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I love eating food, and yes I do enjoy cooking meals for families and friends - just not so much when I'm worn out on a weeknight. It's a familiar story for many of us, when it comes to dinners for Monday to Friday - we want quick and we want easy.
Quick, Easy And Healthy Weekday Dinners
Of course Monday to Friday is 5/7ths of our week, so if you're wanting to live a healthy life it's important that your quick, easy weekday meals are also healthy. And the great news is - the two desires aren't mutually exclusive!
Today I haven't planned our evening meal, so I've been sitting here racking my brain trying to think what I've got in the fridge that could easily be converted into a healthy meal, and it struck me - lots of eggs!
Eggs - Are They Nutritious?
Eggs had a bad reputation for a while, thanks to cholesterol concerns. But we now know much more about how different dietary fats affect our blood cholesterol levels, for instance:
- Cholesterol in food has very little impact on our blood cholesterol levels.
- While dietary saturated fats can increase our blood cholesterol levels, they aren't the only dietary fats that we need to consider.
- Both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, so-called 'good' fats, actually help to reduce our cholesterol levels.
The cholesterol found in eggs has only a small and "clinically insignificant effect" on our blood cholesterol levels, according to the British Nutrition Foundation, and the good fats found in eggs (i.e. mono and polyunsaturated fats) attenuate the slightly negative effects of the saturated fat and cholesterol in eggs. So the British Nutrition Foundation has concluded that there is no reason to exclude eggs from our diet, or even place a limit on how many we consume. Though obviously we need to be sensible and ensure we include eggs as part of a varied diet and don't revolve our diet entirely around eggs.
Eggs provide high quality protein, and useful vitamins like vitamin A, D and E, plus ten other vitamins. The vitamin D content is particularly useful for New Zealanders as our dietary supply of the so-called sunshine vitamin is rather limited.
Healthy Egg Dishes - Watch Out For Excessive Fat
Wherever eggs appear in a recipe, you can almost be certain that either cheese, milk and/or cream will appear too. I guess they work together well, so why not? Well, from a health perspective a good reason not to have too much cheese, milk or cream with our eggs is all that unnecessary fat, particularly saturated fat.
So avoid recipes laden with cream and full-fat cheese, instead find healthier versions where reduced-fat cheeses and low-fat milk are used if anything at all. A good idea is to look recipes that incorporate veges with your eggs and bulk them up that way. Following are some great recipes I've found for you that I'd recommend.
Easy Egg Recipe Ideas For Dinner
Which leaves us with only one unanswered question - what egg recipe should we use?
Fast and Fabulous Meal Ideas by Sophie Gray - 16 egg-containing recipes FREE (though I don't guarantee all are healthy, certainly not the eggs benedict), but try the savoury salmon flan on page 11 with a simple green salad for a quick healthy dinner.
Easy tomato tortilla recipe - ready in less than 20 minutes according to the instructions.
Sweetcorn fritters with tomato chutney - forget brunch, try these as a quick dinner with a green salad, and serve with whatever chutney you've got.
Herby frittata with asparagus - a tasty, easy option, and don't feel limited by the asparagus - you could try it with any other type of green instead, e.g. broccoli, spinach.
There are loads more egg-based dishes out there that are simple and easy. So as long as you've got some eggs in your fridge, and a few veges you'll be able to whip up a healthy dinner quick and easy! Just keep an eye on the nutritional content with my tips above.
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About The Author
Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition
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