A sample week of using healthy recipes

Key Points:

1. Somebody may prefer to have a meal plan for everyday. But just think about it. If all the recipes are well designed that are healthy, delicious, easy and with the same high quality, you can just pick any one combination of the recipes (in order or randomly), which can be your perfect meal plan for the day.

2. Servings or calories are just for your reference. Your own feeling of 80% full or not hungry is more important.

Now you have the healthy recipes. But how to use those recipes for your daily life? First, there is a template daily diet of 2000 calories:

Breakfast (approximately 500 calories)

2 eggs fried or scrambled

1 slice of whole wheat bread

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

1 half grapefruit or small glass of juice

Snack (100 calories)

One medium apple

Lunch (approximately 650 calories)

Turkey sandwich on rye bread with mayonnaise

Carrot and celery sticks with hummus

One medium chocolate chip cookie

One glass of 2% milk

Snack (100 calories)

One small snack bar

Dinner (650 calories)

Grilled salmon (4 ounces) with lemon

Small baked potato with butter

Steamed broccoli

One-half cup of vanilla ice cream

Everyone will be different. If you need to control weight, you should take less calories. Kids need less calories as well. When you feel 80% full, it should be good to stop eating more.

Second, you need to purchase the measuring tools and some common ingredients for future use. Measuring tools include: measuring cups and spoons. Common ingredients include: Cinnamon ground, basil rubbed, cumin ground, garlic granular, ginger ground, oregano rubbed, thyme rubbed, curry powder, flake oats, rolled oats (old fashioned oats), baking powder, brown rice, bran cereal, quinoa, whole wheat flour, full-purpose flour, honey, margarine, vanilla extract, brown sugar, cornmeal, wheat germ, vegetable broth, hoisin sauce, white vinegar, low-sodium soy sauce, salt, canola oil, vegetable oil, olive oil and sesame oil, etc.

Now you can work on your weekly food plan. Most of the healthy recipes are for a family of 4 persons, and each serving is usually for 1 person. Sometimes the recipe is low-carb with low calories, then you may need to have some additional food, such as a cup of milk, one egg, or one fruit.

If you have enough time to purchase the ingredients and make foods, you can use a 6 days of different recipes. If you don't want to put too much effort, you can use a 3 days of different recipes, and you have duplicate recipes for the next 3 days. As for Sunday, you can try the best recipes of the week for another time.

If there are only 3 persons, you can reduce the food ingredients accordingly. But sometimes one serving of a 4-person recipe is a little bit less in calories, so it could be good for 3 persons as well. If there are only 2 persons, it will be much easier, the same group recipes can be taken in 2 days.

You can check all the healthy recipes recommended by Health Canada.

Let's have an example of what 3-day recipes for a family of 4 persons look like:

Day 1 / Day 4:

Breakfast: marvellous muffins

Snack: leftover of marvellous muffins

Lunch: easy peasy fish tacos

Snack: leftover of marvellous muffins

Dinner: mac and cheese with a veggie twist and any leftovers

Day 2 / Day 5:

Breakfast: apple pie breakfast bowl

Snack: fun fruit salad

Lunch: shepherd's pie

Snack: leftover of fun fruit salad

Dinner: fish and fresh herb veggie packets and any leftovers

Day 3 / Day 6:

Breakfast: blueberry cornmeal muffins

Snack: leftover of blueberry cornmeal muffins

Lunch: greek-style chicken sandwiches

Snack: leftover of blueberry cornmeal muffins

Dinner: mediterranean tomato and ricotta pasta

Day 7: your best pick of the week.

Note: The preparing time (including snacks) for each day is between 1 hour and 1.5 hours depending on your cooking skills. The cost is between $C 20 to $C 30 per day, which can be cheaper than eating outside but with much higher quality.