By: Jessie ShaferUpdated: 4/11/24
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This 2-Week Healthy Meal Plan is FREE for everyone and includes a done-for-you Grocery List plus everything you need to have two weeks of healthy, fresh, high-protein, and high-fiber dinners ready to go! The recipes included in this free meal plan are flavorful, simple, nutritious, and family-friendly. You can use this meal plan any time of the year, but it is especially great for winter since it calls for in-season winter foods and features cozy techniques, including skillet meals and a slow cooker recipe, too.
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This meal plan was created in partnership with the Northern Pulse Growers Association.
What Is A Healthy Winter Meal Plan?
The 2-Week Healthy Eating Meal Plan includes two weeks of healthy recipes planned for you and created by registered dietitians. The meal plan consists of 4 healthy dinners each week (with weekly printable grocery lists) plus suggestions for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. If you are a family of 4 or less, then the dinner recipes also provide enough leftovers to be used for easy lunches during the week.
This winter weeknight 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 individuals have their go-to’s when it comes to these meals. For example, you could enjoy a smoothie or baked oatmeal for breakfast every morning and a big salad or leftovers for lunch. We want this plan to work for you, so we’ve kept it flexible and easy to follow.
Our ultimate 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 – dinner ideas that work and everyone looks forward to eating!
What You Get In This Free Winter Meal Plan
In this 2-Week Healthy Winter Meal Plan you get:
- 4 Delicious, family-friendly dinner recipes each week – to make in whatever way works best for you – whether that’s weekend batch-cooking, meal prepping some of the ingredients ahead so they’re ready when you are, or making the recipes start to finish on each day as you go
- Weekly grocery shopping list – one new grocery list for each of the two weeks in the plan featuring in-season winter ingredients
- Suggestions – for healthy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks
- Flexibility – we’ve built in days for using leftovers, making your own favorite recipes, or even getting takeout or delivery (because we all like a break from cooking once in a while). Feel free to move days around, double a recipe or two so you have more leftovers, or swap out some of the recipes altogether to use your family’s favorites.
- BYOM – On Sunday’s it’s a “Build Your Own Meal (BYOM)”. We encourage you to use what you have leftover from the week.
- Nutrition built in – All recipes are high protein, high fiber, and gluten-free and have suggestions for other dietary modifications
- An optional 2-Week Workout Plan – pair it with this meal plan for four weeks of planned fitness and healthful eating (aka: your best winter months!)
Also! Get 2 Weeks Of Planned Workouts
Looking for a 2-Week Workout Challenge to Go Along with Your 2-Week Winter Meal Plan? We’ve got you covered! You can’t beat the feeling of eating well and moving your body on a regular basis and sometimes it takes a good challenge to make it a habit. We’ve partnered with our friend Lindsey Bomgren and her team at Nourish Move Love to provide a 2-Week Workout Challenge that coordinates with this 2-Week Meal Plan.
Nourish Move Love Workouts:
- Are totally free and accessible to all fitness levels
- Require minimal equipment and can be done in the comfort of your own home
- Include full-length follow-along videos for each workout where Lindsey and team demonstrate every exercise and provides suggestions for modifications
Click Here To Download Your 2-Week Healthy Meal Plan
Who Is This Healthy Meal Plan With Winter Dinner Recipes For?
This healthy winter meal plan is for free for anyone and perfect for someone who wants to take the guesswork out of healthy meal planning.
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 fiber and protein, as well as healthful carb sources, thanks to the addition of pulses like chickpeas and lentils. Finally, the easy dinners in this winter meal plan feature in-season ingredients and comfort food favorites for cold weather.
We’re here to make healthy eating doable and fun – and this 2-Week Cold Weather Meal Plan is the perfect way to help you feel better inside out and on your way to achieving your goals of healthy and homemade dinners at home, saving you money and improving health.
Nutrition Benefits Of Pulses
Pulse is the latin word for thick soup, and it categorizes a group of crops that are the edible seeds of foods known as legumes and beans. Some well-known pulses include lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, dry peas, lupins, cow peas, and pigeon peas. Pulses are only harvested when dried, as opposed to other vegetable crops that are harvested while still green.
Pulses are great sources of fiber, plant-based protein, and important minerals. In fact, studies have shown that people who eat ½ cup of pulses per day or more have higher intakes of fiber, protein, calcium, potassium, folate, zinc, iron, and magnesium. The winter recipes in this meal plan feature plenty of pulses as healthy whole foods that contribute flavor and nutrition, too!
Winter Meal Plan Week 1
Here’s what’s on the menu for your Week 1 Winter Dinners. Within the meal plan, click on the recipe images to be taken to the recipe blog post, or click on the links below to access each recipe.
- Monday (Day 1) – Greek Orzo Skillet with Chicken And Chickpeas | Total Time: 45 minutes | Serves: 6-8 | Teaming with veggies and those Greek-inspired flavors you love, this skillet dinner is high in fiber and protein from a base of chickpeas and chicken breasts
- Tuesday (Day 2) – Easy Rigatoni with Chickpea Pasta | Total Time: 28 minutes | Serves: 6-8 | Easier than lasagna, but comforting in the same ways, this stovetop dinner features Italian comfort food coziness plus veggies and Parmesan. Use a chickpea pasta as a gluten-free option that also increases the fiber and protein
- Wednesday (Day 3) – Taco Stuffed Peppers with Beef or Lentils | Total Time: 40 minutes | Serves: 4 | Stuff colorful bell peppers with a flavorful Mexican-inspired filling for a nutritious, easy dinner. Replace the ground beef with 1 can of cooked lentils for a healthful plant-based option
- Thursday (Day 4) – Leftovers
- Friday (Day 5) – Stir-Fry Noodles with Chicken | Total Time: 30 minutes | Serves: 4 | Think of this as a quick Thai-inspired spin chicken noodle soup made from chicken breasts, whole-wheat spaghetti noodles, veggies, and a sesame-flavored sauce
- Saturday (Day 6) – Leftovers or Takeout
- Sunday (Day 7) – Build Your Own Meal (use up any leftovers from the week)
Just Want the Week 1 Grocery List? Click Here
Winter Meal Plan Week 2
Here’s what’s on the menu for your Week 2 Winter Dinners. Within the meal plan, click on the recipe images to be taken to the recipe blog post, or click on the links below to access each recipe.
- Monday (Day 8) – Healthy Tater Tot Casserole with Lentils | Total Time: 60 minutes | Serves: 9 | A favorite comfort food recipe gets a healthful upgrade. Featuring ground beef, cooked lentils, and plenty of veggies, this winter dinner is so cozy for cold weather evenings
- Tuesday (Day 9) – Creamy Pumpkin Pasta with Sausage | Total Time: 30 minutes | Serves: 4-5 | This cozy pasta winter dinner features a delicious pumpkin sauce with Italian flavors over linguine and cooked sausage and garnished with Parmesan; use lentil- or chickpea- pasta to insert even more nutritious
- Wednesday (Day 10) – Chicken and Chickpea Curry | Total Time: 30 minutes | Serves: 6 | A flavorful skillet dinner that’s high in protein and fiber. May use chickpeas or any white bean; excellent with a side dish of naan for scooping up all the flavorful sauce
- Thursday (Day 11) – Leftovers
- Friday (Day 12) – Easy Taco Soup | Total Time: 28 minutes + steam release time for Instant Pot or 4-7 hours for slow cooker option | Serves: 6 | A favorite soup recipe features Mexican-inspired flavors, veggies, black beans, and corn. Recipe card includes instructions to make this bean soup in the Instant Pot, slow cooker, or on the stovetop. Top with tortilla chips, avocado, or sour cream
- Saturday (Day 13) – Leftovers or Takeout
- Sunday (Day 14) – Build Your Own Meal (use up any leftovers from the week)
Just Want the Week 2 Grocery List? Click Here
Add These: Breakfast, Lunch & Snack Recipes
Here are some meal suggestions for your breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. They would make great additions to your 2-week winter meal plan.
Nutritious Breakfasts To Add
Easy Lunches To Add
Healthy Snacks To Add
Northern Pulse Growers Association
This free meal plan was made possible through partnership with the Northern Pulse Growers Association. This nonprofit association represents growers of dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, lupins, and fava beans in Montana and North Dakota. These U.S.-grown ingredients are a great way to add more nutrition to meals, which is why this meal plan includes many ways and flavors to enjoy them.
Pair This Meal Plan With A 2-Week Workout Challenge
We’ve made it easy for you to pair this free healthy meal plan with a free daily workout. Our friends at Nourish Move Love have crafted a thoughtful workout challenge that will get you moving every day and feeling good. Every workout includes a free guided video and a huge virtual community to support you.
Get Your Free 2-Week Workout Challenge Calendar
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.
For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!
More Free Meal Plans For You
Jessie Shafer
Jessie is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist living near Denver, CO where she splits her time among nearby playgrounds, typing away at her trusty laptop, and heating up her home kitchen with delicious experiments. Her best taste tester is her husband, a Denver firefighter with a well-trained palate. A former magazine editor-in-chief, Jessie has a long career in food publishing and health writing. While she once played centerfield for the Northwestern University softball team, Jessie now prefers her fitness in the way of biking up mountain passes and chasing three little kiddos (the latter proving to be the more exhausting activity).
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Teri Watkins saysThank you for these. I think I have used nearly every meal plan you have provided. So good and a huge time saver for me.
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- Stacie Hassing says
You are so welcome Teri! We are so happy to hear these are helpful for you!
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