How to make Italian food an anti-inflammatory, fat burning, metabolism boosting POWER meal! (Healthy Italian Dinner Recipes)

A clean, healthy dinner that everyone will love, can make additional meals, and is super clean and healthy to support your goals… and it only takes about 45 minutes to make… that’s the dream, right? Say hello to the dinner of your dreams! This healthy Italian dinner recipe is super quick, super easy, and super clean. It takes just under an hour to prepare, and you can double the recipe for future lunches or dinners.

This delicious (and painless) recipe includes:

• A simple, homemade Italian dressing and/or marinade – no preservatives, fillers, chemicals, or harmful ingredients
• Tender, juicy chicken breast – a high protein, low fat, and low cholesterol protein option
• Creamy, antioxidant rich roasted eggplant
• Fiber rich salad greens & veggies of choice coated in perfectly spiced Italian dressing

That’s it!

Is Italian cooking healthy?

Traditionally, Italian cooking is quite healthy! Most classic dishes use fresh ingredients with lots of fresh vegetables and lean meats. If you’ve ever heard of the Mediterranean Diet, you’ll know just how good for you Italian food can be.

However, what we think of as Italian foods usually includes lots of pasta, cream sauces, and cheeses. Now, it’s not so much that these things are harmful to your health as it is that they produce undesirable conditions within the body.

Let’s take a look:

• Typical pasta products are usually made with refined, enriched flours that are high on the glycemic scale, low in many micronutrients, relatively low in fiber, and process within the body as sugar. This is why we hear of people feeling “sleepy,” “sluggish,” or “foggy” after a high carb meal. It’s not the high carb count – it’s the type and quality of carb.
• Cream sauces are typically high in fat and calorie without offering many nutrients other than fat. This high fat sauce is also sometimes high in cholesterol and salt, and often cream sauces are loaded in high fat dairy. Simply put, this means you’re eating A LOT of calories for very little volume and nutrients.
• Cheeses are another example of a high calorie, low volume, nutrient poor food. Aside from all of the previous reasons (salt, high fat, low nutrition), eating lots of dairy can slow down digestion and cause intestinal distress in many, many people. Again, it’s no that dairy is bad or should be eliminated from your diet (unless you are intolerant), it’s that you eat it in moderation and mindfully. Americans especially have the tendency to cover everything in cheese, and it just doesn’t need to be that way.

So, in order to make a healthy Italian dinner, we need to make some changes:

1. We need to replace enriched pasta products with veggies and fresh, whole foods ingredients
2. We need to replace creams and cheeses with fragrant, bold, whole food seasonings

This will make our Italian dinner Nutrifitx Approved, beneficial to our health, and supportive of our weight loss goals!

Should you eliminate creamy, cheesy Italian pastas from your diet forever?

Absolutely not! We will never tell you that any food or food group is off limits. On the Nutrifitx System, we teach you the foundations of health and living in balance. The Nutrifitx System is not a diet; therefore, we do not dictate what you can and can’t eat. It’s all up to you! We teach you how to make smart decisions based on health and nutrition science. Our methods help you reach and maintain your health goals without a lifetime of counting calories, adding up points, or hyper-focusing on whatever diet or exercise program is popular right now.

But the best part is that you still get to enjoy your favorite foods – like pasta, cheese, and cream sauces! It’s all about balance and building the foundations of a healthy lifestyle with classic, timeless, health and nutrition advice based on science.

This healthy Italian dinner recipe is 100% Nutrifitx Approved!

Our healthy Italian dinner recipe features health supporting ingredients and cooking methods that allow for maximum nutrition. We favor high volume, nutrient dense foods that taste great and keep you full. Our healthy Italian dinner also works with your body’s natural blood sugar cycles and energy needs. (See the Nutrifix Scale and/or the Nutrifitx System for more details.)

Here’s what makes this Italian dinner so healthy:

• We replaced refined, high glycemic pasta with nutrient dense, high fiber vegetables. With loads of tasty roasted eggplant and as much salad you want, you can feel satiated without the empty calories and blood sugar spikes.
• We chose antioxidant, anti-inflammatory olive oil with natural, whole foods herbs and spices over calorie dense/nutrient poor cream sauces and cheeses as flavoring. This provides you with amazing flavor without sacrificing your goals or inflammation. Where a creamy, cheesy pasta dish may leave you feeling swollen, sore, and bloated, this healthy Italian dinner will leave you feeling satisfied and light. You’ll feel good about your choice mentally, too!
• We use a homemade, whole foods dressing/marinade recipe instead of high sodium, chemical/preservative laden store-bought options. Not all mass-produced dressings are harmful, but making your own dressing ensures the cleanest ingredients and practices possible. Plus, you don’t have to worry about reading your ingredient labels.

The ingredients in this recipe are simple and pretty typical if you cook regularly. If you don’t cook regularly, this is a great starter recipe to build your Nutrifitx Kitchen. The herbs, spices, and oils we use here are some of our staples. We use these ingredients in most recipes, and they’re highly versatile.

NUTRIFITX MEMBERS’ SCALE

Healthy Italian Dinner

Complete Italian Chicken Dinner

Yield: 2

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

This Italian dinner is delicious 100% Nutrifitx Approved, and takes just 30-45 minutes to complete. We love serving this at least once a week and making double for lunches.

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Ingredients

• 2 6-8 oz Chicken Breasts (Thin Sliced or Pounded)
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Eggplants, whole
• 2 c Nutrifitx Italian Dressing
• Dark Leafy Greens (Romaine, Kale, Spinach, Spring Mix, Arugula, etc.)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 (F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If not already prepped, prepare 2 cups (2 recipes) of the Nutrifitx Italian Dressing.
2. Clean chicken breasts (removing all undesirable parts). Pour 1-1/4 cups of dressing into a large mixing bowl, and add each chicken breast into the bowl. Marinate chicken until ready to cook.
3. Dice eggplant. Remove top and bottom of eggplant, then cut into medium square chunks. The purple skin is edible and highly nutritious; but many people do not prefer the skin. To remove, place standing on newly flattened bottom edge, and carefully slice the skin off the eggplant retaining as much of the flesh as possible.
4. Heat approximately 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan, and warm over medium heat.
5. Meanwhile, place largely diced eggplant into another mixing bowl, and drizzle with 1/2 cup of dressing. Stir to evenly distribute dressing.
6. Spread died eggplant evenly on parchment lined pan, and lightly salt (if desired).
7. Once oil is heated, add marinated chicken breasts to pan. Cover, and set a timer for 4-5 minutes. Do not move the chicken breasts from their place, but check periodically to ensure there is no blackening. If they are blackening, turn down the heat slightly.
8. Place eggplant in preheated oven. With convection: Roast for 7 minutes. Without convection: Roast for 10-12 minutes.
9. At end of chicken timer, flip chicken breasts, and repeat. Set another timer for 4-5 minutes.
10. At end of eggplant timer, remove from oven and stir eggplant around on the pan. Repeat; set another timer to finish roasting (7-12 minutes). Check periodically to prevent burning - all ovens are different.
11. While eggplant and chicken are in their final cooking stages, prepare your salads. Add unlimited dark leafy greens to a salad bowl, and add other vegetables if desired (tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers are good options!) Coat salads with remaining 1/4 cup of salad dressing (2 Tbsp per salad).
12. When all dishes are complete, plate and serve. Enjoy!

Notes

If you want your chicken to be extra tender and flavorful, start marinading 30-45 minutes before cooking!

We also recommend having you salad dressing prepared prior to cooking. This is a great thing to prep during your weekly meal prep. While cooking, we also recommend making extra chicken and eggplant for lunches, as it only takes 3-5 more minutes to prepare addtional servings of this recipe.

Nutrifitx Italian Dressing (or Marinade)

Yield: 1 Cup (x8 2T Servings)

Prep Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 8 minutes

This Nutrifitx Approved Italian dressing is a great, healthy, anti-inflammatory salad dressing or marinade to take your healthy meals to the next level!

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 c Olive Oil
• 2 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Water
• 1 tsp Raw Honey
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• 3/4 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1/2 Tbsp Italian Herb Seasoning (see notes)
• Sprinkle of Red Pepper Flakes
• Black Pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients together in a blender; or shake ingredients in a sealed jar.

Notes

Be sure to store leftover dressing in a sealed jar. Ingredients WILL separate; a jar is great for shaking to mix. (Alternatively, whisk before serving.)

Italian Herb Seasoning: Italian seasoning can be found dried, but we recommend using fresh or lightly dried in this recipe (both can be found in the fresh produce section of your grocery store). Fresh or lightly dried herbs are much more flavorful. However, if you're using dried, decrease measurement to 1/2 to 2/3 of the original recipe (or to taste).

Recommended Products

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  Simply Organic Italian Seasoning

Nutrition Information

Yield 8 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 126Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 0mgSodium 49mgCarbohydrates 1gFiber 0gSugar 1gProtein 0g

Nutrition facts may vary due to differing brands and/or ingredient substitutions or eliminations.

Learn how to create amazing meal plans and cultivate daily routines that accelerate weight loss and optimize your health with the Nutrifitx System!