Fitness for Women - Healthy Dinner Recipes

What do we mean by a "healthy" dinner recipe? This can of course mean different things to different people. If you are a vegetarian or not, if you like seafood, whether you are on a diet and your own preferences.

However any healthy dinner recipe should follow these sound nutritional guidelines:

Balanced proportions of carbohydrate, protein and fat

You need to serve the correct amount of each type of food. One popular diet – the Zone – recommends we consume 40% of calories from carbs, 30% from protein and 30% from fat.

While we don’t need to follow this exactly it does serve as an overall guide. (See our recipes below for some practical examples).

Low in saturated fat

It’s commonly accepted that saturated fats can be bad for you, leading to high cholesterol and heart conditions. Make sure your dinner recipe is healthy by limiting the amount of saturated fats like rich sauces, fatty meats and cream deserts.

High in Nutrient Value

Heat destroys the vitamins and nutrients in food, so the less you cook it the healthier it will be. Salads are great, and lightly steamed vegetables like broccoli are very tasty.

Fresh vs. Frozen? Many fresh products spend days or weeks before they arrive on the supermarket shelves. By the time we get around to eating them, much of the fresh fruit and vegetables have lost a lot of their nutritional value. Most frozen fruit and vegetables are processed very quickly (often on the day they are picked), before vitamins have had time to be destroyed. The freezing process also helps to preserve nutrients. Canned Foods Canned food can form part of a healthy dinner. It’s often assumed that canned foods are a poor source of vitamins and minerals. Canned foods in many cases provide similar amounts of vitamins and minerals to the fresh version. Read the label and make sure there is not a lot of salt. _______________________________
Healthy Dinner Recipes: Portion Sizes When you are looking for a healthy meal, if you over-eat you will end up counter-acting all the benefits you got from the food. North Americans generally eat too much, and this is as much by habit as anything else. Try cutting back on some of the serving quantities. For example if you take the standard size 12 oz steak and cut it in two, this is an ideal size for the average person. Likewise with potato, try eating just half of the (usually big) baking potato. If you're still hungry you can increase the portion size of things like green vegetable or salads.

Our Favorite Healthy Dinner Recipes... Fish Chicken Beef Pork Vegetarian
Chicken Parmesan & Eggplant Casserole Makes 2-4 servings Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups chopped onion 3 cups diced eggplant 2 tomato, chopped 1 1/2 cup low sodium tomato sauce 2 4oz grilled chicken breasts 5 ounces Low Fat Parmesan Cheese, grated 2 tbs. bread crumbs 2 tbs. corn meal

Directions: Ø Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet and sauté the onions until the turn translucent. Ø Add the eggplant and sauté for 10 minutes or until soft Ø Add tomatoes and chicken and sauté for another 7 minutes. Ø Pour the tomato sauce into a large casserole dish or two smaller ones. Ø Put the eggplant mixture on top of the sauce, sprinkle with breadcrumbs then layer with the cheese on top of the breadcrumbs and drizzle the remaining teaspoon of olive oil on top. Ø Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, then place under the broiler for 5 minutes. Remove from the broiler when the top is brown and bubbly. Serve with a fresh salad or steamed Broccoli Makes 4 servings. Preparation time: 35 minutes

Chicken Parmesan & Eggplant Casserole Makes 2-4 servings. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups chopped onion 3 cups diced eggplant 1 tomato, chopped 3/4 cup low sodium tomato sauce 4 ounces grilled chicken breast 4 ounces Low Fat Parmesan Cheese (4 blocks protein) 1 tbs. bread crumbs 1 tbs. corn meal

Directions: Ø Heat 2 teaspoons of the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet and sauté the onions until the turn translucent. Ø Add the eggplant and sauté for 10 minutes or until soft Ø Add tomatoes and chicken and sauté for another 7 minutes. Ø Pour the tomato sauce into a large casserole dish or two smaller ones. Ø Put the eggplant mixture on top of the sauce, sprinkle with breadcrumbs then layer with the cheese on top of the breadcrumbs and drizzle the remaining teaspoon of olive oil on top. Ø Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes, then place under the broiler for 5 minutes. Remove from the broiler when the top is brown and bubbly.

Fish Chicken Beef Pork Vegetarian