A great way to stay in shape is to eat well and stay fit. Unfortunately not everyone knows what makes for a good healthy snack. So, how about a few healthy recipes?
Health foods and healthy recipes never sound appealing. For the most part of it, people would do anything to stay away from them. But what if you were told that it didn’t have to be so bad and insipid. Well, it’s true. There are innumerable healthy recipes that will please your palette well. Still not convinced? How about we list a few such recipes for you… Right from healthy diet snacks to an entire meal, we’ll try going over it all. Let’s get started.
People are always discussing diet plans, weight loss, and all that comes with looking good and staying fit. Inevitably, a lot of people turn to unhealthy methods out of desperation. But why not simply eat right? There’s so much good food to choose from even when planning a healthy diet menu, you’d be surprised. I’ll get started now so that you know what I’m talking about.
Recipes for Dinner
As far as possible, dinner should be the lightest meal of the day. Unfortunately though, people run out of ideas that work well as healthy dinner recipes. There are just a couple of such recipes to follow, but they’re well worth it. Have a look…
Chicken and Spring Vegetable Stir-fry (4 servings)
Ingredients
- Chicken Breast Fillets: 2 (preferably 150g each)
- Baby Sweet corn: 100g
- Carrots: 2
- Broccoli: 100g
- Spring Onions: 1 bunch
- Ginger 35g
- Olive Oil: 1 tbsp
- Medium Egg Noodles: 4 blocks (65g each)
- Black Bean Stir-Fry Sauce: 1 jar
Method
Begin your preparations by boiling the noodles in a large saucepan of water, and as per pack instructions. Once it’s boiled, set it aside and ensure that it is kept warm.
Once that is done, get started with the chicken and vegetables. Slice the chicken into chunks of 1″ each. Peel the carrots and ginger and julienne them. Cut the broccoli into florets of a size that is convenient to eat, and lastly, trim and cut the spring onion. Since it is a stir fry, you could cut the onion diagonally. It’ll look nicer too.
Following that, in a fresh saucepan of boiling water, toss in the broccoli and sweet corn, and allow it to blanch for 2 minutes. Once blanched, drain it, and set it aside.
Now that all the chopping, blanching, etc. is complete, move on to the chicken. In a wok, heat ½ tablespoon of oil, until smoking, and then add the chicken and allow it to stir fry until golden brown (roughly 7-10 mins). Upon completion, set it aside and move on to the veggies.
To stir-fry the vegetables, you will have to heat the remaining oil in a pan, add the carrots, ginger, and spring onions and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. After that’s done, add the broccoli and corn to the same pan and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.
Lastly, add the previously stir-fried chicken, the noodles and black bean sauce, and mix it well. Make sure all the ingredients are well coated with the sauce, and the dish is heated well. It’s done. Serve while hot, and enjoy some yummy healthy food.
Penne with Shrimp (4 servings)
Ingredients
- Penne Pasta: ½ pack (16 oz.)
- Shrimp (peeled & deveined): ½ pound
- White wine: 2tbsp
- Olive Oil: 1 tbsp
- Diced Tomato: 1 can
- Chopped red onion: 2 tbsp
- Chopped garlic: 1-2 tsp (depending on how much garlic you like)
- Grated Parmesan cheese: ½ cup
Method
In a pot of lightly salted water, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Once cooked, drain and set aside.
In a frying pan, heat oil, add the onions and garlic, cook till onions are tender. Next, mix the wine and the tomatoes and cook for roughly 10 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
It’s time to add the shrimp into the pan now and cook until opaque. Toss the contents of the skillet with the pasta and finish it off with Parmesan all over it. You’re good to go. The dish is ready to serve.
*Those of you who do not like shrimp could even substitute it with chicken. If you are looking for a totally veggie option, eliminate all the meat and load it with vegetables of your choice. The rest of the procedure stays the same. An easy recipe like this could also be modified in quantity and turn into a healthy diet for one 🙂
Recipes for Kids
I’m sure all you mum’s with fussy kids are looking for something that your kids will enjoy. Children tend to get picky about their food, especially if it’s healthy food. But what if you can con them into eating it? (Just kidding). Make the food visually appealing, and watch your little ones down it in no time. Check out the recipes to follow.
Guacamole Chicken Wraps (4 servings)
Ingredients
- Boneless Grilled Chicken (shredded skinless): 2 cups (8 oz.)
- Tomato (chopped, seeded): ½ cup
- Lettuce leaves: 4 leaves (8 if you want a double layer)
- Fat free flour tortillas: 4
- Avocado (ripe, peeled): 1
- Fresh lime juice: 2 tbsp
- Salt: ¼ tsp
Method
Start with preparing the Guacamole. In a bowl, toss the avocado, lime juice and salt, and mash with a fork until it turns into a smooth paste. You can now toss in the chopped tomatoes.
Next, on each tortilla place either 1 or 2 lettuce leaves, apply a layer of guacamole and top each portion with at least a half cup of chicken. Roll it up, and wrap it in foil. The yummy chicken wraps for your kids are ready. These are easy to make, healthy to eat, and a far cry from time-consuming.
Roasted Chicken and Pasta Salad (6 servings)
Ingredients
- Farfalle Paste (bow-tie pasta): 3 cups
- Chicken breast (cooked, shredded): 2 cups
- Fresh lemon juice: ¼ cup
- Fresh orange juice: ⅓ cup
- Extra virgin olive oil: 2tbsp
- Rice vinegar: 1 ½ tsp
- Red onion (finely chopped): ⅓ cup
- Red grapes (halved, seedless): 1 ½ cups
- Toasted walnuts (coarsely chopped): ⅓ cup
- Celery (thin, diagonally cut): 1 cup
- Fresh chives (chopped): 3tbsp
- Fresh parsley (chopped): 2 tbsp
- Ground mustard: 1 tbsp
- Sugar: 2 tsp
- Black pepper (freshly ground): ½tsp
- Salt: 1 ¼ tsp
Method
The first step towards preparing this salad is to boil the pasta sans oil, and set it aside. Also, do not add salt to the water while boiling.
Next, prepare the dressing. In a bowl, add the oil, orange juice, lemon juice, rice vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper, and whisk to get a smooth dressing. On completion, toss in the rest of the ingredients, i.e., pasta, chicken, grapes, walnuts, celery, onions, chives, and parsley, and toss to combine. The delicious chicken and pasta salad is ready to serve.
If you aren’t really looking to get much cooking done, you could also resort to snacks like fruit, nuts, whole grain crackers / pretzels. Along with being a healthy option, they are substantial snacks too, so feel free to take your pick.
All the above mentioned recipes are easy to prepare, not tedious at all, and extremely healthy, so you wouldn’t have a thing to worry about. They are great for losing weight. What’s more is, they taste good too. I hope you get a chance to try them out, and enjoy a fabulous healthy meal.