In time for Lent, Jane Ippel of Grand Rapids, Mich. (formerly from Cincinnati), sent her recipe for seafood enchiladas. This easy-to-make dish consists of a shrimp, crab and cheese mixture tucked inside flour tortillas, covered with a rich cream sauce and topped with additional shredded cheese. It's perfect for a meatless entree, but each serving contains 35 grams of fat.

        For this rehab, we:

        • Replaced the butter with a light (5 grams fat per tablespoon) margarine and reduced the amount in the sauce from 1/4 cup to 1 1/2 tablespoons.

        • Replaced the half-and-half with 1 percent milk and added 1 teaspoon flour.

        • Used light sour cream.

        • Replaced the 8 ounces of colby-Jack cheese with 4 ounces of light (5-6 grams fat per ounce) cheddar and 3 ounces Monterey Jack.

        • Used fat-free tortilla shells.

        In our first attempt at rehabbing this recipe, we replaced the half-and-half with the fat-free variety. The enchiladas tasted good, but the sauce curdled slightly. Substituting 1 percent milk produced a sauce that was too thin. But the addition of a teaspoon of flour made an amazing difference. The sauce had the thickness of the original, as well as a delicious flavor.

        Reduced to only 12 grams of fat per serving, these seafood enchiladas may easily become a family favorite in your home.

        Tip of the Week: Since there are no low-fat Monterey Jack cheeses available, we used the regular variety and reduced the amount.
        Contact Karen Weber, Pat Streicher and Ellen Illig of Jewish Hospital's Cholesterol Center by phone: 585-7946; fax: 585-6107; e-mail: weberkd@healthall.com.

        Seafood Enchiladas

       1 tablespoon light (5 grams fat per tablespoon) margarine
       1 onion, chopped
       8 ounces crab
       4 ounces tiny shrimp
       1 cup reduced-fat (5-6 grams per ounce) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
        3/4 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
       6 fat-free 10-inch flour tortilla shells
       1 1/2 tablespoons light (5 grams fat per tablespoon) margarine
       1 cup 1 percent milk
        1/2 cup light sour cream
       1 teaspoon flour
       1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
        1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

        Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 13-by-9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil spray. In large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon light margarine; saute onion until transparent. Remove skillet from heat; add crab and shrimp. Stir in 1/2 cup cheddar and 1/3 cup Monterey Jack. Put 1/2 cup of mixture onto each tortilla shell. Roll up and arrange in prepared baking dish, seam-side down.

        In saucepan, melt 1 1/2 tablespoons light margarine. Whisk in milk, sour cream, flour, parsley and garlic salt. Whisk until blended and hot, not boiling. Pour over enchiladas; top with remaining cheeses. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 6 servings.

Before and after

       Values based on 1 serving (10-inch enchilada)
       Seafood Enchiladas...Adapted
       Calories...624 ......355
       Fat........35 g .....12 g
       Carbohydrate..51 g ...36 g
       Sodium.......1,038 mg...978 mg
       Cholesterol...142 mg ..92 mg
       Calories
       from fat......51%......33%

        Nutritionists recommend that those on a daily 2,000-calorie diet limit their fat consumption to 65 g or less, cholesterol to 300 mg or less and sodium to 2,400 mg or less per day.

Good Dishes

        Some great chocolate desserts I've tasted in the past year:

        • Tink's Cafe has chocolate fondue for four, with almond-flavored pound cake cubes, berries and other fruits for dipping. Tink's also serves a liquid-center chocolate cake.

        • Aioli's bittersweet chocolate cake, flourless but light, more like a fallen souffle than a rich chunk of fudge.

        • No one can argue with the chocolate souffle at the Maisonette.

        • Chocolate toffee crunch torte at Mitchell's Fish Market is more sophisticated and delicate than you would expect.

We Tried It

        There's something new in ketchup, and this time it's not green — or purple.

        Heinz has introduced Kick'rs, three flavors of ketchup for adults. Zesty garlic, hot and spicy and smoky mesquite were developed in response to research about America's favorite flavors.

        We dipped some potato chips into all three flavors. The smoky mesquite tastes like bottled barbecue sauce (it would make more sense to just buy barbecue sauce); the hot and spicy tastes like ketchup with a hint of Tabasco sauce (it would make more sense to buy ketchup and add Tabasco); and zesty garlic would add a pleasant garlic-herbal-Italian flavor to burgers or fries. Each is $1.99.

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