Healthy meal plans for your family

Breakfast: Start your day off with a balanced, delicious fruit salad. This recipe is chock full of great nutrients: Fiber, Vitamin B, Calcium and Protein. Clinically speaking, this is an amazing recipe, but it's the flavor that will have you making it again and again.

Fruit salad
Serves One

Ingredients:

• 1 fresh orange
  
• 1 fresh apple
  
• 1 Non fat yogurt cup
  
• 1/3 cup Walnuts
  

Directions:

1. Slice oranges so only flesh shows. Cut into slices, then separate segments for bite sized pieces.
   
   
2. Wash and cut the apples on all four sides off, discard the core. Cut them into bite sized pieces.
   
   
3. Mix all these ingredients together for a delicious breakfast!

Mid-Morning Snack: Snack on a banana or a handful of nuts throughout the day. Bananas deliver a nice boost of potassium, which is something that can help prevent muscle cramps.

Nuts are very filling and deliver that little bit protein energy you need to get through the afternoon without hitting the snack machine.

Lunch: Strive to have one meal with greens every day. Salad for lunch is an easy way to achieve that. Greens not only contain the necessary fiber our body needs, but greens like arugula also offer great cancer prevention benefits.

Check out this flavorful twist on a Caprese salad. This salad is low on fat and has all the elements of a balanced meal.

Caprese Salad
Serves One

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken breast, seared and diced
  
• 1 Heirloom tomato, medium dice
  
• 2 ozs. Fresh mozzarella, diced
  
• 1 cup of Arugula or Rocket (Great peppery bite!)
  
• 1 slice Sourdough bread, diced
  
• 1 garlic clove grated
  
• 1 Basil leaf
  
• 1 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Directions:

1. Prepare listed ingredients as suggested above.
   
   
2. Toss with extra virgin olive oil and vinegar and mix with salt and pepper.

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Bread Tip for Lunch: Don't be afraid of bread! The right kinds of breads that is. Sourdough bread is a flavorful option and does not contain any fat. Try cubing it up in the Caprese salad. It will soak up the dressing and will act like a little flavor capsule when you bite into it!

Dinner: During the Tang Dynasty in China, stir-fry was invented out of necessity to conserve expensive and scarce fuel.

This method we are all familiar with can usually cook dishes in less than a minute and uses a little bit of oil. Try this healthy recipe that provides good nutrients and is easy on the pocket book.

Stir Fry
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken breast
  
• 1 Green squash, thinly sliced
  
• 1 Red onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1 teaspoon Red chile flakes
  
• 1 Garlic clove, grated
  
• 1 tablespoon of Extra virgin olive oil
  
• ¼ cup thinly grated parmesan cheese
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Directions:

1. Season chicken breast with salt and pepper on a plate. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet until almost smoking hot. Place the chicken breast in the hot pan and turn only once until cooked through and brown on both sides. Remove the chicken and place on a cutting board.
   
   
2. Add more oil as needed, heat the pan and add the vegetables. Toss to coat lightly with oil, then let sit until browned.
   
   
3. Slice the chicken breast and add back to the pan to re-warm and finish. Add the red chile flakes and grate the garlic right over the pan. Stir to incorporate the garlic. Once you can smell the garlic, turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper.
   
   
4. Divide up the contents of the pan on plates and top with freshly grated parmesan. Using a microplane to shred cheese limits the amount of cheese you'll want to put on. It delivers enough flavor with less cheese that can actually look like more. Enjoy!

Tip: Buy or use a microplane more often! This helpful kitchen tool grates garlic for quick kitchen prep and grates parmesan quickly in calorie saving portions. It grates cheeses in small, thin ribbons. Just a few strokes will leave you with a pile of cheese and give your dish the flavor it needs. A great alternative to bulky and calorie intense grates of traditional cheese that we tend to pile on.

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About Meg Hall:

Meg Hall is the Chef/Owner of Made by Meg LLC: A Catering Company. After receiving her Bachelor's from Villanova, Meg started her professional life as a Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney. After five years, Meg chose to pursue her passion for cooking.

She attended Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, CA at night and worked the stock markets during the day. After this exhausting but highly rewarding journey, Meg started her catering business to a warm welcome from friends to former clients.

Made by Meg has been featured in the Daily Breeze, The LA Times and several foodie blogs over the past year. Catering services include corporate catering, cocktail receptions and weddings.

For more information, visit www.meghall.com