How Good Is Your Dinner?

Just how good can healthy food taste? A new contest for chefs recently set them to that task. But here's the twist: The chefs were hospital chefs, and they had to create tasty, healthy hospital food. It had to have less than 600 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 1,000 milligrams of sodium. The kicker: It couldn't cost more than $5 to produce.

The winner, created by Daniel Skay and Lisa Poggas of Parker Adventist Hospital in Parker, Colorado, was a Machaca Flat Iron Steak with Cilantro Tomalito (a corn pudding) and Corn Chile Sauce. (Using steak was a requirement, even though we YOU Docs think there are healthier foods they could have used).

Of course, not all hospital food may taste so good. But it got us wondering: What's the chance that what you're serving at home is not even as healthy or tasty as standard hospital stuff? Could your recipes be called "OK, But It Gets on the Table Fast Meatloaf" or "Serviceable Baked Chicken I Can Make in My Sleep"?

A huge part of feeling satisfied with a meal is about taste, not volume. To make a so-so meal into something satisfying doesn't -- as these chefs showed -- require tons of butter or a huge financial investment, and it pays off in good health. Tonight, try bumping up the flavor factor of your meals with something simple, like chives, citrus, ginger, rosemary, turmeric, or fruit.