Trying to eat better this year? Cooking healthy meals at home is a great way to ensure you know exactly what you’re eating. These dinner dishes are all under 500 calories per serving, so they’ll help you keep any health-related resolutions you may have made for the new year.
Fish Curry with Tomatoes and Tamarind
This Fish Curry with Tomatoes and Tamarind recipe from Olive Magazine takes only 30 minutes to prepare and cook, making it a great choice for a healthy midweek meal. The curry is made of blended tomato, ginger, garlic, chili, tamarind and coriander. Since the fish is cooked in the curry, it stays flaky and tender. The recipe calls for any type of white fish—we t recommend sustainable Tilapia.
Slow Cooked Stuffed Peppers
This Slow Cooked Stuffed Peppers recipe from Taste of Home takes only 30 minutes to prepare, and then your slow cooker does the rest. To prepare this dish, simply remove the seeds and tops from 4 bell peppers, stuff with a mix of beans, corn, rice, cheese, salsa and spices and cook them in your crockpot for 3–4 hours. Since this recipe has only 317 calories per serving, you can add a dollop of sour cream to the peppers before serving for a guilt-free indulgence.
Baked Fish Sticks
This Baked Fish Sticks dish from Eating Well takes about the same amount of time to prepare as the frozen, pre-fried variety. But they’re much healthier: they have a fraction of the fat and 31 grams of protein per serving. All you need to do is cut some Tilapia fillets into strips, dip them in egg and coat them in a homemade breadcrumb mixture before baking them at a high temperature until they’re flaky on the inside, but crispy on the outside.
Quinoa and Arugula Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
You may consider salads more of a side dish than a main course, but this Quinoa and Arugula Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette from A Nutritionist Eats has enough flavor and substance to keep you full until your next meal. To make this recipe, prepare a cup of quinoa according to the package directions, then make the vinaigrette by whisking together lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, honey and shallots. Toss with the quinoa, almonds and arugula and enjoy! This dish keeps really well overnight, so make sure to save any leftovers for the next day’s lunch.
Seafood Paella
For a seafood dish with plenty of Spanish flavor but less than 500 calories per serving, try this Seafood Paella recipe from BBC Good Food. It features whitefish, mussels and prawns. Just cook the seafood in a garlicky tomato stock alongside paella rice, vegetables and pinches of saffron and smoked paprika.
These recipes prove that sticking to low calorie dinners doesn’t mean you have to skimp on bold flavors. For even more healthy recipe inspiration, check out these Tilapia dishes under 500 calories.
Photo credits: Avs / Shutterstock.com, Olive Magazine, Piotr Krzeslak / Shutterstock.com, Eating Well, A Nutritionist Eats, Iryna Denysova