Healthy monthly winter menu: four weeks and a shopping list

Who is this monthly menu for, and who is it not for?

It is designed for healthy adults who want to organise their winter meals without having to think every day about what to cook. The dishes are varied, seasonal and easy to prepare.

It is not adapted for people with chronic kidney disease or with diabetes treated with insulin or other blood-sugar-lowering medicines. Nor is it for eating disorders or a digestive disease in an active phase. It is also not adapted to pregnancy or breastfeeding.

If food causes you distress or you feel you are losing control around it, the first step is specialist psychological support, before any menu.

Nor is it a plan for losing weight quickly. If you want to lose weight for health reasons, the guidance is in the healthy weight-loss guide.

The monthly winter menu: four weeks, meal by meal

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

The shopping list, organised by supermarket section

The quantities are approximate. They are for one person and a typical week. If you are cooking for more people, multiply by the number of people in your household. If you use a plant-based drink, soya is the better choice; bear in mind that soya is an allergen.

Fruit and vegetables

• 1 kg of pumpkin
• 1 bunch of leeks (4 units)
• 1 kg of onions and 1 head of garlic
• 1 kg of carrots
• 3 medium courgettes
• 1 broccoli or 1 cauliflower (about 500 g)
• 1 large bag of spinach or chard (300-400 g)
• 300 g of mushrooms
• 4-6 artichokes
• 1.5 kg of potatoes and 500 g of sweet potatoes
• 4-5 tomatoes and 1-2 avocados
• 18-21 pieces of seasonal fruit (orange, mandarin, kiwi, apple, pear, banana, pomegranate).

Fish and meat

• 3 servings of white fish (hake, sea bass, gilthead bream or cod), about 450 g in total.
• 2 servings of oily fish (salmon, fresh mackerel or sardines), about 300 g
• 200 g of cuttlefish, squid or prawns
• 400 g of chicken or turkey breast
• 200 g of lean meat (pork loin or tenderloin, lean beef)

Eggs and dairy

• 1 dozen eggs
• 6-8 plain, unsweetened full-fat yoghurts, or 1 kg in a family-size tub
• 1-2 litres of whole milk or unsweetened plant-based drink, with at least 3% protein.
• 250 g of fresh cheese, ricotta or mild soft cheese

Pulses, grains and bakery

• 150 g of dried lentils, or 1 jar of 400 g already cooked
• 1-2 jars of 400 g of cooked chickpeas
• 1 jar of 400 g of cooked white or pinto beans
• 500 g of wholegrain oat flakes
• 500 g of brown rice
• 250 g of wholewheat pasta (macaroni or spaghetti)
• 1 wholemeal sourdough loaf, cut into slices for freezing

Store cupboard, nuts and seasonings

• Extra virgin olive oil, for cooking and dressing raw
• 200 g of raw or roasted unsalted nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts).
• 100 g of seeds (pumpkin, flax or chia)
• 2-3 tins of tinned fish (tuna in spring water, small sardines)
• Spices (sweet paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, oregano, bay leaf, black pepper)

How to get the week’s basics ready in one afternoon

Cooking from scratch every day is tiring. It is one of the reasons a plan gets abandoned halfway through the week. With batch cooking, a good part of the work fits into about two hours at the weekend. The step-by-step is in the guide to batch cooking and organising your containers.

• Roast vegetables on a large tray. Roast diced pumpkin, onion, leek and sweet potato at the same time. They keep for three or four days in the fridge, in an airtight container, and work as a side for any meat or fish.
• A pot of vegetable soup. A pumpkin, cauliflower or leek soup makes several dinners. The part without potato can be frozen in portions without its texture changing.
• Cooked pulses and grains. With boiled brown rice, a jar of chickpeas or lentils and some sautéed vegetables, a one-plate meal is ready in under ten minutes.
• Homemade stock. Simmer leftover leek, carrot and celery with chicken bones. It is the base for the soups at dinner, without resorting to industrial stock, which is often high in salt.

Why the plate method and seasonal foods?

The menu follows the plate method [1]. It helps balance each meal without weighing food or doing calculations.

• Half the plate is vegetables, with a little fruit. They provide water, volume, fibre, vitamins and minerals. In winter, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage), pumpkin, leek and carrot take the lead.
• A quarter is wholegrain cereal, such as oats, rice, pasta or wholemeal bread. The method does not count potato as a vegetable [1], so in this menu potato and sweet potato take up this quarter.
• A quarter is protein, alternating pulses, white and oily fish, egg, poultry and lean meat.

The frequency follows the recommendations of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN), which recommends at least four servings of pulses and three or more of fish a week [2]. That is why each week of the menu includes pulses on four days or more.

Day to day, ready meals, pastries, fatty cold cuts, sugary drinks and alcohol are left out. None of them appears in the four weeks. Seasonal produce also tends to taste better, costs less and travels less.

Why does this menu not count calories or ban foods?

Because in the long run what counts is what you can keep up, and this is one of the questions we receive most in consultation. Very rigid plans, which only cut calories and remove food groups, are hard to keep up and are often abandoned. The Spanish obesity guideline (GIRO) frames weight management as a long-term process, based on sustainable habits and without stigmatising the person [3].

Energy needs vary a lot from one person to another, depending on their body, activity and stage of life. That is why the table gives neither calories nor fixed gram amounts. Counting every calorie does not ensure you eat better either, and it can create a rigid relationship with food. The structure of the plate helps balance energy and nutrients with fresh, filling foods.

The menu does not divide food into good and bad either. The heartier or festive dishes are part of our cooking and have their place at gatherings and at weekends. When everyday eating includes enough vegetables, fibre and protein, it is usually easier to notice fullness and eat calmly.

What mistakes do we see in consultation?

One day off the menu does not undo the month.

Writing off the month after one bad day. The menu does not have to be followed to the letter. It is a base to come back to, so you do not start from zero at every meal.

Skipping a meal to make up for another. After a large meal, go back to the menu at the next one, with its full plate.

Having only a soup or only fruit for dinner. Every dinner on the menu includes something with protein, such as egg, fish, pulses or cheese. If one does not appeal to you, swap it for another dinner from the table.