Not to state the obvious, but we’re at a pretty…turbulent point in nutrition discourse. Over the last few months, newly appointed US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spearheaded the rise of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement and waged all-out war on the food industry, attacking sugar, ultraprocessed foods, seed oils, and petroleum-based synthetic food dyes (and that’s just to name a few). With MAHA ideology on the rise and some new category of food derided seemingly every month, figuring out what and how to eat feels increasingly like an exercise in stress management—because when you’re bombarded with info about what’s no longer on the table, you eventually start to wonder what is left.
Here at SELF, however, we’re not in the business of declaring any one food category off-limits, because we believe that all of them can have a place in a healthy diet. As our 2025 Pantry Awards go to show, you don’t need to exclusively rely on fresh, organic, or buzzword-worthy ingredients to whip up a nutritious (and delicious) meal. Ultraprocessed foods, which do have their downfalls, are also accessible, efficient, and enable many of us to do things that seem like a given in modern society—like work outside the home and then come home and feed ourselves and our families. There are also ways to find nutritious options within the category of ultraprocessed foods. (Things you may think of as conventionally “healthy,” like almond milk or yogurt, can be considered ultraprocessed.) The subject requires nuance—and a realistic vision of where our food system is at today.
To illustrate that point (and push back against the MAHA movement’s narrow, restrictive definition of the “right” way to eat), we created Feed Your SELF: 10 Easy, Healthy Weeknight Dinners. This meal plan will carry you through two weeks of cooking with new, original recipes—each of which incorporate one or more Pantry Award–winning products. And every recipe was developed by a registered dietician: Anthea Levi, MS, RD, CDN, a Brooklyn-based health writer and founder of Alive+Well Nutrition.
“You can find a happy medium between a homemade meal and a meal that is made from pre-made ingredients,” Levi tells SELF. Marrying the two, she adds, “is a great way to get bold flavors and satisfying textures, and also eat nourishing foods that really support our health.”
While many of these recipes feature foods that are considered “ultraprocessed,” they’re still packed with protein, fiber, and other critical nutrients. This was important to Levi when designing the meal plan. “I really wanted to make sure every meal was balanced,” she says. Nutritional variety was another major consideration: “The more different types of foods we can eat in a day or a week, the better it’s going to be for our gut health,” she says.
To that end, Levi paired these Pantry Award winners with a wide range of fresh items, including meat, eggs, dairy products, fruits and veggies, and herbs. Thanks to this diversity of ingredients, all of these recipes offer a solid smattering of food groups—and none of them feel one-note or boring. Below, you’ll see that we also compiled everything you’ll need in an easy-to-parse grocery list. Print it out, or save it to your phone.
