Healthy meal planning is crucial to ensure good health by providing essential nutrients to your family members. You may find it interesting to plan lunch and dinner menu for a few days. But, as per our personal experience, we got confused deciding on which foods to include without repeating the items of the previous day. A better way to solve this issue is meal planning for a week and do all the grocery buying at a time. The food preference and eating habits vary a lot from one person to another. Consequently, things to have for dinner differ significantly for each of us. It is observed that many of us tend to eat more in dinner than lunch, which should not be the case. By planning a weekly meal menu, you will be able to incorporate a variety of foods in lunch and dinner as per the nutritional content. This way, you can also reduce the serving size and replace fatty items with lighter food recipes. Healthy Things to Have for Dinner As we all know, dinner should be kept light as much as possible and adding food variety makes it more interesting. According to nutrition experts, a healthy dinner menu consists of maximum portions of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and contains less fish and meat. So, what are some of the foods that can be served in dinner? Cereal Whole grained cereals enriched with a high percentage of fiber are perfect choices for serving in dinner. Thus, while selecting cereals, make sure you opt for high fiber and low sugar type, rather than those with high sugar type. You can have cereals with skimmed milk and fruit slices. Also, as with any dinner item, the serving size matters a lot in controlling weight. Veggies Vegetables are good sources of all sorts of nutrients, such as vitamins, proteins, fiber, calcium, antioxidants, etc. You can make clear soups or broth out of vegetables without using fatty ingredients. Avoid starchy veggies, like corn, peas, potato, etc., in dinner. Another method is to make grilled vegetables that are tasty and at the same time, nutritious for health. Learn different ways to cook vegetables so that your family members also enjoy having them. Non-Veggies In case your family members and you love to have fish, chicken, or meat in dinner, make sure you find ways to add more vegetables with it in the dinner menu. Adding egg whites too would be great, filling, and nutritious option. Further, maintain a small meat serving and add lots of salads, toasted rolls, and whole grain recipes. Instead of having deep-fried chicken, consider grilled chicken that contains lower fat. Salads Easy and quick to prepare salads are a must have dinner food item. You can simply prepare salads with slices of cucumber, tomato, carrots, and shredded cabbage. Sprinkle salt and salad oil to make your salad flavorful and tasty. Or else, prepare Caesar salad by using croutons, romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, and salad dressings. Besides these vegetable salad recipes, try mixed fruit salads that taste delicious. You can use your favorite seasonal fruits depending upon availability. It is not necessary to be very strict regarding the daily intake of nutrients. Rather, you can try to keep a balance on the calorie consumption, type of nutrients, and at the same time, fat intake for a week period. Also, do not forget to take dinner ideas from your kids and family members to make each dinner meal a special treat for everyone.