Keri Pressley, left, and Yulanda McCullough prepare a simple cranberry apple salad for other participants during a fall harvest cooking class Oct. 23.
During a Fall Harvest Cooking Class Oct. 23 at the Quantico Barber Physical Fitness Center, dietitian Tracy Bowman showed participants how to cook the foods we love during Thanksgiving, but with half the traditional fat and calories.
‘‘If you can substitute some of the fatter ingredients with lighter ones, you can cut out almost half the calories,” said Bowman. ‘‘Instead of using butter, we used chicken broth for the potatoes.”
Throughout the class participants enjoyed cranberry-glazed pork roast (see recipe on page B6), skinny mashed potatoes, cranberry apple salad and light pumpkin pie.
All of the foods were packed full of protein with minimal calories. For example, the cranberry-glazed pork can serve 10 people, has 50 grams of protein and nine grams of fat.
‘‘It’s usually more cost effective to cook because food like meat can be frozen and recipes portions can be modified,” said Michelle Vukovich, head of the Barber Physical Fitness Activity Center.
Bowman explained that during the holiday season people are faced with eating more portions because of quantities of food available.
Other ways to optimize recipes and reduce fat grams are cooking with complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat pasta which enables the body to break downcarbohydrates for prolonged energy.
‘‘Learning how to cook something lighter and healthier for Thanksgiving is so worth it for my family,” said participant Zena Gibbs.
For more information on Semper Fit or more cooking classes, call 703-432-0590 or 703-784-2003.
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