Quick & Healthy Dinners For Busy Nights
We’re back again today with three more quick and healthy dinners that you can easily pull off on a busy weeknight. Same as yesterday, all of these delectable options can be put together in 45 minutes or less. We’re finding a healthy meal for Tuesday today, so we couldn’t help including tacos in the lineup.
As you’ll see, there’s a bit of extra leg work with that recipe to make it 40FRESH friendly, so you may want to recruit someone to be a sous chef and help you out. It’s worth it though, because they’re amazing!
Today’s Checklist
If you’re following along with the 40FRESH Challenge, here’s your homework for today:
Read this post
Make Tuesday’s dinner menu
Add ingredients you need for Tuesday’s dinner to your shopping list
Fish Tacos
Estimated Time: 35 minutes
Who doesn’t love a good taco? This recipe from Delish will transport you straight to the fresh flavors of a San Diego taco stand. However, in order to make it 40FRESH friendly, it’s going to require a bit of extra work in the kitchen.
The first thing you’ll need to do is replace the corn tortillas. All of the brands you find in the grocery store are full of Nope ingredients. Even if they have high falutin claims about how natural and organic they are, I guarantee they contain some combination of preservatives and/or binding gums. Fortunately, it’s easy to make them from scratch. Bob’s Red Mill Masa Harina Corn Flour has a recipe on the package you can use. You can whip them out in about 10 minutes.
The second ingredient is part of the cabbage slaw: mayonnaise. Store bought is definitely a Nope. Fortunately, it’s incredibly simple to prepare your own in a high-speed blender. This recipe from Inspired Taste is also ready in 10 minutes.
With those two ingredients replaced, you have yourself a 40FRESH friendly Taco Tuesday!
Penne Pesto
Estimated Time: 20 minutes
Need something aromatic, bursting with flavor, and ready in less than the time it takes to order takeout? Give this penne pesto recipe from Side Chef a whirl. Once the basil flavors hit your lips, you’ll be in pasta heaven.
This recipe does use a fair amount of cheese, so you’ll have to take that into consideration as that’s a Limited ingredient. Additionally, you’ll want to steer clear of the pastas that claim to be 100% whole wheat or made from vegetables. Most of the brands we’ve seen offering these options add in a whole host of additives and preservatives. Best instead to stick to regular penne pasta made from nothing but durum wheat semolina.
Marinated Flank Steak
Estimated Time: 20 minutes (plus time for marinating)
That’s right, steak can be a part of a healthy and balanced meal. We certainly wouldn’t recommend having all your meals being dominated by steaks, but this is a wonderful (and quick) option to consider for a weeknight meal. It doesn’t have to be super expensive, either! Flank steak is an affordable cut of meat that is also super flavorful. Try out this marinated flank steak recipe from Delish. However, note that their recipe calls for the use of reduced sodium soy sauce (a Nope). Skip this recommendation and just use regular soy sauce instead.
Grilled asparagus and oven roasted potatoes are fantastic accompaniments to this dish. For the oven roasted potatoes recipe, you’ll want to watch out with the Dijon mustard. Most include Nope ingredients. It is possible to find mustards that fall into the Limited category (like this one), but they’re harder to find.
Your Dinner Menu
All right, time to break open your food journal and fill in your choice of dinner for Tuesday. If you don’t like any of the options above, we think you’re probably insane and you might need a hug. Kidding! Everyone has a different palette, so no judgment. Feel free to pick from yesterday or use a recipe of your own.
After you have your Tuesday menu prepared, don’t forget to add any ingredients you’re missing to the weekly shopping list.
Up Next...
We’ve got three more days of weeknight dinners coming at you before we transition to some more involved recipes for the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll look at some more exotic recipes from around the world.
Keep chugging along with your breakfast, snacking, and drinking habits! You’re almost up to a full month of X’s on your accountability calendar. Stay 40FRESH and let us know how you’re doing in the comments!