One traditional Thanksgiving dish I’ve largely given up since my angioplasty is mashed potatoes. The milk and butter in them carry too much fat for my low-fat diet.

This year, though, my wife challenged me to make mashed potatoes that were low-fat. And I did with results that pleased her but left me with mixed feelings about their taste.

I started by using fat-free milk instead of regular or even 1%. Note that a cup of fat-free milk has 135 mgs of sodium for some reason that escapes me, so even there you have salt to deal with. I doubt I used a cup on five pounds of potatoes though. I don’t measure it in, just keep adding to get to the creaminess I want for the potatoes.

Instead of butter, I used Smart Balance which one nutritionist recommended to me. I actually used a variety called Smart Balance Light which has less sodium, only 80 mgs a tablespoon and 5 grams of fat. I used about four tablespoons, so there was still 20 grams of fat in the five pounds of potatoes. Continue reading “Low-fat mashed potatoes — here’s how” →