. Replace Regular Peanut Butter for Natural Peanut Butter

Peanut Butter is a protein lover’s dream but most name brands (Skippy, Jif, Peter Pan) can be full of excess sugar, salt and preservatives. When buying peanut butter, check the ingredient’s list for up to 3 ingredients. It should contain peanuts, salt and sometimes Palm Fruit Oil, not Palm Oil.

4. Replace Soda for Seltzer Water

Soda and other flavored beverages contain tons of sugar which not only slows down weight loss, but it also clogs arteries putting you at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions. Swap them out for seltzer water flavored with fruit for a refreshing drink.

20 Things Every Pitt Freshman Needs To Do

5) Replace Dairy Milk for Almond Milk

Although Dairy Milk is rich in calcium and other vitamins, it often causes acne flare-ups in many individuals, making it a recipe for disaster. Almond Milk- whether flavored or unflavored- is lower than dairy milk in carbs and calories which is a win for those who want the taste of milk with fewer calories.