As part of the Your Shape Challenge I was challenged to make a healthy dinner. We have covered healthy snacking in the past, so I dove right into the challenge!
I typically plan my meals for about a week, but I try to be flexible since occasionally something pops up that makes it difficult to cook a big meal. My meal plan usually includes 3-4 nights of traditional meals, a night of something fun and easy (like brinner), and 2 nights where we usually eat leftovers or clean out the fridge.
Our healthy dinner menu included:
Skillet Chicken: I used some chicken breasts I had frozen for this recipe. Melt small pat of butter or heat up about 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add chicken (if not frozen you can salt, pepper, and spice it, but frozen I wait until it’s thawed a bit), I spice it simply since the kids like that. Garlic salt, pepper, and a dash of poultry seasoning. Cook until it is the browned on the outside making sure to check the internal temperature.
Steamed Broccoli: simply steam it until bright green, add a small amount of butter and salt and pepper to taste.
Salad: My kids LOVE salad. We eat it with almost every dinner. Tonight I served the salad with chopped carrots and celery.
Potato Wedges: Potatoes get a bad wrap. These were frozen potato wedges I found at Walmart with only a few ingredients. IF I had more time I would have made them by hand, but I was busy this evening.
Fruit salad: If there is one thing my family can never get enough of it’s fruit. This salad contained frozen pineapple, frozen organic strawberries, mangoes, and oranges. I like to mix fresh with frozen when it’s warm out. You could even serve this as dessert!
Water: We always serve water or milk for drinks. Everyone gets a cup of water, because there is no healthier beverage choice! Occasionally we serve it with lemon (which we call lemonade), but since my kids started off drinking water at a young age, it’s normal for them. I try not to keep fruit juice in the house since it would be everyone’s first choice otherwise. It’s more of a special treat.
You may notice the meal is a bit plain. I serve it that way and everyone can add what they want to it. For instance 3 of the kids love ketchup and will use it for everything (almost). I made a salad with the salad, chicken on top, and broccoli and fruit on the side. The kids all get a little of each thing to try. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get them to eat certain foods, but usually a dip in the ketchup does the trick.
What are some of your favorite healthy meals?
Kelly
Disclosure: Collective Bias provided me with a gift card to cover the costs of groceries which immediately got eaten.
bibledebt says
To be quite honest, one of my favorite meals is black beans and rice! How about that for keeping the cost down and having a healthy diet! Unfortunately I do not eat that healthy often enough! T