Occasionally I find myself without a specific ingredient while cooking. At such times I look for a substitute. The recipe might not turn out exactly the same, but I’m not a purist so I don’t worry about it.
Some substitutions are easy. For example, if I’m out of red onions I’ll substitute Vidalias, dried onions, or even the whites of green onions in a pinch. I’ve used Gala apples for Granny Smiths, whole wheat pastry flour in place of white flour, and zucchini instead of eggplant. To save money I mix my own Italian seasoning and pumpkin pie spice.
To improve the nutritional composition of a dish I often use lite salt for regular salt. Onion powder occasionally serves as a suitable salt replacement in savory dishes as well. And I often use Stevia for half of the sugar called for in certain recipes.
When really stumped, too busy to drive to the grocery store, or simply feeling creative, I’ll research unique substitutions online. Once, when dismayed at finding I was out of eggs while making muffins, I learned that flaxseed meal and water work in a pinch. Frozen bananas become “nice cream” (vs ice cream) in a food processor. I shocked my family once by baking cookies with chickpeas rather than flour! And more recently I made mock hot dogs from whole carrots! JB said he’ll never forget that one! (Recipe)
Nor are these replacements always intentional. Recently I stopped by Sam’s Club on the way home because I was out of lotion. Too hurried to rummage for my reading glasses, I grabbed what looked like a large lotion container with a handy pump dispenser. After I’d used it once at home, JB looked at the label and asked, “You know that’s hair conditioner, right?” And once at a friend’s house for lunch, and without my glasses (again) in the bathroom, I rubbed what I thought was a nice, scented lotion all over my hands after washing them with her fancy bar soap. After returning to the table my hands began to itch and I realized I’d rubbed liquid soap into my skin!
Some things you just can’t substitute.
And the most important one is Jesus! John the Baptist taught his disciples, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). Jesus Himself explained in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Peter declared to the Jewish high priest and many religious rulers, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And Paul clarified to the believers in Rome that, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Jesus is the only Savior. Accept no substitutes!
