Five Simple Weekday Dinners | Recipes for Clean Eating

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February 21, 2019

The House Magazine

It’s week four of our family making the clean eating transition, and for the most part, it’s gone well! We’re still not eating completely clean. Lunches can be hard for me if we don’t have left overs from the night before. That’s where I’m lazy. If Eric and I don’t pack breakfast to go the night before, or give ourselves enough time in the mornings to put it together, we’ll opt for the Starbucks breakfast sandwich instead – no bueno. So, I preached about planning in this post, and it’s still the most important part (for us) to be successful. For those of you following along, I promised a list of our favorite clean weekday recipes. Below is an example of what a week of meals looks like at the House of Perez. We’ve made all of these at least once and LOVED them. I will continue to make suggestions every other week or so! Enjoy.

Day 1 – Egg Roll in a Bowl

I’ll start by saying that we’d make this recipe every single week. I do like to start the week off with this meal, especially if I am not as prepped as I would like to be on Monday. You’ve probably heard me talk about 40 Aprons, the amazing health food blog where I found this recipe. Cheryl takes classic dishes and creates the healthiest version in a simple way. This recipe is packed with flavor, and all the ingredients are added into one pan, bit by bit, until the whole thing comes together. One pan equals minimal clean up. What’s not to love?

Day 2 – Healthy Chicken Alfredo with Spaghetti Squash 

When we started clean eating, I made it a point to find the healthy version of recipes you stay away from while trying to be healthy. Chicken Alfredo has to be at the top of that list. And then of course when you find a healthy version of something that’s supposed to be super unhealthy, you doubtfully say to yourself, “This should be great………” Well, I am telling you, this recipe is so satisfying. It’s rich, creamy, and flavorful, all of the things you love about unhealthy Alfredo. And I did not crave a bowl of carbs after eating this recipe by this 40 Aprons recipe.

Day 3 – Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes

I honestly don’t follow a recipe for this one, but really wanted to include it here because of it’s simplicity. This is great to throw on the meal plan when you’re out of ideas and need something extremely easy on the list. We take these for lunch, or put them together for dinner – especially if I want a break from cooking during the week. We’ll bake the sweet potatoes in advance, then prep the fixings that morning while we are packing our lunch, or that evening before dinner. Typically we add seasoned ground beef, bacon, green onion, a dab of soy yogurt (or sour cream if you want to cheat a bit) and salt and pepper. Wa-la. A clean, quick option for lunch or dinner.

Day 4 – Cuban Chicken and Black Bean Rice Bowl

Here’s another one we would eat weekly, by another one of my favorite food bloggers, Half Baked Harvest. This one does take a bit of prep as a lot of the ingredients need to be chopped, but being able to throw it all onto one pan makes up for that. This is one that I would get started during my lunch break if I know we’re going to have a chaotic evening. The flavors here are seriously delicious. To top everything off, there is a quick mango salsa you can make while the dish is baking to bring it altogether. So good.

Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas – Head to the Number Two Pencil Website for the Recipe.

Day 5 – Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas

We like minimal clean up during the week so sheet pan recipes are our jam. Here’s a super simple one packed with flavor from Number 2 Pencil. The prep for this recipe takes no time at all. I throw it all together over lunch break, wrap the pan, and put it in the refrigerator so that all I have to do is pop it in the oven as soon as I get home in the evening. The perfect healthy weekday meal. If you’re strictly clean eating, trade the tortillas for cauliflower rice.