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A heart-healthy quickie dinner Oh, those Italians — always watching out for you with their heart-protecting Mediterranean diet. Even their egg dishes are healthy! Check out this frittata from The Mediterranean Heart Diet (Fisher Books). It's an omelette that has hardly any butter or fat but tastes absolutely scrumptious. And it's filling, too. Best of all, this dinner-worthy meal can be whipped up quickly any night of the week.

Tip: Trim chocolate desserts of high-fat, high-cal extras like crust.

Tip: Replace the cream (but keep the flavor) with 2 percent milk.

A good-for-you French stew Low fat, flavorful — this soup will bowl you over. In France, where foie gras rules, this soup stands out: It's low fat and vegetarian. Suzanne Goin, chef and co-owner of Lucques in Los Angeles, first tasted it on a vacation. Years later, she put it on her menu. With salad and a baguette, the bean and veggie stew makes a fiber-rich meal. "Pistou" is its basil-based topping; Italians call it pesto. We call it delicious.

Tip: Use plain lowfat yogurt in place of sour cream. Result: less fat, great flavor.

Tip: Just-as-sweet calorie saver: Mix honey, not sugar, intro fruit desserts.

Tip: In a piecrust, apple juice can replace some of the butter.

We recommend using a good-quality California or Spanish sparkling wine for this punch. Both are widely available and less expensive than Champagne.

The casserole comes back. What do June Cleaver and the American Institute for Cancer Research have in common? They both love casseroles! Yep, health advocates are lobbying for the return of this dish as an easy way to pack disease-fighting veggies into a comfort food. The key is to modernize. (Sorry, Mom, no breadcrumb topping.) Our post-Cleaver, 21st-century version is warm, satisfying and more nutritious than June's.

Get a better body at the grocery store. Just as certain exercises strengthen your stomach muscles, certain foods protect specific parts of your body. (Your tummy gets benefits from sit-ups and garlic.) A top-to-toes rundown based on new research includes the following: Eggs banish blurry eyes. Cranberry juice brightens smiles. Chocolate is your heart's friend. Carrots preserve lungs. Water is a hipbone buddy. And you get all these super foods in one bowl.

Jerry Traunfeld, author of The Herbfarm Cookbook (Scribner), says, "Vegetables that are very fresh and picked at the perfect time are delicious cooked very simply. Just boil or steam them and serve with a little butter and maybe a sprinkling of tarragon, chervil or basil." Or savory, or oregano, as in this recipe.

A healthy holiday mini-meal (in minutes!) If your Thanksgiving is going to be a couple of people and not a crowd this year, don't bother looking for the littlest bird to roast — try this quick and delicious turkey dish instead. Food writer Sally Schneider has created hundreds of simple yet tasty recipes for A New Way to Cook (Artisan). Her turkey scallopini is lower in cholesterol than the classic veal version and stars vitamin A-packed greens.

You can stuff five or six healthy vegetables into salsa (tomatoes, peppers, scallions, garlic, corn, whatever else is left in the crisper bin) then use that salsa five or six different ways (on fish, on chicken, in a burrito or, of course, on a delicious corn chip. You can make salsa in minutes. It keeps forever. It is the antidote to any of your vegetable woes!

Jesse Ziff Cool, author of Your Organic Kitchen (Rodale Press), advises, "When moving toward any plant-based diet, don't be too drastic. You'll hate it. Instead, cut down the amount of meat you eat and choose vegetables that taste good to you."

It's healthy, tasty and, yes, a full meal. This fiber-packed (12 whole grams — almost half your daily dose!), meal-sized salad comes from Gabrielle Hamilton, chef and owner of Prune, a tiny New York City restaurant that's wowing diners with natural, wholesome food that tastes delicious. Bonus for you home cooks: This dish is also quick to fix. Just chop, toss, then chow.

Lasagna is comfort food — a real PMS soother. But it's also loaded with symptom-fighting calcium.

Turkey's tryptophan spurs your brain to produce feel-good serotonin. Have this burger with a chocolate shake (chocolate has stress-relieving polyphenols). You can whip up an easy lowfat chocolate shake with frozen yogurt, skim milk, and a few vigorous squirts of chocolate syrup. Wrap any unused burgers in plastic wrap and freeze for your next stress attack!

Want to feel alert and energized? Repeat after us: protein, protein, protein. Here's a way to get lots of it, with very little saturated fat. (For an equally high-energy vegetarian version of this dish, substitute 12 ounces firm tofu, drained and cut in 1-inch cubes, for the shrimp.)

Although this recipe has a long ingredients list, it's a snap to throw together, even when you're zapped by sneezes and sniffles. Best of all, you'll be feeling better in a flash — chicken soup is a true germ conqueror, and the spiciness kicks up the cure a notch.

This dish, from Scott Uehlein, executive chef at the renowned Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson, Arizona, is basically potatoes baked in a blend of broth and onions. It's amazing how rich they taste, and they take only 15 minutes to assemble.