ThePrep: 400-Calorie High-Protein Dinners for Summer

Our column, ThePrep, has everything you'll need to make meal planning and meal prep as easy as can be. Sign up here to get a meal plan delivered to your inbox every Saturday!

A satisfying dinner that doesn't leave me feeling sluggish is my ideal type of meal for warm summer nights! And this week of delicious dinners checks those boxes. They're high in protein, delivering at least 14 grams per serving to keep you feeling satisfied all evening long, and they clock in right around 400 calories, so you'll feel refreshed—not weighed down—after dinner.

Your Meal Plan

The ultimate summer combination of tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and balsamic vinegar comes together in Sunday's Grilled Caprese Chicken to help you start the week off right and with a whopping 31 grams of protein. In my opinion, you just can't go wrong with caprese-flavored anything! I'll be pairing it with another summer favorite—a lemony tomato and cucumber salad—to round out the meal with lots of veggies. Another dinner I'm really looking forward to making is Monday's Easy Tuna Cakes with Greens & Lemon Dressing. It's a brand-new recipe that pairs pantry staples, like high-protein canned tuna and white beans, with dried herbs and lemon to create an easy 15-minute dinner I know I'll be making often.

Lots of other satisfying and delicious dinners will carry you through the week, like the Shrimp Cobb Salad with Dijon Dressing on Tuesday and the 3-Ingredient Goat Cheese Pasta with Broccoli on Wednesday, to bring you to Friday—the start of the 4th of July holiday weekend here in the U.S. I'm going the classic route and will be grilling up some burgers to celebrate—specifically the Greek-Inspired Turkey Burgers with Spinach, Feta & Tzatziki. They're SO good and I really love using tangy tzatziki as the sauce. Cheers!

Sunday: Grilled Caprese Chicken with Chopped Cucumber & Tomato Salad with Lemon (372 calories, 31 grams protein)

Monday: Easy Tuna Cakes with Greens & Lemon Dressing (400 calories, 21 grams protein)

Tuesday: Shrimp Cobb Salad with Dijon Dressing with 1 baguette slice (448 calories, 30 grams protein)

Wednesday: 3-Ingredient Goat Cheese Pasta with Broccoli with 2 cups greens topped with 2 Tbsp. Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette (425 calories, 21 grams protein)

Thursday: Beer-Battered Fish Tacos with Tomato & Avocado Salsa (401 calories, 29 grams protein)

Friday: Greek-Inspired Turkey Burgers with Spinach, Feta & Tzatziki with corn on the cob (450 calories, 33 grams protein)

Get the printable shopping list here!

Meal-Prep Snack

Inspired by the irresistible flavor of salted caramel, these coconut-coated energy balls have that same salty-sweet taste and are ready in a quick 30 minutes. Making a batch at the beginning of the week means you have a healthy snack at the ready, to grab between meetings or pack up in your kid's lunchbox for camp!

Get the Recipe: Salted Coconut-Caramel Energy Balls

Treat Yourself

My garden is overflowing with mint right now, so I'm looking for all sorts of ways to use some of it up—and this Fresh Mint Mojito Cocktail is just the thing! I'll be mixing up this minty cocktail to celebrate the 4th of July, which I honestly can't believe is already here. The recipe serves one, but you can easily up the ingredients to make a bigger batch.

Get the Recipe: Fresh Mint Mojito Cocktail

I hope you all have a safe and happy week, and if you have any questions or requests for future newsletters, please let me know by emailing ThePrep@eatingwell.com!