For Oil or Butter:

• Used ripe mashed banana
• Dried figs – mashed to a pulp
• Yogurt ( Look for 0% Greek style – it’s very rich and creamy)
• Whip up egg whites so that they form almost a meringue and fold them into your recipe.
• Use natural nut butters like peanut, cashew or almond. You don’t need much here. A little goes a long way!

• Apple Sauce.
• Any fruit based baby food – I think prunes are the best.
• Low fat vanilla yogurt. (This adds sweetness and creaminess!)

Feel free to replace eggs in a recipe with egg whites. If the recipe calls for more then one, I generally use one whole egg and make the rest egg whites.

• Other Baking Tips:

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• Trade white flour for stone ground whole wheat. Or use half white and half whole wheat.
• Remove 1/4 cup of flour from the recipe and replace it with ground flax meal.
• No one should be cooking with shortening anymore. That’s just crazy talk. I think even butter is a better option here! It’s all natural!
• If you’re adventurous and your cooking for yourself (and not guests) Try replacing that shortening with things like nut butters, mashed fruit and/or a yogurt. You’ll have to play with this one. Shortening is difficult to replace.
• Switch from milk chocolate chips to a higher percentage dark chocolate. Ghirardelli makes a delicious 60% cacao chip. But don’t let all the hype about chocolate encourage you to go crazy, it’s still chocolate – It’s still fat, it’s still calories, it’s still sugar.
• Feel free to experiment with all the different types of flour now available at your grocery store! From oat to soy to barley – look for Bob’s Red Mill brand. They pretty much have every type of flour covered for every palette and every food allergy.

Got any other ideas ? Feel free to comment and let me know!