25 400-Calorie Dinners That Will Save Your Monday Night
Have a case of the Mondays? These healthy, delicious recipes are here to help. Make a flavorful meal with only 400 calories or less to help you meet your nutritional goals. Ingredients like whole grains, vegetables and lean proteins like chicken, seafood and tofu come together for a balanced dinner perfect for a weeknight. Try our Adobo Chicken & Kale Enchiladas or our One-Pot Garlicky Shrimp & Rice to brighten your Monday.
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Creamy Chicken, Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms One-Pot Pasta
You'll only have to dirty one pot in this easy pasta recipe that cooks chicken and vegetables right along with the noodles. Plus, by using the exact amount of water you need to cook the pasta, the starch that usually gets drained off with your pasta water stays in the pot, giving you delectably creamy results.
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Adobo Chicken & Kale Enchiladas
Put out your favorite toppings for these quick and healthy layered enchiladas. We like cilantro, sour cream, guacamole and jalapeños.
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Scallops & Cherry Tomatoes with Caper-Butter Sauce
These pan-seared scallops come together in just 20 minutes for a delicious, easy dinner. You'll want some whole-wheat angel hair pasta or polenta to sop up all the rich, briny sauce.
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Chicken Cutlets with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
Though a chicken cutlet may be a chicken breast cut in half, this recipe shows how to make chicken cutlets with double the deliciousness. A jar of sun-dried tomatoes does double duty for this healthy dinner recipe. The flavorful oil they're packed in is used to sauté the chicken, and the tomatoes go into the cream sauce.
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One-Pan Garlicky Shrimp & Rice
This one-pan garlicky shrimp and rice dish makes a great easy dinner with easy cleanup. The garlic mellows as it cooks and infuses its flavor into the sweet shrimp and rice in the pan. A squeeze of lemon at the end brightens up the dish.
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Buttermilk Fried Chicken Tenders with Snap Pea Slaw
The buttermilk marinade lets these fried chicken tenders get crispy on the outside and stay deliciously juicy on the inside. The fresh crunchy slaw helps balance the richness of the chicken. Don't have buttermilk on hand? Make a substitute by mixing the equivalent amount of milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar.
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Blackened Chicken with Chopped Salad
In this spin, we coat this blackened chicken with spices common to Cajun cooking, like dried thyme and cayenne pepper. Then, instead of using the traditional method of searing in a cast-iron pan, we take advantage of the warmer weather by grilling outside.
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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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Black Bean Fajita Skillet
You can often find presliced and ready-to-cook fresh vegetables in your grocer's produce section. Use these to your advantage to cut down on dinnertime prep. Here, presliced fajita vegetables are sautéed with canned black beans and Southwest seasoning for a quick and easy Tex Mex-inspired meal. Plus, this recipe requires just three ingredients, not including basics like salt, pepper and oil. You can easily take your bowl up a notch by adding some cheese, sour cream or another tasty topping.
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Mushroom Ragout with Herbed Ricotta & Pappardelle
This mushroom ragout is topped with dollops of ricotta, which cut through the acidity of the tomato-based sauce for a balanced flavor and creamy texture.
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Steak & Vegetable Stir-Fry with Black Bean-Garlic Sauce
Quick-cooking and full-flavored skirt steak is perfect for stir-fries. Just be sure to slice it across the grain so the steak stays tender as it cooks.
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Beef & Sweet Potato Coconut Curry
A tender cut of beef like sirloin or rib-eye won't get tough as it simmers away in the stew. Serve with rice noodles, if you like.
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Fish Tacos with Avocado-Lime Crema
If battering and frying fish sounds messy, frozen fish sticks are your fish taco savior in this healthy dinner recipe. Use them for a quick, kid-friendly dinner or try popcorn shrimp. Serve with your favorite salsa and black beans on the side.
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Chicken & Spinach Soup with Fresh Pesto
This fragrant, Italian-flavored soup takes advantage of quick-cooking ingredients--boneless, skinless chicken breast, bagged baby spinach and canned beans. It features a simple homemade basil pesto swirled in at the end to add a fresh herb flavor. If you are very pressed for time, you can substitute 3 to 4 tablespoons of a store-bought basil pesto. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.
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Spinach & Artichoke Dip Pasta
If you've ever wanted to make a meal out of warm spinach and artichoke dip, this creamy pasta is for you. And here's what's almost as good as the flavor of this comforting dish: the fact that this healthy dinner takes just 20 minutes to prepare.
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Salt & Pepper Shrimp with Snow Peas
In China, salt and pepper shrimp is traditionally made with tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorns. If you have some in the pantry, feel free to use them here; we opted for a combo of easier-to-find white and black pepper. The white pepper adds earthy flavor, while black kicks up the heat.
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Mushroom & Tofu Stir-Fry
This tofu veggie stir-fry is quick and easy, making it a great go-to weeknight meal. Baked tofu has a firm, toothsome texture that crisps well in a hot pan. You can find it in flavors like teriyaki and sesame, both of which are delicious here. Or opt for a smoked version, which has the same texture with a more robust flavor. Serve over brown rice.
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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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Skillet Pork Chops with Peas, Carrots & Pearl Onions
This super fast 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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Cauliflower Gnocchi Carbonara
Frozen cauliflower gnocchi is a time-saving, low-carb convenience food that works perfectly as a base for creamy, comforting carbonara.
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Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes, Beans & Almond Pesto
Looking at a tangle of spaghetti squash tricks your brain into thinking you're about to eat a serving of eggy noodles, when in fact, you get a nice calorie and carb savings in this healthy recipe. Giving tomatoes a stint in a hot oven makes them candy-sweet.
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Salsa-Black Bean Burgers
Salsa and some pantry staples give this vegetarian bean burger recipe tons of flavor. We use crushed tortilla chips to bind the burgers together, making them a great vehicle for using up those crumbs that inevitably fall to the bottom of the bag.
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Panko-Crusted Pork Chops with Asian Slaw
Panko breadcrumbs and a high-heat oven lend satisfying crispiness to pork chops without frying. The miso-flavored chops pair with coleslaw, here updated with snow peas, red bell pepper and Asian flavors like ginger, to round out this healthy 400-calorie meal that's ready in under an hour.
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Crispy Gnocchi Pasta with Tomatoes & Leeks
These gnocchi are crispy on the outside, tender on the inside because you sauté them in hot oil. Plus, they leave a little fond (crispy brown bits) in the pan that adds toasty flavor to the tomato and leek sauce, which is cooked in the same pan. Since this easy gnocchi recipe calls for store-bought shelf-stable gnocchi, it's quick to prepare--just 20 minutes, start to finish. Opt for whole-wheat gnocchi to get 2 extra grams of fiber per serving compared to white. This easy and healthy dinner is easy to customize too: see Tips for variations with shrimp, pesto instead of butter, and pork chops instead of gnocchi.
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Chipotle Tofu Tacos
Here, we tear the tofu instead of cutting it. That might sound odd, but it's the best way to get crisp, crumbly edges reminiscent of fish tacos. Coating with a flavorful cornstarch mixture helps maximize the crunch.