Photos courtesy Quentin BaconThis Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes appears in Ellie Krieger’s cookbook “Weeknight Wonders.”

Eating less, and cooking healthier food after the holidays is a great idea. Maybe you’ve already started cutting down on sugar, fat and salt.

That month-plus period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day can be a smorgasbord of food temptations and overindulgence: cookies, candies, cakes and pies, homemade treats from the neighbors, rich holiday meals and calorie-laden beverages. Whew.

But just because the holidays are over, doesn’t mean it’s time to skip breakfast, eat salad all day or replace meals with green juice.

You can eat better and lighter all year, and January is a great time to start.

We checked in with two of the nation’s top nutritionists and cookbook authors who are known for their ability to deliver on the promise of delicious, healthy food that’s also easy to cook.

Ellie Krieger and Robin Miller shared ideas with us for light, quick-to-make dinners that the whole family will love. Recipes from their new cookbooks will help you drop any extra holiday pounds you packed on, too.

The three top New Year’s resolutions in the United States for 2014 are: lose weight, get better organized and spend less money and save more, according to a study by the University of Scranton.

New York Times bestselling cookbook author, registered dietitian and TV personality Ellie Krieger said her new book, “Weeknight Wonders: Delicious, Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) takes care of two of those. (See her recipes for Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes, Chicken Florentine Roll-Ups and Sesame Quinoa.)

“Cooking at home can get you to both weight loss and saving money. People who eat at home end up eating less sodium and more reasonable portions of food, and it leads to a healthier and leaner you. It costs less compared to eating out, take-out or prepared foods, not to mention the benefits of sitting down with the family,” Krieger said in a recent phone interview with us from her New York City office. Krieger and her husband have an 11-year-old daughter.

Robin Miller is the author of 10 cookbooks. The former Food Network TV host is known for her “five ingredients or less” recipes. (The foods she expects you to have are olive oil, canola oil, cooking spray, salt and freshly ground pepper. She doesn’t count those ingredients in her recipes.)

Miller’s new cookbook is “The Robin Takes 5 Cookbook for Busy Families: Over 200 Recipes with 5 Ingredients or Less for Breakfasts, School Lunches, After-School Snacks, Family Dinners and Desserts” (Andrews McMeel Publishing). As the mom of two boys, ages 10 and 11, Miller knows of what she writes.

“Lifestyles slow down after the holidays, but we’re just as busy, and sometimes it’s hard to get a nutritious meal on the table when we’re buried. I start with delicious when developing recipes; then I think about nutrients and eye appeal. I want my meal to be visually appealing before my family takes a bite. Will it taste good? It’s no good if no one’s going to eat it,” Miller said in a phone interview from her home in Scottsdale, Ariz. (See her recipes for Slow Cooker Chicken with Balsamic-Glazed Onions & Bell Peppers, Individual Meat Loaf “Cupcakes” with Creamy Ketchup “Icing,” and Asian Broccoli Slaw.)

The keys to getting a homemade dinner on the table every evening are planning ahead and using healthy shortcuts.

Krieger’s book, “Weeknight Wonders,” includes a pantry list that has all of the nonperishable items needed to create any of her recipes. Stock your pantry well, and you’ll be able to plan and grocery shop better.

“Typically, most people start to think about dinner at about 4 o’clock that day. You don’t have to know exactly what you’ll be cooking, but if you take the time to have the tools in place, which is a pantry full of items you can work with, along with whatever fresh ingredients you’ll need each week, dinner can be easy,” Krieger said.

Krieger has a list of “healthy shortcuts” in “Weeknight Wonders” to help home cooks get into the habit of thinking how to make cooking easier and faster: prewashed greens, prepped produce like cubed butternut squash, frozen fruits and vegetables, canned beans and precooked whole grains like brown rice and quinoa (often in the freezer section), are widely available and nutritious.

“People shouldn’t feel bad about buying prepped vegetables. Sometimes we have this sensibility of ‘perfect or bust,’ like vegetables should be from the farmers market with dirt still clinging to them, and I get that; I’d like that too, but sometimes it doesn’t work out, and pre-chopped veggies from the store are still nutritious. Why not get the prepped ones?” Krieger said.

Miller is also a proponent of home cooking that’s almost from scratch.

“I’m fine with frozen food, as long as it’s good quality, like wild or sustainable fish. I think it’s fine to intermix cooking from scratch with some convenience items, like pre-made pesto sauce. You’re still grilling the chicken or shrimp, and boiling pasta, but tossing it with store-bought pesto,” Miller said.

If you get yourself some inspiration, like these two new cookbooks, you’ll be moving in a healthy direction at dinnertime in 2014.

Don’t worry if you ate a few too many cookies over the holidays. Krieger’s golden rule is, “No food is ever off-limits.” She categorizes foods into “usually, sometimes and rarely,” and writes in “Weeknight Wonders” that if you eat a balanced diet full of mostly nutrient-rich whole foods, “there is room for some butter in your mashed potatoes, some sugar on your strawberries, or even a slice of rich chocolate cake” from time to time.

The start of a new year is a perfect time to think about making health and diet improvements. If you shift into lighter meals — usually — you might not be tempted to try juice fasts and other diet trends.

“I think juicing is a symptom of our culture of extremes. It’s cool and acceptable now to say you’re doing a juice cleanse. I frankly think chewing is highly underrated. This is a good time of year to think about health and making life better. Let’s think more in a long-term way as opposed to ‘What am I going to do for a week?’ I think we can find more balance in terms of being a little more mindful at the holiday time, and a little less rigid in January,” Krieger said.

— Reporter: ahighberger@mac.com