Easy, healthy meal ideas for the week ahead: Game day chili, veggie frittatas and more

Samantha Cassetty, RD
·5 min read

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Holiday food is much more than nourishment. We connect with loved ones over holiday meals, and favorite dishes may bring back warm memories and cozy vibes. It’s important to honor these traditions, just as it’s important to eat healthfully at other times. So, this week, we have a mix of both: Comforting meals that will gather everyone around the table, plus simple recipes that pack in produce and filling protein.

Because a holiday week is hectic enough, you'll see tons of easy shortcuts in this week's menu. From simple-to-assemble breakfast and lunch ideas, to sheet-pan and slow-cooker meals, to utilizing store-bought ingredients like rotisserie chicken.

What to Eat This Week, December 25, 2023

Start TODAY meal plan week of December 25, 2023
Start TODAY meal plan week of December 25, 2023

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Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Pear and Almonds

Lunch:  Salad

Dinner: One-Pan Teriyaki Salmon

Snack of choice

Thursday

Breakfast: Protein-Boosted Avocado Toast

Lunch: Rotisserie Chicken Sandwich

Dinner: Slow-Cooker Minestrone Soup

Snack of choice

Friday

Breakfast

Starting your day with a protein-rich option keeps you fuller for longer and tames cravings later on. Here are some quick and easy ways to pack protein into your morning meal.

Vegetable Frittata by Kristin Kirkpatrick

Need something a bit fancier to feed house guests this week? Whip up this simple frittata and serve with fruit and avocado slices on the side.

Oatmeal with Pear and Almonds by Frances Largeman-Roth, RDN

Serve with lower-sugar Greek yogurt mixed in or on the side.

Protein-Boosted Avocado Toast

Mash white beans or chickpeas into avocado. Spread on whole-grain toast and top with an egg, cooked any style.

Lunch

Rotisserie chicken is the multi-tasking ingredient of the week. Remove the skin and pull the meat off the bone to use in sandwiches and salads (and even one of our dinner recipes!). A typical rotisserie chicken yields 3-4 cups of meat.

If you’re a vegetarian or trying to reduce your meat consumption, use rinsed and drained canned beans instead. When making your grocery list, be sure to add plenty of veggies to serve in salads and alongside sandwiches.

Sandwich

Spread whole-grain bread with mayo and grainy mustard and stack with rotisserie chicken, lettuce and tomato. Serve with veggies on the side. For a vegetarian option, use mashed chickpeas.

Salad

Mix rotisserie chicken, chopped celery and golden raisins with mayo and dijon mustard. Scoop mixture over salad greens and add any veggies of your choosing. Sprinkle with seeds (such as sunflower seeds) or crushed nuts.

Dinner

This week’s dinner menu features nutritious, comforting meals that are perfect for a holiday week, whether you're feeding a crowd or looking for satisfying meals that'll give you a head start on your healthy eating goals for the new year. If you like a lot of variety, make one per night. If you’d prefer to cook less, double (or triple) a recipe to serve later in the week.

Game Day Chili by Curtis Stone

Chili is a family-friendly one-pot meal that’s surprisingly healthy. This version uses lean ground beef, but you can always swap it for ground turkey or chicken or skip the meat and use extra beans instead. Top your bowl with avocado slices and serve with warmed corn or whole-grain tortillas.

Peanut Chicken Salad by Carolina Santos-Neves

Get loads of veggies – and the spectrum of nutrients they provide – in this hearty main dish salad. You can take numerous shortcuts to streamline hands-on time, like using a rotisserie chicken and pre-shredded cabbage, Brussels sprouts and carrots. Make extra dressing and serve with cold brown rice noodles.

One-Pan Teriyaki Salmon by Jessica Sepel

Here’s another one-pan wonder. Everything you need for a healthy dinner is arranged on a sheet pan, allowing for just ten minutes of prep time and speedy clean up. And the easy-to-make teriyaki seasoning has nearly half the added sugar as the bottled variety.

Slow-Cooker Minestrone Soup by Casey Barber

This slow-cooker soup keeps things hearty with cubes of tender potatoes, snappy green beans and creamy cannelini beans, but you can always take your cue from the Italians and use this recipe as an excuse to cook up the odds and ends in your refrigerator’s crisper. Serve the soup with either an open-faced veggie-burger melt or avocado toast on a slice of whole-grain bread.

Rotisserie Chicken Fried Rice by Kevin Curry

Skip the takeout. This meal will be on the table in 20 minutes, thanks to shortcuts like rotisserie chicken and frozen peas and carrots. To bulk up the veggie content, add an extra package of frozen stir-fry vegetables and adjust the soy sauce to taste.

Snacks

Snacks that contain whole food sources of protein and fiber offer a winning formula that keeps you full for hours. Here are a few ideas:

  • Baby carrots dipped in protein-boosted mashed avocado. To make the dip, mash chickpeas or white beans into avocado.

  • Apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with tahini.

  • Frozen blueberries (thawed) with ricotta cheese.

  • Red pepper strips with goat cheese.

  • Unsweetened dried fruit and nuts or roasted chickpeas.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com