Kick off the New Year with this 4-week Healthy Eating Meal Plan, featuring healthy clean-eating breakfast and dinner recipes. The key to a healthy diet is to eliminate processed foods, limit sugar, eat lean proteins and healthy fats, and include lots of fruits and vegetables in your diet.
The New Year is here and many of us are trying to get back on track to a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Eating healthy really isn’t very complicated. It’s basically about eating real food – not fast food or prepared food that comes in a box or package, eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, choosing lean proteins and healthy fats, and preparing them in a healthy manner (e.g., baking/roasting, steaming/boiling, stir-frying, braising).
Eating healthy also means paying attention to the proportion of fruits/vegetables (50%) to protein (25%) and grains (25%) on your plate. These proportions are according the Daniel Plan that I started following last year.
The keys to eating healthy are to:
- eliminate processed foods
- limit sugar
- limit alcohol
- limit high cholesterol animal products (e.g., fatty cuts of meat, shrimp, cream, butter, cheese)
- avoid heavily salted foods
- drink lots of water
- eat lots of fruits and vegetables
- eat healthy fats (e.g., olive oil, avocado, nuts/seeds)
- eat more whole grains (e.g., oats, brown/black rice, quinoa, barley, farro)
- eat lean proteins (e.g., skinless chicken breast, fish, beans)
- eat organic foods (no pesticides, antibiotics)
- use healthy cooking methods (e.g., roasting/baking, steaming, poaching/boiling, stir-frying)
To help you start or get back to a healthy eating plan this New Year, I’ve put together four weeks worth of breakfast and dinner recipes that meet these criteria.
Healthy Eating Meal Plan Week 1
Day 1:
Breakfast: Balancing Maca Green Smoothie
Dinner: Chinese Steamed Fish with Soy Sesame Sauce served with steamed brown rice and Stir-Fry Bok Choy
Day 2:
Breakfast:Â Banana Berry Flaxseed Smoothie Bowl
Dinner: Slow Cooker Black Bean Turkey Chili served with large green salad
Day 3:
Breakfast: Steamed Kale and Poached Egg with Sriracha Sauce
Dinner: Five Spice Braised Chicken served with steamed brown rice and Stir-Fry Green Beans
Day 4:
Breakfast: Miso Soup with Tofu, Wakame Seaweed, Rice and Egg
Dinner: Stir Fry Thai Chicken with Basil and Peppers served with steamed brown rice
Day 5:
Breakfast: Strawberry Almond Breakfast Quinoa
Dinner: 15 Minute Spice Rubbed Roasted Salmon served over large green salad
Healthy Eating Meal Plan Week 2
Day 1:
Breakfast:Â Overnight Oatmeal
Dinner: Slow Cooker Chicken Vegetable Stew served with Sauteed Kale
Day 2:
Breakfast: Mango Coconut Smoothie
Dinner: Lentil Chili served with large green salad
Day 3:
Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal
Dinner: Chinese Five Spice Ground Turkey Zucchini Noodles
Day 4:
Breakfast: Kimchi Fried Rice
Dinner: Slow Cooker Jamaican Spiced Chicken Stew served with steamed brown rice and large green salad
Day 5:
Breakfast: Triple Berry Oatmeal Smoothie Bowl with Almonds and Chia Seeds
Dinner: Salmon Roasted Beet Feta Salad with Dill Dressing
Healthy Eating Meal Plan Week 3
Day 1:
Breakfast:Â Smashed Miso Avocado and Egg in a Cup
Dinner:Â Buffalo Chicken Burger Salad
Day 2:
Breakfast:Â Banana Oat Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie
Dinner: Kung Pao Chicken with Peanuts served with steamed brown rice
Day 3:
Breakfast: Asian Inspired Savory Oatmeal
Dinner: Vegetarian Chana Masala served with steamed brown rice or quinoa
Day 4:
Breakfast: Breakfast Coconut Milk Quinoa with Fresh Fruit
Dinner: Clean Eating Slow Cooker Pumpkin Chicken Curry served with steamed brown rice
Day 5:
Breakfast: Blueberry Banana Yogurt Smoothie
Dinner: Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass served with steamed brown rice and Stir-Fry Bok Choy
Healthy Eating Meal Plan Week 4
Day 1:
Breakfast: Breakfast Smashed Avocado Tomato Toast with Fried Egg
Dinner: Slow Cooker Turkey Bolognese Sauce with Spaghetti Squash served with green salad
Day 2:
Breakfast:Â Acai Banana Kale Smoothie
Dinner: Clean Eating Stuffed Peppers served with green salad
Day 3:
Breakfast: Breakfast Kale Quinoa “Fried Rice”
Dinner: Pan Roasted Chicken and Vegetables
Day 4:
Breakfast: Berry Yogurt Granola Parfait
Dinner: Three Bean Butternut Squash Vegetarian Chili served with green salad
Day 5:
Breakfast: Brazilian Acai Breakfast Bowl
Dinner: Slow Roasted Salmon served over large green salad
Wonderful! I usually don’t make meal plans because I never stick to them..but I always put LOTS of veggies in my plate :-)) Happy New Year, Jeanette.
Thanks Angie – Happy New Year!
Wow. Your recipes are appetizing. Thanks for sharing them. I am now trying to eat healthily, this would really help me out.