23 Healthy Dinners for One

Alex Loh is EatingWell's associate food editor. As part of the food team, she creates healthy, delicious recipes for the EatingWell audience. Alex also writes informative food and cooking articles that range from how to store ground beef to the best picks from Trader Joe's. Alex conducts product and taste tests to find the best options, from salad spinners to salsas.

Jessica Ball, M.S., RD, is nutrition editor for EatingWell. She is a registered dietitian with a master's in food, nutrition and sustainability. In addition to EatingWell, her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Real Simple, Parents, Better Homes and Gardens and MyRecipes.

Make a healthy and delicious meal for one with these dinner recipes. These recipes make one serving, so you won't have to worry about eating the same leftovers day after day. We balance hearty proteins like chicken and seafood with fresh veggies and grains to create a balanced dinner. Recipes like our Broccoli Fried Rice and Green Goddess Grain Bowl are healthy, filling and perfect for tonight's dinner.

Green Goddess Grain Bowl

This healthy grain bowl packs in the greens with peas, asparagus and a creamy yogurt dressing. Tofu adds protein while keeping it vegetarian, but you could also swap in cooked shrimp or chicken for a satisfying dinner or packable lunch ready in just 15 minutes.

Butternut Squash Soup with Avocado & Chickpeas

Jazz up a can of soup by adding protein with chickpeas and flavor with curry powder. Stir in a little Greek yogurt to make it creamy.

Chicken, Quinoa & Veggie Bowl

With a whopping 19 grams of protein, this one-dish meal will keeping you feeling full and satisfied for hours.

Chicken Shawarma with Potatoes

Cook once; eat thrice: this chicken shawarma recipe makes a satisfying single-serving dinner, plus extra chicken, potatoes, and onions that you can use later in the week.

Broccoli Fried Rice

This easy stir-fry is a great healthy dinner for one. Make it your own by choosing between beef and chicken. Vegetarian? Skip the meat altogether, or sub in tofu.

Greek Salmon Salad

If mixed salads fail to fill you up, try this hearty Greek salmon salad recipe, which calls for bulking up a traditional bed of mixed greens with roasted vegetables and protein-rich salmon. Leftovers make it a breeze to put together this delicious Mediterranean salad. Here we suggest two recipes you could meal-prep ahead of time--Lemon-Roasted Mixed Vegetables and Sweet & Spicy Roasted Salmon--but you can use whatever roasted veggies you have on hand and pick up a precooked salmon fillet from the deli counter at your grocery store. This healthy salad would also be good with chicken. Serve it for an easy dinner or pack it up for lunch.

Mac & Cheese for One

Making mac and cheese for one person is easy, and it requires just one pot! The key to success is making sure all of your ingredients are prepped and ready before you begin, as everything moves pretty quickly. Also, be sure to use a delicious sharp Cheddar for this recipe so that your mac and cheese delivers all of that delicious cheesy flavor.

Scrambled Eggs with Vegetables

This fridge-clean-out meal is the perfect way to use up whatever vegetables you have on hand. Chop up anything that's been left behind in your veggie drawer for this quick scramble that's the perfect healthy dinner for one.

Shrimp Salad with Peanut Dressing

Using applesauce in the peanut dressing lends a sweet, tart flavor that pairs wonderfully with shrimp.

Salmon Sushi Grain Bowl

Get all the delicious flavors of sushi without the time-consuming rolling with this quick grain bowl recipe. All you need is 15 minutes to get this healthy dinner on the table or to pack it up for lunch at work.

Prosciutto & Spinach Grilled Cheese

Make grilled cheese for one with this quick and easy recipe! This sandwich packs in a healthy dose of veggies plus a delicious flavor boost from sliced prosciutto (Italian ham).

Beet & Shrimp Winter Salad

This healthy dinner salad recipe gets its staying power from protein-packed shrimp and fiber-rich barley. With a simple red-wine vinaigrette, this quick salad makes just one serving but is easy to double or triple. Look for precooked beets with other prepared vegetables in the produce department.

Egg Drop Soup with Instant Noodles, Spinach & Scallions

Whisking a beaten egg into simmering broth is a quick and easy way to add creaminess and protein to noodle soup mix. Add freshness with a handful of baby spinach at the end. This recipe can easily be doubled to serve 2 and use the whole package of noodles. To cut back on sodium, look for noodle varieties with less than 600 mg sodium per serving or use less of the seasoning packet.

Chicken & Veggie Quesadilla

This easy quesadilla recipe uses canned cooked chicken to save time. You can also use leftover cooked chicken or turkey if you have it. Dice the vegetables up to 1 day ahead for even speedier prep.

Black Bean-Cauliflower "Rice" Bowl

This aromatic cauliflower rice bowl comes together in minutes and is a simple meal for one. Using frozen riced cauliflower instead of rice keeps the carbs in check--and makes for quicker prep.

Toaster-Oven Tostadas

Would you believe us if we said you can have restaurant-style tostadas at home in just 15 minutes? It's no problem! Simply layer black beans and Cheddar onto corn tortillas and toast in the toaster oven.

Lemon Chicken Pasta

We love the combination of lemon zest and toasted breadcrumbs in this quick and easy pasta recipe for one. This healthy dinner is made with rotisserie chicken and quick-cooking spiralized zucchini and baby zucchini, so you get a complete meal in just 10 minutes. Source: Diabetic Living Magazine, Summer 2019

Open-Face Goat Cheese Sandwich with Tomato & Avocado Salad

This simple meal comes together in just 10 minutes, making it a great option for busy days.

Edamame & Veggie Rice Bowl

The ingredients in this vegan grain bowl recipe can be prepped ahead for an easy lunch to pack for work. The tangy citrus dressing is a refreshing flavor with the sweet caramel of the roasted sheet-pan veggies.

Steak Dinner

Your traditional steak and potato dinner gets a makeover in this recipe by swapping starchy potatoes for whole-grain brown rice. Be wary of your portion size for steak, it should be about the size of a deck of cards.

Avocado, Tomato & Chicken Sandwich

In this healthy chicken sandwich recipe, the avocado is mashed to create a healthy creamy spread.

Salmon and Asparagus

This quick-and-easy recipe is loaded with bold flavors and combines heart-healthy salmon with roasted or grilled asparagus. We recommend roasting or grilling the salmon and asparagus together to save time. To ramp up the flavor in this dish, use a dab of extra-virgin olive oil, snipped fresh parsley, finely shredded lemon peel, and ground black pepper.

Italian Zucchini-Topped Baked Potato

Quick-sautéed zuke with herbs and a little cheese adds punch to a plain potato without overdoing it on the fat, sodium and calories.

Related Articles

• About Us
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Nutrition Guidelines
• Privacy Policy
• Product Reviews
• Advertise
• Terms of Service
• Careers
• EU Privacy
• Contact

We Care About Your Privacy

We and our 100 partners store and/or access information on a device, such as unique IDs in cookies to process personal data. You may accept or manage your choices by clicking below, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, or at any time in the privacy policy page. These choices will be signaled to our partners and will not affect browsing data.

We and our partners process data to provide:

Store and/or access information on a device. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners (vendors)