Your cholesterol levels can have a notable impact on your heart health. Factors like genetics and diet can cause high levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs)—sometimes called “bad cholesterol”—to build up as plaque in your arteries. Luckily, these easy recipes are lower in saturated fat and high in fiber, which can help you support healthy cholesterol levels. Recipes like our Braised Chicken with Mushrooms & Leeks and Easy Pea & Spinach Carbonara are delicious ways to help keep your heart healthy.
Slow-Cooker Chicken & White Bean Stew
Photographer: Morgan Hunt Glaze, Prop Stylist: Phoebe Hausser, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall
This load-and-go slow-cooker chicken recipe is perfect for a busy weeknight dinner. Serve this Tuscan-inspired dish with crusty bread and a salad.
Braised Chicken with Mushrooms & Leeks
The leeks get silky when they cook down in this luscious, tangy mustard sauce. Serve over mashed potatoes.
Eat-the-Rainbow Vegetable Soup
Photographer: Jen Causey, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall , Prop Stylist: Shell Royster
This vibrant and wholesome soup helps support your well-being. It’s packed with a variety of colorful vegetables, like tomatoes, which contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help reduce inflammation.
Easy Pea & Spinach Carbonara
Fresh pasta cooks up faster than dried, making it a must-have for fast weeknight dinners like this luscious yet healthy meal. Eggs are the base of the creamy sauce. They don’t get fully cooked, so use pasteurized-in-the-shell eggs if you prefer.
Pan-Seared Steak with Crispy Herbs & Escarole
This easy dinner takes just 20 minutes to prepare, meaning that seared steak can be a weeknight meal. Cooking herbs in the pan with the steak releases their aroma, infusing it into the meat while creating a crispy garnish. After the steaks and herbs are pan-seared, the escarole is cooked in the same skillet, so this healthy dinner requires minimal cleanup too.
Kale & Chickpea Grain Bowls
This veggie-heavy bowl is loaded with crunch and color, thanks to crispy carrots and chickpeas, fresh kale and a vibrant avocado dressing. It also delivers more than 50% of your daily dose of fiber, key for weight loss, energy and healthy digestion. Bulgur, also called cracked wheat, is a quick-cooking whole grain.
Black Bean Fajita Skillet
This recipe employs presliced, ready-to-cook fajita vegetables from your grocer’s produce section to cut down on dinnertime prep. The vegetables are sautéed with canned black beans and Southwest seasoning for a quick and easy Tex Mex-inspired meal. You can easily take your bowl up a notch by adding some cheese, sour cream or another tasty topping.
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Avocado & Walnuts
Serve this colorful strawberry spinach salad alongside soup or a half sandwich, or top it with grilled chicken or roasted salmon for a complete and easy healthy meal.
Black Bean-Quinoa Bowl
Photography: Carson Downing, Food Stylist: Holly Dreesman, Prop Stylist: Gabe Greco
This grain bowl has many of the usual hallmarks of a taco salad, minus the fried bowl. We’ve loaded it up with pico de gallo, fresh cilantro and avocado plus an easy hummus dressing to drizzle on top.
Vegan Superfood Grain Bowls
Photographer: Fred Hardy, Food Stylist: Margaret Monroe Dickey
This nutrient-packed grain bowl recipe comes together in 15 minutes with the help of a few convenience-food shortcuts like prewashed baby kale, microwavable quinoa and precooked beets. Prep the bowls ahead for quick dinners on busy nights.
Creamy Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms
Sliced Brussels sprouts and mushrooms cook quickly and cling to the pasta in our fall version of pasta primavera. Look for presliced mushrooms to cut prep time. Serve with a tossed salad.
Anti-Inflammatory Vegetable-Packed Grain Bowls
Farro provides satisfying chew, while the raw shaved veggies soften slightly in the vinaigrette to become perfectly tender-crisp. Beets contain a phytochemical called betalains, which can help fight inflammation in the body.
Southwestern Sweet Potato Stew
This hearty Southwestern-inspired stew may take a while in your slow cooker, but it’s so worth it! Full of sweet potatoes, black beans, and hominy, it will satisfy your tastebuds and keep you full for hours.
Homemade Fish Tacos
In this mahi-mahi fish taco recipe, chili-coated fish gets a lovely crust from the hot pan. The creaminess of the avocado sauce complements the crisp crunch of the jicama, and it’s all pulled together in 20 minutes.
Creamy White Chili with Cream Cheese
This rich, creamy chili comes together in a flash thanks to quick-cooking chicken thighs and canned white beans. Mashing some of the beans acts as a fast thickener when your soups don’t have a long time to simmer. Cream cheese adds the final bit of richness and a hint of sweet tang.
Sweet Potato, Corn & Black Bean Hash
Quick and easy hashes are fabulous one-pot meals for those nights when getting dinner on the table fast is a priority.
Penne with Tuna & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Need a quick pasta dish that’s flavorful and colorful? This penne pasta dinner-for-two combines leeks, baby spinach, tuna and sun-dried tomatoes—and it’s ready in just 20 minutes!
Spaghetti Squash with Tomato Basil Sauce
Here, we swap spaghetti squash for pasta, tossed with a simple fresh tomato sauce. Jazz up the sauce with crushed red pepper flakes, Kalamata olives and/or capers, if you like.
Vegetarian Black Bean Soup
Packed with protein and fiber, this soup doesn’t need meat to be satisfying. Soaking and cooking the beans yourself, rather than opening a can, ensures you’ll have wonderful flavor and texture. (And the slow cooker does most of the work!)
Baked Halibut with Brussels Sprouts & Quinoa
Fish plus two sides? It seems fancy but this healthy dinner comes together in just 30 minutes.
Stuffed Sweet Potato with Hummus Dressing
Ali Redmond
Hearty yet simple to prepare, this stuffed sweet potato with black beans, kale and hummus dressing makes a fantastic 5-ingredient dinner for one!
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