FREE 5 Day Healthy Meal Plan

If you need a healthy meal plan but don’t know where to start, this is a great post for you! This is a FREE 5 day meal plan to get you started on some delicious and healthy recipes.

This post includes a Healthy Meal Plan.

Let’s Define “Healthy”

My criteria for “healthy” may be different than what you are expecting. I don’t recommend cutting out any food groups (unless you have sensitivities). Here is my definition of healthy:

• Balanced Macronutrient Profile (fats, carbs, and protein)
• Actually Tastes Good

That’s it. Healthy doesn’t have to be hard! You don’t need a long list of rules.

How to Follow This Plan

You don’t have to follow this plan perfectly. One of the things that makes this meal plan healthy is that it is flexible. If you aren’t used to cooking dinner every night, this will probably be overwhelming. If that’s the case, it would be much better for you to make one of these dinner recipes per week rather than stressing yourself out.

Replacements

If you do have an allergy or sensitivity, obviously you should substitute anything that you need to. But even if you don’t, I want you to feel confident that you can substitute out any foods that you don’t like.

When you sub out foods, the main thing I want you to prioritize is replacing it with the same macronutrient. For example, if you don’t like chicken, you wouldn’t substitute it for pasta. Pasta is carb rich, while chicken is protein rich. A better substitute would be salmon or steak. Let’s say you don’t like pasta (I don’t think a person like that exists, but just hypothetically). You wouldn’t sub the pasta for chicken. You would sub it for something like potatoes, veggies, garlic bread or a side salad. You want to replace the carb rich portion of your meal with another carb rich food.

Portion Sizes

Portions are going to be wildly different for every individual. Currently, I am eating around 2300-2400 calories per day. This could be more or less than the amount you eat. There’s no need to track how many calories you are eating. Instead, just eat until you feel full and satisfied.

The Healthy Meal Plan

Here is how it’s going to work: 3 breakfasts (2 days of repeated meals), 3 lunches (2 days of leftovers from the previous night’s dinner), 5 dinners. It doesn’t matter what order you eat them in, but I do have a chart of recommended meals for each day.

Breakfasts

I am providing you with 3 recipes. The other 2 days can be filled with repeats of the whichever recipes you liked best.

Dutch Baby

A dutch baby is kind of like a pancake, but with more eggs (more protein, yay!). I add fruit and maple syrup on top. I also recommend an extra source of protein like some bacon, a protein shake, or sausage.

One thing that I love about this meal is that it is super easy to prep ahead of time. You can bake it ahead of time as well, but it’s easy enough to prepare the batter and throw it in the oven in the morning.

Protein Yogurt

I think this is so delicious and it’s one of the easiest things ever. All you do is take full fat greek yogurt and mix it with a scoop of protein powder. This keeps me so full for a really long time. I often eat it alone, but it’s also delicious paired with fruit.

I don’t follow a recipe, but I did link one if you’d like to try this!

Pesto Eggs

Make this breakfast the day after you make your pesto pasta dinner. I always have leftover pesto, so this is perfect. Throw your pesto in the pan, crack your eggs on top, and flip them. I generally serve this with toast and peanut butter or a protein shake because I need more food! This is a twist on a traditional breakfast rather than something that is meant to be eaten alone.

Lunches

For lunch, we will plan 3 healthy recipes. The other lunches can be leftovers from your dinners. You can double recipes to make sure you have enough.

Mediterranean Bowls

These are so delicious. I’m not a fan of salad, so this is a great alternative. I don’t like quinoa and use rice instead. I also like to add chicken to mine!

You may want to have this one a couple of times throughout the week because you will likely use 1/2 of an ingredient for each bowl. Instead of being left with 1/2 a cucumber, why not just make another bowl?

Big Mac Smash Tacos

This is one of my boyfriend’s favorite meals that we make at home. It is honestly so quick and tastes amazing. The recipe is in french (I think?), but it should be easy to translate it to english on Google or Safari.

Beef Quesadillas

You’ll want to make sure you have leftovers from the “best ground beef tacos” dinner recipe; or can make the ground beef according to this recipe, which is also delicious. It’s a lot easier to just batch cook the meat while you make your tacos, but do whatever works for you!

Dinner

You will make a different dinner recipe for every single night. If you aren’t used to cooking every night, that’s okay! You don’t have to follow the plan exactly. It is mostly to serve as inspiration and meal ideas.

Pesto Tortellini with Seasoned Salmon

This is one of my favorite meals right now! I get cheese tortellini from Trader Joes, which is super easy to cook. I make my own pesto, which is not required of you BUT it will make your meal taste at least a million times better. You can prep the pesto ahead of time if you don’t want to do it all at the same time. Make sure you have leftover pesto for your eggs in the morning!

The salmon seasoning recipe that I’m going to share with you is amazing. We cook our salmon in the airfryer because it’s so much easier than the oven or pan frying it.

Then you just throw it all together in a bowl and it is incredible!

Best Beef Tacos Ever

I love tacos. They are definitely one of my favorite meals. Frying the tortillas makes them absolutely incredible, so I do recommend it unless you have specific goals related to your calories. Make sure you make enough meat to have the cheesy quesadillas for lunch the next day!

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

This is my favorite soup of all time! It is a greek soup, commonly called avgolemono. I love to make fresh bread, which is absolutely incredible with this soup. It’s likely that you don’t make fresh bread regularly and will prefer to pair it with something like texas toast, garlic bread, or salad.

Goulash

Goulash is a go to for us because it is incredibly easy and incredibly delicious! I don’t like leftovers, but I do think goulash is tasty left over. This is a great option for lunch the next day, too!

Cajun Chicken with Salsa

This is also one of my go tos when I’m low on groceries and need something delicious. I throw whatever I have into it, but I do recommend following the recipe if you can.

This FREE 5 day healthy meal plan is truly a collection of some of my favorite meals that we make in our house! I hope it gave you some new ideas for what you can cook in your own home.

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