I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation. -Madame Jehane Benoît, Canadian Chef

Accenting a meal with contrasting flavor and texture is sometimes accomplished with a drizzle of delicious sauce. Unfortunately even light sauces add calories to your food log...especially if the sauce is so tasty the drizzle turns into a ladle-full. Transform the texture and flavor of tonight's dinner - and bypass some of the calories - by using a marinade.

The ingredients to create a fabulous marinade for are probably already sitting in your pantry. Do you have oil, vinegar, soy sauce, wine, herbs, spices, or pepper sauce? Is your herb garden bursting with fresh parsley, basil, garlic, and cilantro? Do you have a lemon or lime in the fridge? Then making a marinade is easy.

Simply toss the ingredients inside a zip lock bag or a covered glass container, add your meat, tofu, tempeh, or veggie, and wait a while. Go do some chores, call your Mom, or sit and read a good improving book while your dinner drinks in the flavor. Nothing is easier. 

Marinate tofu at room temperature in an hour or two. Tender cuts of meat need only 30 minutes to an hour. Tough cuts of meat need to stay submerged in the tenderizing vinegar or wine at least two hours or over night. Veggies are happy with a mere 30 minute swim in the sauce.

Measuring calories for marinades can be tricky as you will pour most, but not all, down the drain. Calorie Counters can choose one of three ways to handle adding calories to the daily food log.

1. Ignore the marinade calories altogether and pretend there is nothing there at all.
2. Make the best guess you can for the amount that sticks to dinner.
3. Measure the liquid before and after you remove the food from the bag and run the nutrition facts on the difference.

I am not a precision cook so nutrition facts on the following recipes were run with a guestimating eye.

One nice thing about the Marinade for Flank Steak and Portobello Fajitas is that you can satisfy both the carnivores and the vegetarians at the same meal. They marinade separately, grill separately, and can be carved and placed onto different plates.

Delicate Lemongrass Marinade for Shrimp with its mildly Asian inspired flavors is ideal for any seafood.  

Louisiana Style Marinade for Shrimp is also great on veggie kabobs!

I found this Fat Free Marinade for Steak using the recipe search bar right here at Calorie Count! 

A simple Buttermilk Marinade is perfect for making crispy oven baked Buttermilk Panko Chicken.

There is no need to spend so much money on vinegar based hot sauce. Marinade a bunch of peppers in vinegar and make your own Hot Pepper Sauce.

Diets In Review is a terrific resource for marinades. Their Citrus Marinade is perfect for chicken, fish, shrimp, or any grilled vegetable.

The Korean BBQ Marinade from Vegetarian Times is just right when you want to cook up something a little exotic. 

Your thoughts….

Do you guess the calories from your marinades or weigh and measure for accurate calorie counting? Or do you pretend there are no calories whatsoever in a marinade? What marinade do you use for veggies? Do you measure or just wing it? Share your recipes with everyone here! If you would like your recipe to be considered for CC Palate, please send it to me via pm!