Cooking spray question

[biev]

I used to cook with oil a lot, but I'm watchin my figure : P
So I've mostly switched to cooking spray, but I still use olive oil to roast things like garlic and onion, cause I'm worried about the results with the spray. Can you actually roast garlic with just spray? Or would it just go from warm to burnt?

 

[Andy M.]

I don't know how the spray will work. You could just lightly coat the garlic with olive oil. The oil in the spray can has just as many caolries as the oil in the bottle.

 

[FryBoy]

I know Caphalon recommends that you NOT use cooking sprays with their non-stick cookware as it gums up the surface. Better to use a drop of olive oil (or other oil as appropriate) and rub it into the surface of the pan with a paper towel, or go to the cooking gadget store and get one of those spray bottles made for oil -- you can refill it with good oil, leaving out the emulsifiers and alcohol and other additives found in most aerosol cooling oil sprays.

 

[Bridgett]

The spray definitely works for me - the vegetables are crisp without being oily. To eliminate fat altogether, it is also possible to put your vegetables (covered with plastic wrap) in the freezer for 15 minutes before putting them in the oven. Although not as crisp as when baked with oil - they do still crisp up well, and the result is much healthier.

 

[kyles]

You do need some fats in your diet, and olive oil is good fat, so I wouldn't stress about it, unless you are eating roasted garlic and onions three times a day swimming in oil!

Or what I do is distill normal olive oil (or extra virgin) into a spray can and use it that way, it controls the amount more than my previously flavoured slosh and dollop method, and you still get the taste of the olive oil.

i think the big trick to losing weight and still using real fats is measure measure measure. I haven't given up olive oil, or even butter, and have lost 65lbs.

 

[biev]

Well, I like the cooking spray. As bridgett said, I enjoy the food not being oily. Also, it has 0 calories or fat according to the nutrition label, while 1 tbsp. of olive oil has over a third of my calories per meal. Staying under 350 a meal is really hard if you don't pay attention to stuff like that.

Don't worry though, I get my good fat from at the fish I eat ;o)

 

[Andy M.]

You should understand that the zero fat on the label is a rounding off game played by the food manufacturers. If the number of calories measured in the spray is less than a certain amount, the government allows you to round the number down to zero. Do you actually limit your spray to the 1/3 of a second the nutrition label calls for?

The spray oil has the same 120 calories per tablespoon as the olive oil. the difference is, in a 1/3 of a second spray, you don't get a lot of oil.

Besides, you really don't have to use anywhere near a tablespoon of oil to lightly coat garlic or onion before roasting.

Good luck with your diet.