30 Days of 400-Calorie Dinners for Spring
Enjoy the flavors and produce of spring with these delicious dinner recipes. Whether it's asparagus, lemon or spinach, these ingredients are used in recipes with 400 calories or less per serving. Dinners like Old Bay Salmon with Lemony Mashed Peas and Pan-Seared Steak with Crispy Herbs & Escarole are healthy, bright and perfect for warmer weather.
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White Bean & Veggie Salad
This meatless main-dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.
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Skillet Eggs with Sausage & Tomato Aioli
This breakfast-for-dinner fried egg skillet is a no-brainer alternative to takeout when you're rushed. The sausage and dark leafy greens are cooked in the same pan as the eggs, so cleanup is a cinch. Loading kale into this quick dinner recipe provides some calcium as well as vitamins and fiber. Serve with whole-grain toast and simple tomato aioli for a weeknight dinner that's ready in 20 minutes.
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Easy Shrimp Stir-Fry with Green Pepper, Pineapple & Bacon
This sweet, spicy and super-easy shrimp-and-vegetable stir-fry starts with a very small amount of bacon in the wok, which creates drippings that add tons of smoky flavor to the vegetables and shrimp that go in next. Keep the salt in check by using reduced-sodium tamari sauce. To complete this easy healthy dinner, add cooked brown rice.
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Greek Turkey Burgers with Spinach, Feta & Tzatziki
Creamy tzatziki and crisp sliced cucumber add a refreshing twist to this easy Greek-inspired burger recipe loaded with feta, spinach and Mediterranean spices. No tzatziki? No problem! Make your own at home by combining plain Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon, dill and finely chopped cucumber.
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Easy Cauliflower Tacos
These easy vegan cauliflower tacos with chili powder, red onion and creamy avocado garnish are perfect for taco night.
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Creamy Corn Soup with Jalapeños & Cotija
This creamy corn soup has underlying earthiness from the hominy and heat from the jalapeños. Fresh corn adds sweetness, which works well with the salty cotija cheese and other fresh and tangy garnishes.
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Old Bay Salmon with Lemony Mashed Peas
Cooking butter until it browns adds a toasty, nutty flavor to this easy skillet salmon recipe. Here it gives Old Bay-rubbed salmon a chef-worthy finish--not bad for 20 minutes!
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Whole-Grain Salad with Charred Broccoli, Spring Onions & Parsley-Sumac Vinaigrette
For this easy healthy salad, chef Hugh Acheson shows the power of charring vegetables as a way to add interest to a salad. This flexible recipe can be made with a variety of whole grains, such as wheat berries, farro or pearl barley. The salad revels in the spring arrival of radishes, spring onions and bright green parsley. Sumac, which is commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking, adds a touch of tartness. Look for it in well-stocked spice sections at your market.
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Skillet Pork Chops with Peas, Carrots & Pearl Onions
This superfast one-dish dinner is full of classic flavor and is such a crowd pleaser that you'll want to work it into your regular weeknight dinner rotation. We call for bone-in pork chops to maximize flavor, but boneless pork chops are a fine substitution. To round out this meal a little more, serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
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Pan-Seared Steak with Crispy Herbs & Escarole
This easy dinner takes just 20 minutes to prepare, meaning that seared steak can be a weeknight meal. Cooking herbs in the pan with the steak releases their aroma, infusing it into the meat while creating a crispy garnish. After the steaks and herbs are pan-seared, the escarole is cooked in the same skillet, so this healthy dinner requires minimal cleanup too.
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Shrimp Risotto with Asparagus
Asparagus, snap peas and a touch of lemon zest bring fresh spring flavor to this riff on classic risotto made with a whole-grain rice blend.
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Skillet Lemon Chicken with Spinach
This simple, ultra-quick chicken dinner--packed with spinach and peppers--is delicious on its own or served over brown rice or your favorite pasta.
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Salmon & Asparagus with Lemon-Garlic Butter Sauce
Looking for a recipe to help you eat more heart-healthy fish and veggies? Add this salmon and asparagus dinner to your rotation. Not only is it healthy and delicious, this sheet-pan dinner is also easy to make and a breeze to clean up.
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Chicken & Spring Vegetable Tortellini Salad
Store-bought tortellini and frozen peas keep things quick in this healthy 30-minute meal. Jazzed-up bottled salad dressing helps you go even faster. Look for one with 200 mg or less of sodium and 3 g or less of sugar per serving.
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Vegetarian All-American Portobello Burgers
Portobello mushrooms stand in for meat patties in this recipe for veggie burgers with all the fixings. Mushrooms are a source of glutamate, a naturally occurring compound that gives the fungi their umami flavor. But to really give these "patties" a savory boost, we brush them with steak sauce. Add a simple side salad or some grilled veggies for a satisfying and easy dinner on the grill.
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Cilantro-Lime Chicken Tacos
A quick lime marinade does double duty as a sauce in these tangy chicken tacos.
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Sesame Shrimp Stir-Fry with Spinach
This stir-fry recipe calls for buying shrimp that's already peeled and deveined, which saves you about 10 minutes of prep time. Want this on the milder side? Swap ketchup for the chili-garlic sauce.
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One-Pot Lemon-Broccoli Pasta with Parmesan
This hearty pasta dish with bright, fresh flavor is ideal for busy weeknights. The Parmesan adds welcome saltiness and notes of umami and you get added texture from the slight crunch of broccoli and whole-wheat noodles. Add some shredded rotisserie chicken, grilled shrimp or crispy chickpeas to punch up the protein.
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Spring Pizza
Asparagus, chives and fontina cheese top this easy pizza recipe. Serve with baby greens tossed with vinaigrette and pecans.
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Skillet Lemon Chicken & Potatoes with Kale
This easy one-pan skillet-roasted lemon chicken is perfect for weeknight dinners. Juicy chicken thighs are cooked in the same pan as baby potatoes and kale for a satisfying meal with the added bonus of minimal cleanup.
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Linguine with Lemon Alfredo Shrimp
This bright and lemony shrimp pasta dish was inspired by traditional Alfredo but comes in at only a fraction of the fat and calories. Reduced-fat cream cheese adds body to the sauce, while Parmesan cheese adds its signature robust flavor. This recipe calls for brown rice pasta, which is gluten-free, but if gluten is not a concern for you feel free to serve this sauce over regular linguine or fettuccine--or any pasta you like!
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Spring Vegetable Salad with Chicken & Buttermilk-Herb Dressing
The buttermilk dressing for this easy and healthy chicken salad recipe calls for using dried herbs, which gives you a more intense flavor blast and cuts down on prep time. But if you prefer the flavor of fresh, use 3 tablespoons fresh for each 1 tablespoon dried. Using leftover cooked chicken further speeds prep in this 20-minute dinner recipe.
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Skillet Steak with Mushroom Sauce
This steak, broccoli rabe and pea dinner is a one-skillet meal that will be on your table in just 25 minutes! The pan drippings combine with mushroom, broth and grainy mustard to make a thick and delicious sauce.
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Crab Cakes with Spring Green Salad and Lime Dressing
Light mayonnaise dressing and an egg white keep these crab cakes low in fat and calories. Served warm atop a bed of greens and tomato tossed with a simple lime dressing, they are simply extraordinary.
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Sweet & Sour Chicken with Broccoli
This easy chicken and broccoli recipe makes a delicious, healthier alternative to Chinese takeout--and it takes just 20 minutes to make, so it's ideal for an easy weeknight dinner. When toasted, ramen noodles make a tasty, crunchy topping for a stir-fry or salad.
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Oven-Baked Salmon with Charred Onions & Old Bay Radishes
The charred onion puree is both smoky and sweet, a nice foil for this simple baked salmon recipe. Serve this healthy salmon recipe with a glass of crisp, dry rosé for an easy dinner that's special enough for company. Environmental note: If you are deciding between farmed and wild salmon for this recipe, you should know that either one can be a sustainable choice: While farmed salmon historically has gotten a bad rap, many options now rate as Best Choice and Good Alternative by Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. Use wild Pacific salmon if you prefer (most comes from well-managed fisheries), but check for doneness a few minutes early as it's typically leaner.
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Caprese Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
We've taken the key ingredients of the popular caprese salad--tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil--and piled them into portobello mushroom caps to make a delicious and satisfying vegetarian main dish.
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Smoky Shrimp, Corn & Pea One-Pot Pasta
Make your sauce and pasta all at once with this fast weeknight pasta dinner recipe. By using the exact amount of water you need to cook the pasta--no colanders here--the starch that cooks off into your pasta water, which you usually drain away, stays in the pot, giving you delectably creamy results.
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Steak with Cheddar Roasted Cabbage
A mix of roasted cabbage and red onion is topped with melted cheese for a divine side to steak in this quick and healthy dinner recipe. Serve with a mixed green salad or toasted and lightly buttered bread.
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Lemony Linguine with Spring Vegetables
Instead of cooking pasta in a huge pot of water, here we use just 3 1/2 cups for this one-pot pasta recipe. When the pasta is al dente, most of the water has evaporated and the bit that's left is thickened with the starch that cooks off the pasta. With just a few add-ins like lemon and Parmesan cheese you have a delicious silky sauce. Want to use up your veggie stash in the freezer? Swap in 8 ounces frozen spinach for fresh.