Balanced Meal Ideas: A Week Of Easy Recipes

The age-old question, "What's for dinner tonight?" can finally be answered with our easy-to-prepare, balanced meal ideas. To help you shop ahead and cook healthy meals without the headache, we offer a week's worth of easy recipes that you can adapt to your mood.

Balanced meals when you want them

People who eat out at lunch usually have their heartiest meal in the evening. If that's the case for you, you can use this Easy Recipes Week as inspiration for your evening meals.

On the other hand, if you're used to eating your main meal at lunch and eating lightly in the evening with a soup or salad, take inspiration from our balanced meal ideas for your lunch!

Fruits and vegetables at every meal

Doctors are unanimous on the value of eating at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Therefore, to reach the recommended amount, these vegetables must appear at every meal.

With our week of easy recipes, it will be much easier for you to eat more vegetables and meet the official nutritional recommendations.

These balanced meal ideas include at least one quick and easy main dish and a dessert. These menus are sometimes complemented by an appetizer or a vegetarian alternative.

The principles of a balanced diet

To better understand the nutritional rules that inspired this one-week program, I recommend that you read the article Eating a balanced diet with the 7 food families (opposite).

For a meal to be balanced, it must include a representative of each food family, i.e:
1- water or an unsweetened drink
2- a portion of starchy foods
3- a source of protein
4- fruits and vegetables
5- a little fat
6- a little sugar for pleasure
7- a dairy product twice a day for calcium

Among these ideas for balanced meals, I have most often chosen not to include cheese to give you the opportunity to eat it at the time of day you prefer.

The only exception to this dairy-free program is the Mixed salad and the cheesecake offered on Fridays to complement a rather light meal based on fish en papillote.

One week meal plan

Monday
Chicken with mustard and pan-fried vegetables
Semolina Cake with Maple Syrup (lactose-free recipe)

Tuesday
Baked Tomato Salmon and Steamed Potatoes
Green Salad
Peach Salad with Hibiscus Jelly

Wednesday
Quinoa salad with tuna
Lasagna with Ratatouille
Express coconut custard

Thursday
Thai-style turkey and rice
OR
Marinated tofu with soy sauce (vegetarian alternative)
Exotic Fruit Salad

Friday
Fish capillote with leek
Multicolored Mixed Salad
Curd cheese cake

Saturday
Sauteed shrimp with sun-dried tomatoes
Zucchini Quinoa
Strawberry Panna Cotta

Sunday
Tuna Puffs
Vegetarian couscous
Vegan chocolate mousse


To note:in Sunday's menu, I recommend you top your vegetarian couscous with chickpeas and save the chickpea juice or aquafaba to make the Chocolate mousse in a vegan, egg-free version.