Healthy Dinner Recipes, Lunch Recipes, Breakfast Ideas and more

Truly healthy dinner recipes should support our health AND the environment. This will generally means cooking in season, which is the format we've created below. Cooking in season means grilled asparagus in springtime, apple pie in the late summer and fall, carrots and potatoes in winter.

Eating seasonally is one of the most healthy things you can do for yourself. Seasonal foods are denser in nutrients, since they are fresher and were not picked green in order to ship to you. When they are grown in their natural and preferred enironments and climates they grow to their fullest healthy potential, meaning you get the most from them. And it's just natural: We naturally want more fruits and veggies when it's warm outside (when those things are ripe and nutrient dense). In the winter we tend to crave heavier, warmer healthy dinner recipes that tend to contain root vegetables, grains or animal products.

Organic food is also important. Click here to read the advantages and benefits of organic food.

Keep in mind that healthy food recipes that made out of season are also a huge burden on the environment. It takes large amounts of resources to grow hothouse tomatoes in January or ship them across the globe. Therefore foods out-of-season at your grocery store have probably come from the other side of the world or used other unsustainable practices in growing or raising your food, such as genetic modification. (Purchasing your food from a local organic farm will ensure you get the highest quality, in-season food while supporting your local economy.)

Healthy Dinner Recipes

Below are a growing collection of our - and our readers' - favorite seasonal recipes, using almost exclusively ingredients you should easily be able to find at your local farmer's market, farm stand or grown in your own garden. They are also natural, organic and mostly plant-based to ensure you are getting the best nutrition with the smallest footprint possible.

Be sure to check out our seasonal foods list here to learn more about what's in season.

• Roasted Artichokes: Simple, sustainable, yummy.
• Brown Rice with Vegetables: Easy, healthy and vegan.
• Summer Bean Salad: Blackeyed peas and garden veggies make a perfect salad.
• Fajita Rice Skillet: This is a simple gluten-free alternative to fajitas that we just love.
• Harvest Medley: Wild Rice Medley: Great for dinner or as a stuffing!
• Mac 'N Squeeze (Pasta and Butternut Squash): Healthy squash and pasta make this a simple fall meal.
• Curry Chicken Salad: Perfect by itself or wrapped in greens for a sandwich or green salad.
• Grain-Free, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bread: This paleo pumpkin bread is wonderful for fall and winter holidays!
• Curried Coconut and Chickpeas: A hearty healthy dinner recipe by a guest author and chef.
• Grain-Free Chicken Pot Pie: This yummy recipe using the grain-free pie crust recipe below.
• Southern Sausage Balls (Grain-Free): Try this grain-free recipe to make your own sausage balls.

Healthy Lunch and Breakfast Ideas

• Healthy Breakfast Foods: Needs ideas for breakfast too? Check out our article for simple, healthy breakfast meals.
• Homemade Granola: Inexpensive, healthy and easy to make!
• Homemade Breakfast Sausage: Avoid all the additives from the store by making your own with natural ingredients.
• Orange Smoothie Recipe: This one is a powerhouse of vitamin C, especially good for cold and flu season.
• Healthy Lunch Ideas for Kids: Several yummy and unique recipes just for your childrens' lunch.
• Grain-Free Pumpkin Bread: One of our most favorited recipes, this yummy bread is also dairy-free.

Other Healthy Food Recipes and Articles

• Benefits of Organic food: A collection of food-related articles to help you make the best choice for yourself, your family and the environment.
• Homemade Coconut Milk: Why pay the equivalent of $17 a gallon when you can make coconut milk at home?
• Cooking with Coconut Oil: Replacing traditional oils with this healthy oil is one of the best things you can do for your health!
• Healthy Coconut Chocolate Recipe: Enjoy this healthy homemade chocolate recipe by one of our guest writers.
• Homemade Vanilla Extract: This is easy, affordable and so much yummier!
• Homemade Garlic Powder and Onion Powder: Learn how to make your own healthier garlic and onion powders.
• Homemade Butter: These yummy step-by-step instructions will make it hard to go back to store-bought butter
• Grain-Free/Paleo Pie Crust: This can be used for a pot pie or a fruit pie.
• Homemade Baking Powder: This simple baking powder recipe can eliminate grains and aluminum from your diet.