Key Points:
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.
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
Snack: leftover of blueberry cornmeal muffins
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.