With the “back to school” we find our daily routine and, thanks to it, we can focus more attention on food, especially at dinner time. We come home tired after a day of work and we need to regain our energy, although we also don’t want to go to bed with a feeling of heaviness that prevents us from sleeping.
Dinner should be a light meal. It should be taken into account that what you choose for dinner influences the the body’s ability to burn fat at night and in the quality of rest.
If you eat a large dinner or one that is high in refined carbohydrates, your body may not use those calories and store them as fat. Dinner is the meal that will determine how your metabolism will behave during the night. Eating a proper dinner allows the body to repair tissues, regenerate cells and metabolize accumulated fat..
Nutritionists emphasize that dinner should provide about 20% of daily calories. Thus, neither starvation nor nighttime metabolism is impaired.
Two hours between dinner and bedtime
It is also not recommended to eat dinner too late. Ideally, there should be two hours between dinner time and bedtime. This is the time that helps us digest properly so that it does not interfere with our rest.
It is also important to prioritize quality over quantity since these are the last hours of the day when our activity level drops and we prepare for sleep.
Regardless of the diet we follow or our age, it is important to remember that dinner should be healthy and light so as not to ingest excessive calories. To do this, it is not always necessary to resort to fruits and salads in the evening. You can also prepare these delicious and simple recipes to enjoy during this moment of rest when you return home.
Cream of broccoli and asparagus with chia or almond seeds
A healthy cream can be comforting and perfect for dinner, especially in the late summer and fall months.
In general, any vegetable cream provides antioxidants that help fight cellular aging and protect against cardiovascular diseases. Also fibers, which contribute to better intestinal transit. They are suitable for people with high cholesterol levels because They barely contain any fat.
For this particular recipe, you need to cook the broccoli and asparagus until tender. Broccoli is a family of cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or kale, among others. It contains many types of nutrients and is rich in vitamins. In addition, it is a vegetable that is available all year round and easy to find. On the other hand, asparagus is related to garlic and onion and also contains high concentrations of nutrients.
After cooking, they are mixed with vegetable broth, a touch of almond milk is added and blended in the blender until a smooth cream is obtained without lumps. To add more nutrients, you can decorate it with chia seeds or almond pieces before serving.
It is a low-calorie vegetable cream, while being very filling, so you don’t go to bed with a feeling of hunger in your body.
Toasts with scrambled mushrooms and fresh goat cheese
This is a very simple and quick recipe. The first thing to do is to put a few slices of bread in a toaster. Then, all you have to do is brown the mushrooms in a pan and when they are ready, lower the heat by half and add one or two eggs, depending on how hungry you are. While the egg is cooking, add pieces of fresh goat cheese and stir everything until the egg is set and the cheese is slightly melted.
Another variation can be to first spread the gorgonzola pieces on the slice of toasted bread, then place the ham. stain or serrano ham and sautéed mushrooms on top.
Mushrooms have the advantage of being low in calories, fat and carbohydrates and containing a lot of water (90%). In addition, mushrooms provide a lot of fiber, more than Swiss chard for example. They also provide a considerable amount of iodine, phosphorus and potassium.
Chicken skewers with vegetables
Again, it is a very simple idea that allows us to take advantage of the ingredients we have in the fridge and customize them to our liking. In this proposal you can use onion, pepper, eggplant and mushrooms.
The most expensive thing to prepare is the marinade or marinade for the chicken. In a bowl we mix 50 ml of lemon juice, 30 ml of olive oil, a teaspoon of mustard and a tablespoon of honey. Then we add a tablespoon of oregano and a tablespoon of thyme and mix everything.
Once the marinade is ready, cut the chicken breast into thick strips and then into square pieces of about two centimeters. It is important that the pieces are regular so that they are cooked at the same time and equally. We add a teaspoon of salt to the chicken and add it to the marinade. We mix well and let it marinate for about three hours in the refrigerator.
Once the marinating time has elapsed, we cut the vegetables into squares; Cut a red pepper into strips one centimeter wide and then into squares. We cut a yellow pepper and a green pepper in the same way. We peel a red onion and cut it into four parts, separate the layers and cut them to obtain pieces of onion of more or less square shape. We do the same with the mushrooms.
When everything is ready, insert the chicken and vegetables alternately on the skewers. Then place the skewers on a tray and put them on a hot plate to heat to cook. Another option is to cook them in the oven.
After a few minutes, when they start to brown, they are turned over with tongs and left to cook on the other side for another six minutes. Once the chicken is cooked, they are removed and served fresh, creating a delicious contrast between the chicken and the crunchy vegetables.
