7 Day Clean Eating Meal Plan (That You’ll Want to Repeat)
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack for seven days. I’ve defined clean eating simply as foods you prepare at home. You’ll see that this meal plan has a lot of familiar ingredients: produce, legumes, grains, seafood, meat, eggs, and dairy.
There are a couple of packaged and canned foods I typically keep around the house, like canned beans, canned tomatoes, and frozen shrimp. There are no calories or points to count, and no foods you’ll never eat again.
Protein at each meal helps me stay full throughout the day. As we age it’s important to eat protein daily, and to be conscious about maintaining muscle mass.
I’m not a fan of making 21 unique meals a week, so many of the dinners make extra portions which can be enjoyed as lunches later in the week.
Substitute ingredients as you like. Missed a day? Move on, and don’t stress about catching up.
Sunday prep: About an hour
Sunday is the day I do my meal prep: boil a pot of quinoa, boil a pot of brown rice, hard cook six eggs, make the white bean soup for Day 7, and chop the vegetables I’ll use throughout the week. It takes about an hour.
Anything I’m not going to use within three to four days gets frozen, including the soup for Day 7 and the rice if it will be stored longer. To cool food quickly, place it in shallow containers.
The week at a glance
Day 1
Breakfast: One cup of plain full-fat Greek yogurt with berries, chopped walnuts, and a drizzle of honey. About 20 grams of protein.
Lunch: Quick and easy. Just mix together canned tuna, canned white beans, olive oil, and lemon juice, add some chopped red onion, and toss with some greens. Takes about five minutes.
Snack: Apple and peanut butter.
Dinner: Roast little potatoes at 400 degrees and add the salmon for the last 12 minutes, depending on thickness. Serve with steamed broccoli.
Make sure to cook an extra two servings of salmon to use as lunch tomorrow.
Day 2
Breakfast: Two eggs, scrambled with spinach, plus toast with butter.
Lunch: Flake the salmon you cooked yesterday over a salad. Add some avocado and a squeeze of lemon.
Snack: Cottage cheese with pineapple or peaches canned in juice.
Dinner: Turkey chili. A big pot of this will last through tomorrow’s lunch, with some left to freeze. Made with canned kidney beans, canned tomatoes, and chili powder, it’s easy to throw together.
Day 3
Breakfast: Overnight oats. Mix together half a cup of rolled oats, Greek yogurt, milk, a handful of frozen berries, and about a tablespoon of chia seeds. Cover and refrigerate.
Lunch: Turkey chili.
Snack: Small handful of almonds and an orange.
Dinner: Roast chicken thighs with carrots and onions, and serve over quinoa.
Chicken thighs are less expensive than breasts and very forgiving when you’re tied up and can’t pull them out of the oven on time. They also have more fat, which keeps you fuller.
Day 4
Breakfast: Blend together Greek yogurt, milk, a big handful of frozen berries, one ripe banana, and a small handful of spinach. About 20 grams of protein.
Lunch: Chicken, quinoa, and roasted vegetable bowl made with leftovers.
Snack: Two hard-boiled eggs with salt and pepper.
Dinner: Shrimp stir-fry over pre-cooked brown rice.
Defrost the shrimp under cold running water, which takes about 10 minutes, then saute for about three minutes.
Day 5
Breakfast: Greek yogurt bowl, same as the days before. You could switch it up if you’d like, but I find it helpful to repeat a simple, easy option for breakfast because it frees up mental space for lunch and dinner.
Lunch: Greek salad with chickpeas, feta cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with crusty bread if desired.
Snack: Hummus and vegetables.
Dinner: Pot roast. It goes in the slow cooker in the morning with potatoes, carrots, and onions.
Pot roast makes plenty of leftovers. Even in the summertime, I’ll make a pot roast because I know it will feed us several times.
Day 6
Breakfast: Oatmeal made with milk, stirred with peanut butter and topped with half a sliced banana.
Lunch: Pot roast and vegetables, made with leftovers.
Snack: Cottage cheese, or cheese and a pear.
Dinner: Baked cod with green beans. Season the cod with salt, pepper, lemon, and butter and put it in the oven, and simmer white beans with canned tomatoes and garlic. Serve the fish and beans side by side.
Day 7
Breakfast: Veggie omelet. Two or three eggs with any vegetables left in the crisper. Add cheese if desired.
Lunch: White bean soup. Defrost the soup you made and froze on Sunday and heat it through. Make sure it is piping hot before eating.
Snack: Walnuts and any leftover fruit.
Dinner: Roast chicken with sweet potatoes and a simple green salad.
Roast chicken makes leftovers for two meals. The carcass can be saved to make soup, and it gives me a jump-start on planning and cooking next week.
The protein amounts, roughly
At my age, 50, it’s important to eat protein daily and distribute it over the course of the day. This meal plan aims for an estimated 85 to 100 grams of protein a day, depending on brands, serving sizes, and ingredient swaps, spread across the three meals and a snack.
I’m not counting or weighing anything here.
If you’ve been instructed to consume a certain amount of protein, for example if you have kidney disease, disregard my estimate and follow the instructions you’ve been given.
Your grocery list
Look through your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer before planning meals. Take inventory before hitting the grocery store.
Produce
- Fresh or frozen berries
- Apples, oranges, bananas, and pears
- Pineapple or peaches, fresh or canned in juice
- Lemons
- Spinach and mixed greens
- Broccoli and green beans
- Carrots and cucumbers
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes, including little potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Onions and red onion
- Garlic
- Avocados
Fish, meat, and eggs
- Salmon, enough for dinner and extra portions
- Canned tuna
- Frozen shrimp
- Chicken thighs
- One whole chicken
- One chuck roast
- Ground turkey
- Cod
- A dozen and a half eggs
Dairy
- Plain full-fat Greek yogurt
- Cottage cheese
- Milk
- Feta
- Cheese for omelets and snacks
- Butter
Pantry
- Rolled oats
- Chia seeds
- Quinoa
- Brown rice
- Canned white beans
- Canned kidney beans
- Canned chickpeas
- Canned diced tomatoes
- Olives
- Hummus
- Peanut butter
- Almonds and walnuts
- Olive oil
- Honey
- Bread
- Chili powder
What to do next week
Next week, instead of salmon, you might pan-fry trout. Instead of chili, try lentils. Instead of pot roast, choose another favorite from the slow cooker.
A well-thought-out menu embraces leftovers. They cut down on waste, offer variety, and make next week’s meals easy. This week, we ate the same chili twice. Pot roast lasted two meals.
This is just my way of thinking ahead, prepping ahead, and planning meals I’m excited about. It keeps meals interesting but easy. Protein is present at each meal, and there’s a dinner or two that lends itself to easy lunches the next day.
