Healthy dinners

NicoleMarie2486

I'm a busy mom of three but I want to find meals that are healthy and that don't take long to make. Any suggestions?

TeaBea

Stir fries are great. You can mix and match any of the veggies your kids don't like.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/spring-stir-fried-chicken-with-sugar/

NancyYale

Crock pots are a help. I make a huge pot of healthy chili, vegetarian sloppy lentils or soup for dinner and freeze leftovers in single servings for healthy lunches later.

NicoleMarie2486

That's a great idea...thank you

Chadxx

For sides, roasted veggies are easy. I use a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, whatever and put in the oven at 400 then sprinkle lightly with parmesan just before done. Any meats that aren't too thick cook pretty quick and easy in a skillet, particularly fish. You could also make tacos with 99% lean turkey meat and carb balance tortillas.

NicoleMarie2486

Thanks for the ideas!

pebble4321

I like recipes where everything cooks all at once, I guess it's a quicker alternative to the crockpot.
I've made this recipe lots of time -I made it on the weekend for my dad and left out the olives, added extra veggies (diced capsicum and zucchini and some fresh cherry tomatoes), plus used plain tinned tomatoes and added some dried herbs. I served it with mashed potatoes, but at home I'd probably put brown rice in the rice cooker so it was done at the same time as the chicken.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/26610/chicken+cacciatore+tray+bake

avskk

Tacos are actually pretty good! Take a lean pork roast, make up a sauce by blending chipotle peppers, canned pineapple, a little beef stock, cumin, garlic, oregano, and chili powder, pour the sauce over the roast in the Crockpot, and let it go on low 8-10 hours. When you get home just shred the meat, warm some tortillas, and put out some toppings (tomatoes, lettuce or spinach, onions, olives, shredded cheese, avocado). You can control your portions easily, the meat is lean but still tender and juicy, and you can choose whatever toppings round out your macros for the meal.

adamyovanovich

We do stir fry a lot, change it up with noodles or rice and dif veggies in season. The kids love it and you can eat a lot.

Also do a one pot gumbo that you can eat a lot of. Cook diced onion and bell peppers and turkey sausage in a pan for a few minutes in olive oil, then get zatarans red beans and rice and cook like it recommends, using a can of tomato sauce and then add shrimp the last 5 minutes and there you go, takes about 25 minutes.

Meat and veggies with a piece of garlic bread.

Spanish rice, Red beans and rice box from zatarans, southwest style veggies frozen, and a can of tomato/chili sauce in the mexican isle(yellow can). Make like the box says, add the veggies last 3 minutes. Then blacken some chicken and add it into the mix at the end.

Zuccini noodles with marinera or a light garlic butter sauce.

Burrito bowls minus the tortilla, just make everything you would inside one into a bowl.

Taco salad' with lean beef or steak strips.

ericwhitt

If you're trying to cut cals, replace your ground beef in dishes like Chilli, tacos and spaghetti with turkey burger instead. I find with proper seasoning most kids don't even notice the difference when you mix it into a dish like that.

Trish1c

We like our outside grill & our foreman grill when we can't go out. You can get a lot of flavor without extra calories.

TavistockToad

Today was fish pie

savithny

Healthy: A variety of protein, carb, and fat options, offered in a way that family members who need more calories/fat can eat them while family members who are trying to reduce their intake can choose lighter options.

What do you normally cook and why don't you think its "healthy?" Can you make it in ways that allow you to make lighter choices?

Some ideas:
Burrito night: Buy smaller tortillas instead of the big burrito sized ones. Portion control is built in! Have fat-free refried beans (fat free just for lower calorie, not because fat is evil) to reduce the amount of meat (not because meat is evil, but because ground meat can be fatty). Leave the cheese off yours and pile on shredded baby spinach or lettuce.

Spagetti and meatballs: Make it more filling by adding lots of chopped zucchini and mushrooms so you need less pasta. Don't add cheese to yours and have fewer meatballs. Side of frozen broccoli, steamed.

Eggs for dinner: We do this all the time. Scrambled eggs with sauteed veggies in them and toast. Eat less toast than you would normally. Please don't throw away your egg yolks though - that's where the vitamins and good fats are.

Pork roast: Buy a tenderloin (premarinated if you can find it). Sear in an iron skillet and then put in the oven to finish. Side of roasted root veggies (if you dice them fairly small they will roast really quickly) and throw together a salad from bagged greens.

Chicken sautee: Sautee chicken breasts, make a pan sauce with some butter/garlic/lemon. Pasta or couscous as a starchy side for people who want it, but you can have a smaller portion or none, depending. Steamed spinach or broccoli side.

Burger Night: Make the burgers smaller. When I was a kid, "quarter pounder" was the name for a BIG burger and my family made 6 per pound. Smaller burgers, smaller buns - you can eat less, or eat yours without a bun. Sides at our house are often baked beans or a quick slaw (bagged "Rainbow slaw" with dressing made from reduced fat mayo and/or greek yogurt), or Waldorf salad with reduced-fat mayo.

laur357

Breakfast for dinner - there are so many ways to make eggs and omelets, and you can sub out any ingredients your family doesn't like in their individual omelet. Sweet potato and ham hash. Roasted veggies and potatoes topped with eggs. Plus, seasonal pancakes or waffles with lots of fruit.

adamyovanovich

Another thing that helps is switching out your regular foods for light or fat free.
Mayo is upwards of 100 calories, light mayo can be as low as 35 calories.
Butter is upwards of 100 calories, light country crock spread is 35 calories.
Sub olive oil for light butter in veggies.
Buy 45 calorie bread instead of 110 calorie slices.
or make half sandwich's with 1 slice cut in half, and use the same amount of cheese and turkey, thats what i do for lunch, thats 60 calories cut right there.
Soy Milk or Almond milk is 35-90 calories(depending on brand) vs 130-150 calories for %2 milk, i use it in my cereal and don't notice a difference.
Use Soy Milk (35 cal a cup) and zero cal flavor in coffee instead of coffee creamer at 35 cal a tbsp. That's a huge savings in calories.
Steam veggies instead of saute' in oil. All of these little savings helped me out a bunch.
Ranch using Mayo is very high calorie. Try making it with Greek Yogurt, thats 100 calories per CUP! instead of per tablespoon.

savithny

Be careful with light butters. By filling in with mono and diglycerides, companies circumvent the need to report the full fat and calories per serving. Mono and diglycerides are still dietary fat and your body treats them as such, but nutrition facts reporting can essentially omit them (by making serving sizes small enough that a "serving" is under a certain amount).

Long story short: Don't waste time with fake fats. Use the real thing, but less.