Bye-Bye Pizza, Farewell Fast Food: 5 Quick, Easy, Healthy Dinner Solutions

You get out of work late, drive around town picking up and dropping off kids like a professional chauffeur, and finally realize when you’re 10 minutes from home that you have absolutely no idea what you’re feeding everyone for dinner. Do you:

A) Call your local pizza place from the car and order delivery

B) Hit the drive-through (you’ll order the salad!)

C) Pray that your spouse has a delicious, four-course meal (and a glass of wine) waiting in the kitchen

D) Coast home fearlessly and whip together a simple, healthy meal in 20 minutes flat

If you chose A or B without hesitation (or laughed heartily at choice D), this blog is for you. If you answered C, stop reading now. Your life is already perfect, and no amount of internet advice can improve it.

Summoning up the energy to cook a meal at the end of a long day may seem daunting, but it’s worth your while. Research shows that people who eat more meals prepared at home are healthier people, and a new USDA report backs up these findings. The report found that U.S. adults ate three fewer meals and 1.5 fewer snacks per month away from home in 2009-2010 than they did in 2005-2006. Along with this trend came some positive dietary changes — we consumed 3.4 percent fewer calories, ate less saturated fat, and upped our fiber intake.

But no matter how significant the health payoff might be, if cooking meals at home isn’t practical, it isn’t going to become a habit. The solution is to learn several quick, easy, healthy meals that don’t require a recipe, endless chopping, or a live-in sous chef. Here are a few of my foolproof favorites. I hope they inspire you to get into the kitchen (but only for a few minutes, I promise!).

Healthy burgers: Burgers are the ultimate “fast food” because the thin patties cook up in minutes. Use lean ground chicken or turkey as your base, and season them with your favorite spice blend — or get creative with mix-ins. I add feta cheese and frozen, thawed spinach for Greek burgers and sun-dried tomatoes, shredded part-skim mozzarella, and basil for an Italian version. Serve with baked sweet potatoes (bake whole on a sheet pan at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes) and fresh or frozen broccoli. Read more