During the low-fat and low-carb diet trends, the way to make more of your recipes was often to make less. Cutting out ingredients was recommended, as well as trimming portions. Instead of deflating your dishes, though, superfoods can supercharge them. In addition to improving the nutrition profile of the meal, flavor can go way up as well.

Little steps over time can add up. Following are a few easy steps to ignite your recipe box. Ingredients are to taste.

MORE THAN JUST CRUMBS

Top your favorite macaroni 'n' cheese recipe with a hefty dose of bread crumbs prepared from day-old multigrain sprouted bread, a process that harnesses a grain seed while it is sprouting. Such breads, like Ezekiel types, often include protein packed vegetarian ingredients like sprouted lentils and soy, while still tasting like the best homemade-style breads.

NOT JUST SWEET

Add small chunks of candied ginger to your favorite cookie recipe. Beyond their delectable flavor, they are chewy like raisins and sweet like chocolate chips while adding the antioxidants of ginger.

DOUBLE BURGERS WITH NO TROUBLES

Make your beef burgers doubles by grilling up just as many large Portobello mushrooms (which often mimic the size of burger patties) that have been sprinkled with freshly ground pepper. Serve, along with the beef patties, on buns with the works for a flavor explosion.

BERRY GOOD

Cook down blueberries, strawberries and purple grape juice, stirring carefully until the mixture reduces to a syrup. Serve over Belgian waffles and pancakes.

SHAKE UP YOUR SHAKE

In a strong blender, add chopped prunes, chunks of avocado and shavings of at least 70 percent cacao dark chocolate to your favorite chocolate shake recipe.

AFTER-WORK GOURMET COOKBOOK SHELF

In previous cookbooks, Jessica Seinfeld taught others how she hid vegetables in tasty recipes so that her children with husband comic Jerry Seinfeld would not only eat them but enjoy them. Fearing that might make her sound like a nutritional saint when it came to her own diet, she is set to dispel that myth in "Food Swings: 125+ Recipes to Enjoy Your Life of Virtue & Vice." It's a guide to eating in the real world where not every craving is clean. Light eating is covered in the "Virtue" part of the book and indulgences that still won't sink everything are chronicled in the "Vice" part. In reality, the descriptions of Seinfeld's recipes prove more a road map for making the two blend seamlessly in the form of whole new kinds of cravings, such as: Kiwi-Apple Smoothies; Chocolate-Popcorn-Almond-Hemp Seed Clusters; and Amaranth Bowls with Raspberries, Walnuts and Coconut.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com