This 1-week healthy dinners meal plan was created just for you by a team of three dietitians. It includes a done-for-you grocery list and everything you need to get one week of healthy high-protein dinners ready to go! The recipes included in this free meal plan are made from real foods, flavorful, simple, and nutritious. This meal plan is free to everyone and includes a downloadable PDF that includes everything you need to get started.
This meal plan was created in partnership with U.S. Soy.
What Is Included In This 1-Week Meal Plan
Our goal with this meal plan is that it is realistic for you to follow and that it doesn’t require you to make a new recipe for every meal of the day. We’ve instead decided to focus on the biggest pain point when it comes to meal planning: dinners that are nutritious and that everyone looks forward to eating!
- A healthy 1-week dinners meal plan
- 4 dietitian-created dinner recipes that each contain at least 24 grams of protein
- A done-for-you grocery list
- Suggestions for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks to add
- An optional 1-week workout plan
This meal plan is meant to be flexible in order to fit your lifestyle and preferences. We leave breakfasts, lunches, and snacks open for you to plan because we know that many people have their go-to’s when it comes to these meals. But, if you’re looking for some guidance, we’ve also provided some suggestions for how to fill these meals with some of our favorite meal-prep friendly recipes for easy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. We designed this plan to work for you, so we’ve kept it flexible and easy to follow.
What Are Soy Foods
In order to make this meal plan healthy, high in protein, and with an emphasis on real foods, we’ve incorporated soy foods in many places. As dietitians, we know that soy foods have been well studied and may be connected to many impressive health benefits. Plus, they’re easy to incorporate into everyday meals.
Common soy foods include:
- Edamame
- Tofu
- Tempeh
- Soymilk
- Miso
- Natto
- Soynuts or roasted soybeans
- Soynut butter
- Soybean oil (often labeled as vegetable oil)
- Soy yogurt
- Soy-based meat alternatives (burgers, sausages, crumbles, nuggets, etc.)
- Soy flour and textured soy protein (used in some plant-based packaged foods)
Benefits Of Soy Foods
Soy foods are unique because they can offer a combination of high-quality plant protein, fiber, essential fats, and naturally occurring bioactive compounds like isoflavones. A growing body of research shows that including soy as part of a balanced eating pattern may benefit multiple systems in the body:
- Cardiometabolic Health: Consuming modest amounts of soy foods – about one serving per day – is associated with lower risk of death and a decreased risk of total cardiovascular events, like stroke and heart attack. Soybean oil and soy protein are celebrated for their ability to reduce cholesterol.
- Brain Health: Isoflavones, which are naturally occurring plant compounds in soy, may help support blood flow to the brain and reduce oxidative stress. Also, a systematic review of studies has found associations between soy consumption and better memory performance, especially in midlife and older adults.
- Blood Sugar Management: Soy foods have a low glycemic impact and provide a combination of high-quality protein and fiber that helps slow digestion and stabilize blood sugar levels.
- Skin Health: Consuming soy protein with naturally occurring isoflavones has been associated with improved skin elasticity, hydration, and protection against UV-induced damage.
- Menopause Support: Research suggests soy intake may help reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes and support bone health during menopause.
- Cancer Prevention: Regular soy consumption has been associated with a lower risk of breast and prostate cancers, particularly when consumed throughout life. For breast cancer survivors, studies show that moderate soy intake is safe and may even be associated with reduced recurrence and improved survival
- Weight Management: Soy foods can support weight management by promoting fullness.
Who Is This Meal Plan Created For?
This free one-week healthy eating meal plan is for anyone who wants to take some of the guesswork out of getting healthy dinners on table. It’s a good choice for anyone looking to focus on healthy, whole-food meals made at home. And it’s also perfect for someone wanting to increase protein, with every dinner recipe including 24 grams of protein or more.
Our recipes are designed to be short on ingredients but big on flavor and easy enough for anyone to make. All of the recipes are gluten-free and we give suggestions for making them dairy-free whenever possible – but feel free to make your own ingredient swaps to suit your needs or use what you have on hand. This meal plan is also high in protein and high in fiber, thanks to the addition of nutritious soy foods in the dinner recipes.
What’s For Dinner: Recipe Preview
We’re especially excited for you to taste the delicious high-protein dinners we have planned for you. Here’s what to expect:
- Dinner Day 1: This evening, you’ll be enjoying a nutritious and delicious plate featuring Miso Salmon and simple Arugula Salad. Our miso salmon is so fast to prep and features a simple marinade made from white miso, which is an easy-to-find condiment made from fermented soybeans. The salmon marinates in the simple 5-ingredient miso mixture for at least 30 minutes (or prep it in the morning and let it marinate right up until dinnertime) then bakes on a sheet pan until cooked through and with a delicious glaze on top. The fresh and crispy arugula salad is a perfect complement to the flavorful salmon. It features a homemade lemon vinaigrette and toasted almonds for extra pops of flavor.
- Dinner Day 2: On day two, dinner will be a delicious protein-and veggie-packed recipe of Sweet And Sour Chicken. We’ve given this popular and familiar dish a health upgrade with the addition of a homemade lower-sugar sweet and sour sauce plus many nutritious veggies. The simple marinade is made from everyday ingredients, including canned pineapple chunks, no-sugar-added ketchup, rice vinegar, soy sauce, garlic powder, and ground ginger. Everything cooks right on the stovetop in one skillet, with chicken pieces, onion, carrots, and bell peppers getting perfectly coated in the lower-sugar sweet and sour sauce. To round out this meal more, serve it over cooked rice (or a microwavable rice packet) and garnish with sesame seeds.
- Dinner Day 3: Today’s dinner is a simple Crockpot Beef Ramen recipe that can be prepped right after lunch or in the early afternoon. Note: It takes 2 hour (on high) or 4 hours (on low) to cook, so plan accordingly. Cooked ground beef and onions combine in a slow cooker with shredded coleslaw cabbage and carrots, garlic, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, vinegar, honey, and ginger. After those cook together for a few hours, you’ll nestle ramen noodle cakes and shelled edamame into the mixture and cook them for an additional 15 to 30 minutes to soften. The result is a flavorful ramen dish that gets ladled into bowls and garnished with a drizzle of Sriracha, sesame seeds, and green onions. It’s absolutely delicious!
- Dinner Day 4: By now, you’ll likely have some leftovers from the previous 3 days of dinners. This evening is an opportunity to take advantage of some of those various extras. We recommend reheating leftovers in a skillet on the stovetop or in the air fryer in order to maintain great textures as the foods warm up again.
- Dinner Day 5: Meal Plan Exclusive Recipe! We designed these new Asian Tofu Bowls as an exclusive recipe just for this meal plan. This fresh recipe starts by making quick pickled cucumbers that will be served chilled over top of the warm saucy tofu pieces and rice. After prepping and refrigerating those, marinate the extra-firm tofu cubes in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar, honey, garlic, sesame oil, ginger, Sriracha, and black pepper. The tofu can then either be baked on a sheet pan in the oven or cooked in an air fryer until golden brown with crispy edges. While the tofu is cooking, stir together the honey-Sriracha sauce that gets drizzled over each serving. Finally, serve the cooked tofu over warm rice and topped with the pickled cucumbers, shelled edamame, avocado slices, and a drizzle of the honey-Sriracha sauce. After tasting this flavorful and healthy dinner, we know you’ll want to make it on repeat!
- Dinner Day 6: As dietitians who have created hundreds of meal plans over the last 20 years, we like to create plans that are realistic and flexible. With that said, tonight’s dinner offers flexibility for real life. Use it as another opportunity to use up leftovers or to have options in your weekly dinner calendar, whether that accounts for a social night out with friends, work obligations, or buying takeout.
- Dinner Day 7: We don’t know about you, but by the end of the weekend, our dinners look less composed and more about cleaning out the fridge in preparation of a new week ahead. We reserved this dinner for using up leftovers that compile in the fridge so that tomorrow can be a fresh start. If you enjoyed this meal plan, feel free to repeat it as often as you’d like!
Ingredient Spotlight: Tofu
Tofu is a nutrient dense plant-based protein that’s made by coagulating soymilk to create curds that are then pressed into blocks. We call for it in our Asian Tofu Bowls recipe that you’ll enjoy for dinner on Day 5.
Tofu comes in a variety of types from soft, silken tofu that can be used for making mousse, dressings, or pudding-like pie fillings or creamy sauces to soft/medium tofu that’s great for adding to soups like miso soup. There’s also firm and extra firm tofu, which is ideal for stir frying, baking, or grilling because of its dense, meaty texture.
Tofu is often sold packed in water so it’s best to remove as much of the liquid as possible before cooking. This is called ‘pressing’ and it can be done by using a tofu press or by using two plates, some paper towels, and a heavy object like a large can of diced tomatoes.
How to Press Tofu:
- Line a small plate with 3-4 paper towels
- Place the block of tofu on the plate and cover with 3-4 more towels and another plate
- Place a heavy object like a large can of tomatoes or a jar of marinara sauce on top of the plate and allow the tofu to drain for 30 minutes before using in a recipe
Optional: Breakfast, Lunch, And Snack Suggestions
This meal plan focuses on the dinner recipes for one week of healthy eating. But if you’d like to also plan for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks to have at the ready throughout the week, here are some of our favorite options:
Breakfast Idea 1: We love to prep several servings of these Protein Overnight Oats for quick breakfast options that are ready on busy mornings. They can be made with any type of milk, but we often make them with soymilk, which provides the most protein of all plant-based milks and a delicious silky texture.
Breakfast Idea 2: This Protein Smoothie Recipe is a favorite quick breakfast that we often enjoy right after early morning workouts. When made with soymilk and Greek yogurt, it contains more than 35 grams of protein, helping us stay full and nourished until lunch.
Lunch Idea 1: We’ve been loving this Thai Chicken Salad as a healthy lunch option that’s great for prepping ahead of time and storing in individual containers. Cooked, shredded chicken combines with fresh long-storing veggies like edamame, carrots, and bell pepper and tossed with a simple Asian dressing made from soy sauce, rice vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, honey, garlic, and ginger.
Lunch Idea 2: For a quick lunch that comes together in just minutes, we often make this Simple Tuna Salad that features a pop of flavor from chopped peperoncini or dill pickles. We enjoy it as a filling for a lunch wrap, over fresh greens, or scooped up with crackers. For even more protein and texture contrast, we stir in ⅓ cup of shelled edamame beans.
Snack Idea 1: For a nutritious, savory, and high-protein snack, we keep bags of frozen edamame in the pod that simply need to be steamed or microwaved. Then we top them with a sprinkle of sea salt or sesame seeds for a filling in-between snack that our kids love as much as we do.
Snack Idea 2: Another quick and healthy snack idea is to enjoy a favorite yogurt (try soy yogurt for a protein boost and silky texture) topped with fresh seasonal fruit and a sprinkle of granola. This satisfying option is well balanced and always tides us over.
This is a sponsored post. Although we received compensation for this post, the opinions expressed here are – as always – 100% our own. Thank you for supporting the great companies we work with thereby allowing us to continue creating high-quality recipes and content for you.
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