If you are anything like me, you are fresh out of ideas for healthy meals to feed your family. We’ve been deep in our meal planning rut for what feels like an eternity. My kids love a good “Breakfast for Dinner” night, but there’s only so many eggs one person can eat.
And now summer is upon us, which means one thing: our people are around (and eating!) a whole lot more, but the amount of hours in the day remains the same. It might sound like a recipe for disaster, but we’ve got you covered! Here are three quick, easy, and healthy dinner recipes to incorporate into your weekly menu, complete with photos. Forgive me – Emeril Lagasse, I am not. My food is not artistic, but it is real, and my kids do eat it (most of the time). I get a lot of ideas from ShapeYourFutureOK.com – it’s full of health tips and recipes!
Grilled Chicken Sandwich with a side of asparagus
Grilled Chicken Sandwich Ingredients
1 pound of chicken breasts (makes 4)
4 whole wheat hamburger buns
2 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt and pepper for each breast
Your favorite toppings (Cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, avocados)
Grilled Chicken Sandwich Instructions
- Combine chicken, vegetable oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss well to evenly coat seasonings on chicken.
- Heat grill to medium-high heat 350 F. Place chicken on grill for 5-6 minutes per side until no pink remains.
- Place grilled chicken on buns and top with your favorite toppings!
Grilled Asparagus Ingredients
1 lb fresh asparagus spears, trimmed
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper
Grilled Asparagus Instructions
- Preheat grill for high heat.
- Toss asparagus, olive oil, salt and pepper until evenly lightly coated.
- Grill on high heat for 2-3 minutes or to desired tenderness. I wrapped them in tin foil first because I was sure I would burn them, but I don’t know if that’s actually necessary. This is a quick guide to grilling veggies – I plan to do this aaallllll summer long and spare myself the heat of standing over a saute pan.
- Serve immediately.
This next recipe is super easy, too. It does require the use of your oven (and Oklahoma summer IS a million degrees out), but it doesn’t cook for long, PLUS it cooks everything on one sheet pan! Click here for more sheet pan recipes to add to your repertoire!
Teriyaki Sheet Pan Chicken with Peppers and Rice
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables
Low-sodium teriyaki sauce
1 bag of frozen cauliflower rice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Lightly spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a bowl, place chicken and stir fry vegetables and stir in teriyaki sauce (use your judgement here – I like sauce so I used a lot! It IS low-sodium, after all).
- Place stir-fry mixture on baking sheet evenly and bake for 16-18 minutes, until chicken is fully cooked through.
- Microwave frozen riced cauliflower according to instructions on the bag.
- Top rice with stir fry and serve immediately.
This last one is a crockpot meal, which I have a special affinity for. Slow cooker meals are the easiest way to make a weeknight dinner! If you’re not home all day, you can cook most recipes on low for 8 hours. If your slow cooker recipe doesn’t have veggies in it (like the one below!), adding a side of steamed veggies only takes another seven minutes or so (even frozen ones)! You can pretty much walk in the door after a long day and sit down for dinner.
Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Chicken + Zucchini
Chicken Ingredients
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp onion powder
Salt & Pepper
Chicken Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the soup, broth, lemon juice, and seasonings until well combined.
- Place chicken in the slow cooker and pour soup mixture over the chicken breasts.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours.
- Serve over brown rice or riced cauliflower.
Steamed Zucchini & Squash Blend
1 bag of frozen zucchini and squash blend
Instructions
- Steam according to bag instructions.
- Season with salt and pepper. Serve and enjoy.
There you have it! Need more ideas? Check out ShapeYourFutureOk.com for money-saving recipes, kid-friendly recipes, time-saving recipes – categorized for whatever you need! Do you have any quick and healthy dinner recipes that your family gobbles down? Tell us in the comments!
