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Our column, ThePrep, has everything you’ll need to make dinner planning and grocery shopping as easy as can be. Nutritional needs differ from one individual to another, and we invite you to use these dinner plans as inspiration and adjust them as you see fit. Sign up to get a dinner plan delivered to your inbox every Saturday!
I’m back from gallivanting around England! It was so much fun seeing the sights in London and exploring villages in the Cotswolds, but now I need to get back into my work routine. So this week is going to be all about easy dinners—from a hearty soup I can make in the slow cooker to an entree that comes together on a sheet pan. Plus, all of these dinners are packed with antioxidant-rich foods like dark-colored vegetables and leafy greens. Antioxidants help repair damaged cells and can reduce your risk for chronic conditions, like heart disease and inflammation. A lot of the foods I love, like beets and kale, fall into this category, so it’s easy to include them in my meal plans anyway. I hope you enjoy them too!
Your Weekly Plan
Sunday: Slow-Cooker Turkey & Kale Minestrone Soup
Monday: Shrimp Cauliflower Fried Rice
Tuesday: Chickpea, Beet & Feta Salad with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette
Wednesday: Roasted Salmon with Smoky Chickpeas & Greens
Thursday: Spaghetti Squash Nests with Sausage, Mushrooms & Tomatoes
Friday: Massaged Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Beans
Sunday: Slow-Cooker Turkey & Kale Minestrone Soup
Sunday is the perfect day to put a bunch of ingredients in the slow cooker and let them simmer away for a few hours until they turn into a satisfying soup. You’ll just have to do a little prep—browning turkey sausage and veggies to build flavor—before loading everything but the pasta and kale into the slow cooker. Then you’ll add the pasta for the last hour of cooking and stir in the kale before serving. A whole-wheat baguette is perfect for serving on the side for dipping into the soup.
Monday: Shrimp Cauliflower Fried Rice
Instead of traditional rice, this dish uses riced cauliflower. You’ll start by cooking eggs and then the cauliflower, which you’ll want to avoid stirring so it gets nicely browned. Then you’ll cook the shrimp and a trio of antioxidant-rich ingredients: broccoli, bell pepper and garlic. Finally, you’ll stir it all together with a little soy sauce, water and rice vinegar. It’s quick, easy and flavorful. Serve it with the rest of Sunday’s whole-wheat baguette.
Tuesday: Chickpea, Beet & Feta Salad with Lemon-Garlic Vinaigrette
Photographer: Rachel Marek, Food stylist: Holly Dreesman, Prop stylist: Addelyn Evans
To keep this salad ultrasimple, I’ll make it with precooked beets (look for packages in the produce section). Beets are high in betalains, antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and fight cancer. Paired with carrots, which have an inflammation-fighting antioxidant called luteolin, they make this salad an antioxidant powerhouse. Serve it with some roasted bone-in chicken thighs to round out the meal.
Wednesday: Roasted Salmon with Smoky Chickpeas & Greens
A simple dish of roasted salmon becomes something more exciting when it’s drizzled with an herb sauce and served with kale and chickpeas. Tossing the chickpeas with olive oil, paprika and salt and then roasting them transforms them into a crunchy topping for the wilted kale. Like other dark leafy greens, kale offers many potential health benefits, including antioxidants.
Thursday: Spaghetti Squash Nests with Sausage, Mushrooms & Tomatoes
You’re probably used to halving spaghetti squash lengthwise, but for this recipe, the squash is sliced into rings that get shredded into nests after roasting. You’ll roast tomatoes, chicken sausage and mushrooms alongside the squash rounds and then pile them on top after shredding the squash. I think it’s a really fun way to serve the vegetable. Toss together our Leafy Green Salad to have on the side.
Friday: Massaged Kale Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato & Black Beans
This dinner salad is an ultra-satisfying combination of protein-rich quinoa and black beans, antioxidant-rich sweet potatoes and kale, and calcium-packed feta cheese. A lemon-garlic dressing gives it punchy flavor, and pepitas add crunch. It is the heartiest of salads—and it’s vegetarian.
I wish you all a great week, and I hope you enjoy this dinner plan. If you try a recipe, remember to add a review.
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