You'll find that most cooking and baking recipes are easily adapted to a lower-fat lifestyle. Look for recipes that use leaner meats, and reduce the amount of oil or butter used in sautéing foods. Most baked goods can be altered slightly to reduce the fat, and it's easy to add flavor with condiments, herbs, and spices.

Substitute Fruit Purées

Fruit purées, including applesauce, puréed pears, raisins, and prunes, are a good substitute for fat in baking. Reduce the fat by one-third to one-half and add an equal amount of the purée. Lighter purées like applesauce work well in light goods like sugar cookies and vanilla cakes, while prune purées add flavor and moisture to chocolate recipes.

Reduce Fat in Baked Goods

Many baked goods, especially breads, can be made with less fat without changing anything else in the recipe. Start by reducing the fat, whether it's butter, margarine, or oil, by 25 percent. If the finished product is acceptable, reduce it by 10 percent more. There is a limit to the amount you can omit, however, since fat plays an important part in the structure of baked goods.

Meat as Flavor

Meats, especially red meat and pork, are quite high in fat no matter how you trim them. The best solution is to reduce their presence in the recipes you make. Use meat as a flavoring instead of as the main ingredients in casseroles and soups. If a recipe calls for whole pork chops to be baked on scalloped potatoes, for instance, think about cubing half the number of chops and stirring them into the potatoes.

Trim visible fat from meats, and be sure to drain saucepans after browning meats. By doing this you can cut as much as 10 percent of the fat from a recipe without having to change anything else. Also choose cuts of meat that are naturally lower in fat. The cheaper cuts of beef, including top and bottom round as well as flank steak, are less expensive than filet mignon because they have less internal marbling. Cooked properly, they are just as delicious.

Drink Lower-Fat Milk

Lowering the amount of fat in your milk can be accomplished gradually, so your family won't even know. If you currently drink whole milk, switch to a combination of whole and 2% milk. Then gradually increase the 2% and reduce the whole. Once that transition is completed, continue the process with 1% milk. Eventually, you may be able to get your family to drink skim milk. By switching from whole to skim milk, you'll save almost 7 grams of fat per cup.

Even if your family doesn't want to switch, use lower-fat dairy products in baking and cooking. It's hard to tell the difference between full-fat and low-fat sour cream in a potato salad.

Cook in Alcohol and Stocks

Since alcohol transmits volatile flavors just as well as fat does, sautéing onions and other vegetables in a bit of alcohol adds no fat and does add flavor to a recipe. You can also sauté in chicken, beef, and vegetable stocks instead of butter, margarine, or oils. However, note that the alcohol content will not completely cook out, even if it evaporates.

Marinades and Brining

Marinades and rubs will help add flavor and tenderize meats that have a lower-fat content. With less fat in meat, acidic ingredients like lemon juice, wine, and vinegar are used to help break down some of the fibers before cooking, resulting in a more tender finish. Marinades also add flavor to meats.

Brining is another way to add flavor and moisture to meat. When you make a brine, you usually add tablespoons or cups of salt and sugar, but most isn't absorbed into the meat and so the method does not add much sodium or calories.

Slow Cooker

When you use a slow cooker, not only will your food have few AGEs, but you will need less fat. Slow cooking is an excellent choice for leaner, cheaper cuts of meat that naturally have less fat. It also helps capture all of the flavor, including volatile compounds.