Healthy Diet Complete Dinner Recipe

Eating a healthy diet can seem overwhelming to most people. It does not have to be this way. Instead of stuffing your freezer and cupboards with frozen and canned foods, the best ingredients to use when cooking are fresh vegetables, herbs and lean cuts of meats. When planning your meals for the week only buy enough fresh ingredients for two or three days at a time.

The following recipe is a complete meal that is quick to prepare. It is low sodium, low fat, low cholesterol healthy diet meal that tastes good, too.

Ingredients:

1 Pound Lean Ground Beef
1 Small Sweet Onion
3 Fresh Garlic Cloves
1 Cup Fresh Carrots
½ Pound Fresh Mushrooms
1 Cup Fresh Peas
1 Pound Fresh Tomatoes
1/3 Cup Low Sodium Ketchup
1 Teaspoon Fresh Parsley
1 Teaspoon Fresh Marjoram
2 Tablespoons Flour
1 ½ Pounds Potatoes

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Finely chop the onion up into small pieces. Mince the cloves of garlic. Slice the carrots into ¼ inch slices. Cut the mushrooms up into small pieces. Use a food processor to chop up the tomatoes as you will use both the tomatoes and the juice. Grind up the parley and marjoram. Cut the potatoes up into small pieces.

Place the potatoes into a pot, add cold water, cover and boil until the potatoes are soft. While the potatoes are boiling, take a microwave safe dish and place the lean ground beef, onions, garlic and carrots and mix together. Cover the container and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove the cover, stir well, replace the cover and microwave for 5 more minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. Using a colander drain the meat and carrot mixture. Wipe out the microwave safe dish and place the meat mixture back into it. Add the mushrooms, peas, tomatoes with juice, parsley, marjoram, ketchup and flour and mix well. Cover and microwave for 5 minutes.

The potatoes should be done boiling. Remove from the heat, drain and mash the potatoes. Use about 1 cup of 1% low fat milk and 4 teaspoons of low fat margarine and mix until creamy and smooth.

Remove the dish from the microwave and pour into an oven safe dish. Top the mixture with the mashed potatoes. You can sprinkle paprika over the potatoes to add color to this dish. Bake the uncovered dish in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.