Altering Recipes for Health

My son and daughter-in-law sent me a fabulous-looking recipe that I really wanted to try. After looking it over, I knew that due to having diabetes-in-remission, I wasn't going to be able to make the recipe exactly as is. However, I  didn't want to dismiss the recipe because it had great merit! So, don't be afraid to alter a recipe to meet your health needs.

The original recipe came from an incredible vegan website called "Rabbits and Wolves." The title of the recipe is "Creamy Tuscan Vegan 'Chicken' Milanese," and it can be found here. After reviewing the ingredients and instructions, I decided to make the following changes.

1) I used reduced-sodium soy sauce rather than regular to cut the sodium a bit.

2) I used whole wheat bread crumbs instead of Panko since I haven't been able to find whole grain Panko in the store and didn't have the energy to make my own.

3) Instead of dredging the patties in all-purpose flour and pan-frying them in oil, I skipped the flour and oil completely and baked the patties at 425 degrees on a parchment-lined baking pan for 10 minutes on one side and 14 minutes on the other. Worked like a charm!

4) I used 1/2 the cashews (total of 1/2 cup) in the sauce. This cut the nuts down to 2 T a person because there was enough sauce for 4 servings. However, I decided to use the same amount of veggie broth and nutritional yeast in the sauce as it called for. You could reduce the nutritional yeast to 1 T, but we love it, so I kept it as is. The sauce was plenty rich with half the cashews.

5) I sauteed 8 oz of sliced mushrooms in a little veggie broth before cooking the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach. I just thought adding mushrooms to this sauce sounded amazing, and I was right!

6) After making the sauce and "chicken" patties and serving it for dinner, I realized I forgot to make the pasta! It was so good even without it!

Those were the changes I made, which allowed me to have a fabulous meal with quite a bit less fat, less sodium, whole grain, and more veggies. Yet, we didn't sacrifice any taste or texture!