Kickstart your healthy eating with this 100% free and done-for-you 4-Week Healthy Meal Plan created by registered dietitians.
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What is the 4-Week Healthy Meal Plan?
The 4-Week Healthy Eating Meal Plan is just like it sounds – 4 weeks of healthy recipes planned for you created by our team of Registered Dietitians. Here’s how it works:
- For every week of the meal plan, we’ve provided 4 healthy dinner recipes that also provide plenty of leftovers to use for other meals in the week
- Every week includes its own done-for-you grocery list
- We’ve provided suggestions for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks
- This meal plan is meant to be flexible to fit your lifestyle and family needs – start the meal plan anytime it works for you
Our goal with this meal plan is that it is realistic for you to follow and doesn’t require you to make a new recipe for every meal of the day. So we decided to focus on what tends to be the biggest pain point when it comes to meal planning: healthy dinners. Read more about how the meal plan works below!
Who is this Healthy Meal Plan for?
This healthy eating meal plan is for anyone who wants to take some of the guesswork out of healthy eating. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to spend hours each day in the kitchen every day prepping these meals. Our recipes are designed to be short on ingredients but big on flavor. All of the recipes are gluten-free and we provide suggestions – whenever possible – for how to make them work with other special diets, such as dairy free, nut free, or egg free.
HEALTHY MEAL PLAN: WEEK 1
Here are the recipes in Week 1 of this Healthy Meal Plan:
- Sheet Pan Mini Meatloaf with Vegetables | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 4
- Slow Cooker Chicken Chili Verde Stew | Total Time: 4-8 hours | Serves: 8 | Freezer-friendly
- Sheet Pan Pork Loin with Brussels and Apples | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 4
- Tex Mex Sweet Potato Hash | Total Time: 40 min | Serves: 4-6
HEALTHY MEAL PLAN: WEEK 2
Here are the recipes in Week 2 of this Healthy Meal Plan:
- Instant Pot Vegetable Beef Soup | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 6 | SLOW COOKER: For a slow cooker beef soup cook on low in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours. Add the frozen green beans, peas 30 minutes before serving. Add more broth if needed.
- Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken and Veggies | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 4
- Sheet Pan Honey Mustard Pork Chops and Veggies | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 4
- Minestrone Soup | Total Time: 40 min | Serves: 6 | add ground pork, beef or turkey to increase the protein
HEALTHY MEAL PLAN: WEEK 3
Here are the recipes in Week 3 of this Healthy Meal Plan:
- Slow Cooker Chunky Beef Chili with Sweet Potato | Total Time: 8 hours | Serves 8
- Sheet Pan Balsamic Chicken Veggie Bake | Total Time: 45 min | Serves: 5
- Creamy Ham & Potato Soup | Total Time: 50 min | Serves: 4
- Mediterranean Bowl with Salmon | Total Time: 40 min | Serves: 6 |
HEALTHY MEAL PLAN: WEEK 4
Here are the recipes in Week 4 of this Healthy Meal Plan:
- Healthy Taco Hot Dish | Total Time: 1 hour 15 min | Serves 8
- Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili | Total Time: 7 hours | Serves: 5
- Instant Pot Baby Back Ribs | Total Time: 60 min | Serves: 4 | pair with our Sweet Kale Salad or a veggies or your choice! No Instant pot? No problem. Cook in a slow cooker with a 1/2 cup additional broth for 7-9 hours on low.
- Easy Egg Roll in a Bowl | Total Time: 30 min | Serves: 4
Optional: Add These Breakfast, Lunch, & Snack Ideas
Tips for Following the plan
- Take inventory of what you have on hand. This is an important step to take before you head to the grocery store or ordering your groceries. Many of the items on the grocery list are staple items like oils and seasonings.
- Add or subtract from your grocery list to account for what you already have and what you need for recipes that aren’t part of the meal plan.
- Plan when you’ll use leftovers, meals from the freezer, or takeout or delivery for dinner during the week (or add a few more recipes of your choice to the meal plan if that works better for you and your family).
- Don’t be afraid to double freezer-friendly recipes for meals later in the month – your future self will thank you!
- Choose breakfasts, lunches and snacks that are simple, made with real food ingredients and something you don’t mind repeating throughout the week. The key here is that these meals are simple. So while we provide suggestions, if you have a favorite breakfast, lunch and/or snack by all means choose what will serve you best.
- Review the recipes and pre-chop vegetables. This is a great task to tackle on a Sunday and will save you a considerable amount of time during the week.
For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!
I’ve really enjoyed the meal plans so far, and the prepared grocery list is an amazing resource. I love that the meals use similar ingredients to help prevent waste. The Real Plans feature; is that comparable to this free plan format?
We’re so glad you’ve enjoyed the meal plan! Real Plans is an interactive program that allows you to fully customize your meals – or they can create a meal plan for you based on your food preferences, family size, diet type, etc. Either way, you’ll get a grocery list with your meal plan.
Hi. I was wondering if you have considered adding a few vegetarian or vegan options to your meal plans. We love this concept and appreciate your hard work. Just throwing an idea out there. Thanks
Hi Iris! Love that idea. As we add more plant-based recipe to our site, we have high hopes to some day put out a plant-based plan for all of our vegetarian and vegan friends! Would that be of interest to you? Or are you looking for simply one or two days a week of plant-based recipes?
My brother introduced me to your site, he loves it.
My husband and I are both in our early sixties and are both on the boarder line of diabetes, I need to loose weight and he needs to gain. Im finding it hard to find the balance without having to make two different meals.
Hi Deb, we’re so glad you’re here! And we’re thankful that your brother mentioned us to you. We think you’ll find many great recipe options that can work for you. One idea that could prevent you from needing to make separate meals would be to play around with different portion sizes for you and your husband.
This meal plan looks delicious! I have loved your recipes I’ve tried in the past. My husband is a newish diabetic and we’re still getting used to all that goes with that. I plan to make many of these and modify a bit to reduce the carbs and up the protein where needed. Any suggestions would be awesome. Thanks..
Hi Gina, actually, all of the recipes as written have low to moderate amount of carbs, as well as moderate to high amount of protein, so this meal plan would be a great choice for someone who has a new diagnosis of diabetes. Additionally, since our recipes feature many vegetables, you would be getting the benefit of heart-healthy fiber (a beneficial type of carbs).