Sunday Strategist: A Week of Healthy Dinners—March 26-30

Fresh asparagus and green peas lend a bright spring flavor to the classic bacon, egg yolk, and Parmesan carbonara sauce.

Many seasoning blends now offer low- or no-salt options, making spice rubs an easy, instant way to spruce up quickly seared chicken, seafood, or steak without overdoing the sodium.

Lighten up pasta night with a healthy dose of veggies. The trick to this dish is to thinly slice the carrots so they cook through quickly. Large carrots work best here. For faster prep, use a mandoline for slicing (This one, from OXO is nice).

The addition of avocado, a fried egg, and smoky mayonnaise add enough heft to an open-faced BLT sandwich to make it dinner-worthy fare. When an egg takes center stage in a meal, we like to use pasture-raised, organic eggs for the best flavor. (Yes, it's worth splurging on quality eggs.) If you want to serve the sandwiches while the eggs are still hot, the order of operation is key here: Have the sandwiches stacked and ready to go, then cook your eggs. Pair with a salad tossed with a mustardy vinaigrette and a crisp IPA.

Gently smashing fresh cucumber slices helps them absorb more vinaigrette, almost as if they've been marinating overnight. Serve over hot cooked brown rice.

Instead of the fluorescent cocktail-cherry garnish, fresh cherries take center stage in this refreshing lemon-and-vodka sipper. Macerating the cherries in sugar helps to soften their thick skins and release their juices, which become gorgeously syrupy in the pan.