Weekly menu: how to plan healthy lunches and dinners

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

It is designed for healthy adults who want to organise their week, combine foods well and stop improvising every evening.

It has not been calculated for you if you need a nutritional treatment prescribed by your doctor. That is the case with chronic kidney disease, with diabetes treated with insulin or other medicines that can make glucose drop too low, and with inflammatory bowel disease during a flare. It has also not been calculated for pregnancy, breastfeeding, childhood or adolescence.

If you live with an eating disorder, the first step is a specialist psychology team, before any menu. And if you want to lose weight with a plan tailored to you, start with the guide to weight-loss diet.

The complete week: healthy lunches and dinners, dish by dish

Each day combines vegetables, wholegrain cereal or potato, and a source of protein. In the week there are pulses on four days, fish at least three times, meat three times and egg at two dinners, four eggs in total. These are the frequencies recommended for the Spanish population [3].

The weekly shopping list by supermarket section

The quantities are approximate for one adult for seven days. Ordering the list by supermarket section shortens the shop and avoids throwing food away.

Fruit and vegetables

• 2 kg of vegetables for roasting or stir-frying (courgette, aubergine, peppers and onions).
• 1 kg of leafy and cooking vegetables (spinach, chard and green beans).
• 1.5 kg of vegetables for soups and bases (pumpkin, leeks and carrots)
• 1 kg of tomatoes for salad and sofrito
• 1 kg of potatoes and sweet potatoes
• 400 g of mushrooms
• 2 bags of salad leaves (lamb’s lettuce, lettuce) and 2 cucumbers
• 2 avocados
• 3.5 kg of fresh seasonal fruit (bananas, apples, pears, oranges, mandarins, kiwis, red berries and melon).

Fish and meat

• 750 g of fish and seafood, fresh or frozen (hake, salmon, cod, cuttlefish and prawns).
• 450 g of chicken breast and lean minced beef or chicken.

Pulses, cereals and bakery

• 600 g of already cooked pulses, or 2 or 3 glass jars of 400 g (lentils, chickpeas and white beans).
• 500 g of wholegrain cereals (brown rice, quinoa, wholewheat pasta and oat flakes).
• 1 large loaf of wholemeal bread from the bakery, preferably sourdough, or slices for freezing.

Dairy and eggs

• 6 eggs (4 for the menu and 2 spare)
• 6 unsweetened whole natural yoghurts
• 250 g of fresh cheese, ricotta or semi-cured cheese
• 1 litre of milk or unsweetened soya drink with at least 3 g of protein per 100 ml (soya is an allergen).

Store cupboard and healthy fats

• 500 ml of extra virgin olive oil
• 150 g of raw or unsalted roasted nuts (walnuts and almonds)
• 100 g of seeds (chia and pumpkin)
• 2 tins of tuna in water
• 1 small tin of sweetcorn
• 1 small jar of peanut butter, 100% peanuts
• Black pepper, cinnamon, sweet paprika, oregano and bay leaf

How do you plan lunches and dinners using the plate method?

The Harvard School of Public Health plate method balances every lunch and dinner without weighing anything [1]. The plate is divided like this.

• Half the plate is vegetables. Raw in a salad or cooked by steaming, baking, boiling or in a soup. They provide fibre, water, vitamins and minerals with few calories. In this division, potato does not count as a vegetable [1].
• A quarter is protein. White or oily fish, egg, pulses, tofu or lean poultry. It helps you feel full and keep your muscle.
• A quarter is wholegrain cereals. Brown rice, wholewheat pasta, oats or quinoa [1]. In our menus, that quarter can also be taken up by boiled potato or sweet potato, which are best eaten in moderation [3].
• Healthy fat. Extra virgin olive oil for cooking and dressing, and the fat already found in nuts, seeds or avocado.

To plan the week, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) recommends at least three servings of vegetables and two or three of fruit a day [3]. Over the week, pulses at least four times, fish three or more, up to four eggs and a maximum of three servings of meat, preferably poultry or rabbit [3]. The table is built on those frequencies. Eating up to one egg a day can also fit within a healthy eating pattern.

The menu does not set kilocalories or grams per dish. What each person needs changes with sex, age, height, muscle mass and physical activity. That is why the proportion of the plate and the frequency of each food group are what matter.

How to put the week together in an hour and a half

The key is batch cooking: preparing bases that you then combine in a few minutes. You do not need to prepare seven lunches and seven dinners in advance. The step-by-step is in the guide on how to organise your containers with batch cooking.

A session of an hour and a half at the weekend gets these standbys ready.

1. Tray of roast vegetables. Bake courgette, onion, aubergine and peppers with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. They work as a side or a base for salads for three or four days.
2. Pot of pulses or cereals. Cook a batch of brown rice or quinoa, or rinse jars of chickpeas and lentils. You will have cereal and plant protein ready at once.
3. Homemade tomato sauce. Make one pot for Friday’s pasta and Saturday’s rice, and freeze half.
4. Vegetable soups. A large pot of pumpkin or courgette soup covers two dinners in the week.

The United States food safety agency advises putting cooked food in the fridge before two hours have passed, at about 4 °C or below [4]. It then keeps for three or four days [4]. Whatever you are going to eat on Friday or at the weekend, freeze in portions and defrost in the fridge the evening before [4].

The menu is decided once, at the weekend, and during the week all that is left is to cook what has already been planned.

What mistakes do we see in consultation when organising the menu?

These four mistakes are the ones we see most often behind a plan that gets abandoned.

• Menus that are too sophisticated. A complicated recipe every day is tiring and gets dropped. What lasts is simple cooking, such as griddling, baking and steaming.
• Shopping without looking at the cupboard. That way you buy perishables that spoil, or you lack ingredients and have to improvise.
• Having only fruit or yoghurt for dinner to make up for it. After a large meal, that dinner can leave you hungry before bed and with a bigger appetite the next day. If you want light but complete dinners, take a look at these 9 healthy dinner ideas.
• Not planning for the unexpected. With tinned fish, cooked pulses and frozen vegetables in the cupboard, a meal is sorted in ten minutes when plans change.