Favorite Healthy Dinner Recipes

Darlene101315
Darlene101315 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 20 in Food and Nutrition
Drop your favorite dinner recipes. I’m tired of the plain chicken with side of veggies and brown rice. (Details please!)

Replies

  • wandering44
    wandering44 Posts: 27 Member
    We are on the keto diet. There are loads of free recipe downloads on the internet. If you want to go that route, I would suggest you look at those. One heads up: I have found that many of the recipes do not have accurate nutritional values so I have put them into my fitness pal and recalculated the calories, etc. myself. I cook for myself and my spouse so I have found that many of the recipes are 4 or more servings so I can cook once, freeze and have two meals prepared at one time. Good luck.
  • echmain3
    echmain3 Posts: 231 Member
    “Healthy” being defined as...?
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    What does healthy mean to you?

    Some favorite dinners in my house:
    • quesadillas - monterey jack, goat cheese, black beans, corn, red bell pepper\
    • Cook's Illustrated Provencal vegetable soup
    • Cook's Illustrated white bean and escarole soup
    • Cook's Illustrated corn chowder
    • Homemade chicken pot pie
    • Chicken or beef fajitas
    • Green chile chicken enchiladas
    • Tomato soup and grilled cheese
  • Darlene101315
    Darlene101315 Posts: 2 Member
    I’m not on a specific diet, just trying to lose a little weight but also make meals that my husband and daughter will enjoy. Trying to keep it under 1200 calories a day.
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
    Darlene101315 wrote: »
    I’m not on a specific diet, just trying to lose a little weight but also make meals that my husband and daughter will enjoy. Trying to keep it under 1200 calories a day.

    https://www.skinnykitchen.com/
    https://www.skinnytaste.com/

    I like these sites for recipes. I don't do the low-fat cheese or anything, and they'll still nice and moderate as far as calorie density even with the full-fat items, but either way you just want to make sure to moderate your portions. Healthy doesn't necessarily mean you can eat however much, even with sites that are "skinny" sites and provide nutrition information.
  • 12Sarah2015
    12Sarah2015 Posts: 1,117 Member
    For me, I try to have a decent main meal. I skip on the calories on snacks and other meals. I do recipes my kids like too. I love fish curry recipe (Margaret fulton), Chicken curry minus cream (Margaret fulton), chilli con carne with more veggies than meat (eg corn, capsicum, celery, dried mint), spaghetti bol no cheese (with grated zuchinni and carrot, peas). I like plain broccoli, corn cobs, cauliflower or green salad on the side. Tonight I'm splurging with sweetnsour chicken with heaps of veggies (Chinese corn, water chestnuts, Carrot, capsicum, onion
  • mariluny
    mariluny Posts: 428 Member
    Here are some of my favorite:

    Stir fry: use less oil and load up on veggies. I like bell peppers, mushroom, cabbage (which add so much volume for very little calories), bean sprouts, celery... shrimp, chicken or porc and a carb like pasta or rice. To had a « sauce », beef broth & sou sauce thickened with cornstarch and all the spice you like (including garlic, fresh ginger or cilantro). I usually can have a big plate for under 400 calories.

    I like loaded sweet potatoes: bake your sweet potato, once it’s cook open it jacket potato style and top with black bean, quinoa, lime juice, plain yogurt, cilantro, fresh bell pepper, fresh tomatoes, corn... again about 400 cal

    If you like soup, any tomato or broth based soup can usually be filling yet low cal
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    I'm working my way through a vegan cookbook recipe by recipe. (I do use other books and I'll flip through this one for other ideas, but I know that every week, one dish is going to be whatever's "next". At this point, I'm in the seitan main dishes.) The calories vary, but I'm hard-put to think of a non-nutritious recipe in the lot.

    Stir fries work well too. I substitute spiralized turnip noodles for rice/noodles most of the time. With a sweet and sour sauce, they're amazing.

    I also do omelets or something I "call" a frittata, though I'm sure that food purists will quibble. Basically, I saute a whole bunch of veggies and seasonings in an oven-proof sauce pan. I pour 3 beaten eggs over it and let it sit on the burner for a minute, until it starts to set. Then I stick the pot under the broiler until the top is browned and then invert it onto a plate. Great with a bit of salsa.
  • Dreamwa1ker
    Dreamwa1ker Posts: 196 Member
    edited March 2019
    I got this cookbook for Christmas: https://www.amazon.com/Just-Add-Sauce-Revolutionary-Everything/dp/1945256249

    It is a cookbook of just sauces (including pasta sauces, pan sauces, dressings, marinades, things like that). Not all of the sauces are super low cal (though some definitely are), but I have found it very helpful for making things like chicken, veggies, beans etc more interesting by adding a little sauce. It usually doesn't even take a lot of sauce to really change up a dish without adding too much calories.

    My favorite part is that it has about 7 or 8 different stir fry sauces (I love stir fries).

    I save the sauces I make under the recipes tab on myfitnesspal by themselves, so that next time I can use that recipe again in my diary, even if I've changed up what I'm putting it on (e.g. I made pork stir fry with broccoli instead of chicken stir fry with carrots and bell peppers, but used the same sauce).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    The only time I really use recipes is in the winter when we're making a lot of soups and stews and casseroles and whatnot.

    It's warming up here, so dinner is usually some kind of protein that is seasoned or marinated (I don't know why you think you would have to eat plain chicken), some kind of grain or starch, and some kind of vegetable usually either sauteed or roasted.

    I don't know why people think healthy means chicken, chicken, and more chicken or why they think it has to be plain. When I do chicken, I usually do thighs as they are more flavorful than breasts...we also grill burgers, steaks, pork chops, fish, etc.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    I'm a believer of eat what you want as long it fits in your calories allowance. Portion is the key.

  • julesdechaine
    julesdechaine Posts: 138 Member
    Please use spices! No need to have plain chicken! What did that chicken ever do to you?! :D

    When I'm in a hurry, I will throw some frozen chicken breasts in a glass dish, toss a bag of frozen kale on top, and then add some sort of marinade (we like anything with garlic) on top...bake about 45 min at 350 and it comes out PERFECT, even from a frozen state. Usually add a side of veggies (I love brussels sprout, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) I am trying to stay away from rice and potatoes, because I do not have the self control to not eat an entire pot!

    Skirt steak on a bed of spinach with some cranberries, mandarin orange slices, lightly candied walnuts, and some lite raspberry vinaigrette. I like to add a spoonful of feta cheese.

    My boyfriend is from Central America and makes Pico de Gallo with almost every meal, as an actual side, so I eat a lot of that! It's nothing but veggies, super crisp and clean, and filling.

    Stir frys are easy and you don't even need a recipe. Just throw a bunch of veggies and a protein in there and you're good! We like to eat pho (it's an all day Sunday process to make the broth though) and use the grill a lot.









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