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Meals
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Week One · Four people · One pan
One big lunch, a light supper, four plates.
Four people who eat one main cooked meal at midday and a light, fresh supper at night — four different plates from one pan. Cook it in the morning or the night before. Soup every other day, one starch a day, and rice and pasta never share it. Every plate is costed in calories, protein, and carbohydrate, because the four of you are not eating for the same reasons.
One dinner, four plates. Nobody cooks a separate meal — the plate does the work, not the cook.
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N
NDaughter · plain & picky
“Nothing that looks like yesterday.”
No sauce, no spice, no gravy. Her portion comes out of the pan before anything is added to it.
Everything cooked fresh. She won’t eat a meal that looks reheated or made-over — so nothing is carried over; the main meal is cooked the same day.
Cheese is her happy place — a cheese tortilla, a toastie, or a cheese sandwich is a whole light supper to her.
Fruit she’ll always eat: watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, banana.
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H
HHusband · no creamy sauces
“Cheese, yes. Cream, no.”
Cheese is fine — a cheeseburger, pizza, a cheesy bake all work for him.
No creamy sauces. The cream-based ones — mushroom sauce, cream finishes — are held back; his plate gets the same dish without the cream.
Everything else he eats in full: tomato sauces, wraps, loaded plates, the lot.
On schnitzel night he takes his without the creamy mushroom sauce — a squeeze of lemon instead.
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M
MBulking · doubles the starch
“Same meal, plus the surplus.”
Doubles the starch — double rice, extra potatoes, an extra wrap or slice of bread.
A fourth eating moment mid-afternoon: peanut butter toast + banana, or a milk-oats-banana-PB shake.
Bigger breakfast: three eggs not two, full-fat milk, a handful of nuts.
Surplus from rice, oats, potatoes, eggs, nuts and milk — never chips. And he lifts.
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A
AMe · cutting, protein first
“Same meal, protein first, grain last.”
Protein first, vegetables second, grain last — half the plate is veg before anything else lands.
Skip the grain at the main meal: salad, roasted vegetables, or cauliflower rice instead.
Aim 100–120 g protein and keep the whole day between 1,400 and 1,500 kcal. Fruit is dessert; nothing after supper but tea.
Two strength sessions a week beat any further cut to the food.
The system
The rules the plan runs on
Read these once, then you can stop reading them. Nine small habits are what let one pan feed four people four different ways at the midday table.
1
Pull the plain portion first
Before you sauce, bread, or bun anything, take out N's share. One pan, three finishes.
2
H skips creamy sauces
Cheese is fine for H — a cheeseburger, pizza, a cheesy bake all work. It's cream he avoids: wherever a creamy sauce appears it's flagged, and his plate gets the same dish without the cream.
3
The big meal is lunch
The main cooked meal is eaten at midday; the evening is a light, fresh supper. Cook it in the morning, or the night before — nothing is carried over to the next day.
4
Fruit & vegetables at every plate
A fruit at every breakfast, a fruit bowl at lunch, and vegetables or cucumber sticks beside every dinner — for all four of them. Not negotiated, just present.
5
Same food, different plate
M is bulking, A is cutting. Nobody cooks a separate meal — the plate does the work.
6
Soup every other day
The pot sits on the back burner and comes to the table first — soup goes first so less starch goes second, and everyone shares the same first course.
7
One starch per plate
Never rice with chips, never a bun with chips. The day's starch is printed beside the day. Only M doubles it.
8
Rice and pasta never share a day
Soup goes first so less starch goes second. On a starch-heavy day the soup arrives clear. On ramen and potato-milk nights the soup is the starch.
9
No pork, only fish from the sea
Salami means beef or turkey; the soup sausage is smoked turkey. No shellfish. Salmon stays — it is the whole point of Saturday.
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Breakfast rotation
Assemble, never cook · Rotations A to G
AGreek yogurt + berries · H+M: muesli, M adds nuts & extra oats · A: seeds, no muesli
1Chicken soup — bone-in chicken with carrot, parsnip, celeriac, onion. Always clear; it sits beside rice and potato dinners. Freeze half — it becomes the ramen.
2Lentil soup — brown lentils, carrot, onion, smoked paprika, a little smoked turkey sausage. No bread on the side. The protein win of the week.
3Ramen soup — the frozen broth, soy, ginger, noodles, a soft egg. The noodles are the day's starch, so dinner comes with vegetables.
4Pea & carrot soup — finished with a spoon of sour cream. No roux, no csipetke. Light enough to sit in front of pizza or pasta.
5Potato milk soup — diced potato in milk, bay leaf, a knob of butter. The potatoes are the day's starch, so dinner comes with vegetables.
Week One — the classics
Seven days, one pan each
The big cooked meal is lunch; supper is light and fresh. Cook it in the morning or the night before — nothing is carried over. Friday's lunch is homemade pizza. Soup lands Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. One starch a day — tap any day to jump to it.
One shop carries the week. Chop the soup roots ahead and keep them in the fridge — every soup this week then starts as a ten-minute job.
How each day runs
Breakfast, then the main cooked meal at lunch (soup first on soup days), then a light, fresh supper in the evening — sandwiches, eggs, a cheese tortilla, a grazing board. The main meal is cooked that morning or the night before, and nothing is carried over to become the next day's lunch. Same pan, four plates, twice a day.
Whole-day totals · everything on the plates todayA's target 1,400–1,500 · 1,470 kcal ✓
N1,850kcal / day
P
94 g
C
206 g
H2,260kcal / day
P
128 g
C
235 g
M3,850kcal / day
P
188 g
C
490 g
A1,470kcal / day
P
139 g
C
88 g
Breakfast
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Rotation A — Greek yogurt, strawberries & blueberries
Lunch · Chicken schnitzel · the main meal
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First course · Chicken soup — clear
Bone-in chicken, carrot, parsnip, celeriac, onion. No noodles — the starch is already on today's plate. Freeze half the broth for ramen. · N: broth & plain chicken · H+M: broth, meat, roots · M: a second bowl and a slice of bread · A: broth, chicken, every vegetable in the pot
Whole-day totals · everything on the plates todayA's target 1,400–1,500 · 1,490 kcal ✓
N1,910kcal / day
P
99 g
C
203 g
H2,450kcal / day
P
132 g
C
242 g
M4,120kcal / day
P
193 g
C
512 g
A1,490kcal / day
P
135 g
C
105 g
Breakfast
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Rotation C — cheese quesadilla · cucumber · watermelon
Lunch · Gyros · the main meal
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First course · Lentil soup — no bread
Brown lentils, carrot, onion, smoked paprika, a little smoked turkey sausage for depth. · N: her bowl ladled out thin, before the sausage goes in · H+M: full bowls · M: bread on the side · A: full bowl, no bread. The protein win of the week.
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NGyros meat · oven chips · cucumber. Nothing on it.
Whole-day totals · everything on the plates todayA's target 1,400–1,500 · 1,480 kcal ✓
N1,870kcal / day
P
82 g
C
220 g
H2,300kcal / day
P
116 g
C
262 g
M4,040kcal / day
P
174 g
C
527 g
A1,480kcal / day
P
133 g
C
100 g
Breakfast
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Rotation E — smoothie + boiled egg · M: oats & peanut butter in his
Lunch · Homemade pizza · the main meal
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First course · Pea & carrot soup — light
Peas and carrots, finished with a spoon of sour cream. No roux, no csipetke. · N: plain, no parsley · H+M: sour cream stirred in · M: csipetke or nokedli in his · A: add a boiled egg or some chicken to make it a real bowl
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NMargherita — cheese only, no sauce if she prefers
Whole-day totals · everything on the plates todayA's target 1,400–1,500 · 1,490 kcal ✓
N1,950kcal / day
P
95 g
C
216 g
H2,430kcal / day
P
129 g
C
242 g
M4,120kcal / day
P
184 g
C
495 g
A1,490kcal / day
P
141 g
C
98 g
Breakfast
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Rotation G — pancakes & crepes · strawberries, banana · bake the week's egg muffins now
Lunch · Roast chicken · the main meal
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First course · Chicken soup — clear
Bone-in chicken, carrot, parsnip, celeriac, onion. No noodles — the starch is already on today's plate. Freeze half the broth for ramen. · N: broth & plain chicken · H+M: broth, meat, roots · M: a second bowl and a slice of bread · A: broth, chicken, every vegetable in the pot
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NRoast chicken · potatoes · cucumber
H+MRoast chicken · potatoes · gravy · M: extra potatoes
ARoast chicken · roasted vegetables · salad
Dinner · light supper
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NCheese sandwich · cucumber · strawberries
H+MSandwiches — cold chicken or cheese · M: a full round + extra
Tiramisu or banana bread. Grate a carrot into the banana bread — it disappears into the batter and quietly covers the iron gap.
The recipes
Ten cards, four plates each
Everything you cook in Week 1 — the seven midday mains and the three soups. Each card gives the ingredients for four, the method, and how the one pan becomes four different plates.
Lunch · Monday
Chicken schnitzel + rice
25 min active45 min totalServes 4
For four: Chicken breast 900 g · Rice 380 g · Flour 100 g · Eggs 2 · Breadcrumbs 150 g · Mushrooms 250 g · Cream 100 ml · Cucumber 1
Rice on first. Pound the chicken flat between two sheets — thin cooks fast and stays tender. Flour, egg, crumbs, in that order, all before the pan is hot. Pull A's portion before the breading — hers is grilled and leaves the line first. Fry. N's schnitzel goes straight onto her plate, nothing on it, ever. Mushroom sauce in the same pan while they rest.
N140 g chicken · 60 g rice · cucumber620 kcal · 35 P · 60 C
H180 g · 80 g rice · lemon, no creamy sauce780 kcal · 48 P · 75 C
M260 g · 160 g rice · sauce1,150 kcal · 62 P · 150 C
A180 g grilled · big salad · no rice480 kcal · 50 P · 15 C
Lunch · Tuesday
Bolognese, one big pot
20 min active50 min totalServes 4
For four: Ground beef 800 g · Canned tomatoes 800 g · Onion 2 · Carrot 2 · Garlic 3 · Pasta 400 g · Grated cheese 100 g · Zucchini (A) 2
Onion, carrot, garlic softened properly — six minutes, not two. That is where the sweetness comes from. Brown the beef hard. Tomatoes in, lid half on, forty minutes. Make half again as much. N's plain pasta is lifted out before a spoon of sauce goes near it, tossed with oil and cheese. Cheese onto the plates that want it — H likes it here too — but never into the pot. A: sauce over roasted zucchini, no pasta.
N70 g pasta · oil · cheese580 kcal · 22 P · 65 C
H90 g pasta · sauce750 kcal · 40 P · 80 C
M180 g pasta · sauce · cheese1,150 kcal · 55 P · 160 C
Asauce over roasted zucchini · salad480 kcal · 42 P · 20 C
Lunch · Wednesday
Gyros — everyone builds their own
20 min active40 min totalServes 4
For four: Chicken thighs 1 kg · Gyros spice 2 tbsp · Yogurt 300 g · Cucumber 1 · Garlic 2 · Tortillas 6 · Bell peppers 2 · Oven chips 600 g
Slice and spice the thighs in the morning if you can. Tzatziki: yogurt, grated cucumber squeezed dry in a cloth, garlic, salt — skip the squeezing and you get soup. Meat into a very hot pan, cooked in two goes so it browns instead of steaming. N's plain meat set aside first, chips beside it. Everything else into bowls; let them build.
Nplain meat · chips · cucumber600 kcal · 38 P · 55 C
Hwrap · tzatziki · peppers780 kcal · 45 P · 60 C
M2 wraps · chips1,200 kcal · 60 P · 130 C
Agyros bowl · salad · tzatziki · no bread500 kcal · 48 P · 15 C
Lunch · Thursday
Coconut curry chicken
25 min active45 min totalServes 4
For four: Chicken breast 900 g · Coconut milk 800 ml · Curry powder 2 tbsp · Onion 2 · Rice 380 g · Cauliflower (A) 1 · Spinach 150 g
Fry the plain strips first and pull them straight out for N — that is the whole trick, one pan and her dinner is already safe. Onion down, curry powder in the oil for thirty seconds, coconut milk, chicken back in. Twenty minutes lid off so it thickens rather than swims. A: cauliflower blitzed into rice, or the curry over spinach.
Nplain chicken · 60 g rice620 kcal · 38 P · 58 C
Hcurry · 80 g rice800 kcal · 45 P · 72 C
Mcurry · 160 g rice · extra chicken1,200 kcal · 58 P · 145 C
Acurry · cauliflower rice · spinach520 kcal · 46 P · 20 C
Lunch · Friday
Homemade pizza — one dough, four toppings
35 min active2 hr totalServes 4
For four: Flour 700 g · Dry yeast 1 sachet · Warm water 420 ml · Olive oil 3 tbsp · Tomatoes 400 g · Mozzarella 300 g · Salami 150 g · Peppers & mushrooms 300 g
Start the dough about two hours ahead — flour, yeast, water, oil, salt. Ten minutes kneading, then leave it to rise. Oven as hot as it will physically go, tray already in it; a cold tray makes a sad, pale base. N: margherita, cheese only. H and M both go loaded — cheese, salami, peppers. Cheese is no trouble for H; it is cream he skips, and a pizza has none. A: grilled chicken and a big Greek salad — the honest Friday trade.
N2 slices margherita · cucumber700 kcal · 28 P · 80 C
H3 slices, loaded · salad850 kcal · 40 P · 95 C
M5 slices, loaded1,300 kcal · 52 P · 160 C
Agrilled chicken · Greek salad · no pizza520 kcal · 48 P · 15 C
Lunch · Saturday
The two-pan Saturday — salmon + the fried thing
30 min active45 min totalServes 4
For four: Salmon fillet 500 g · Breading cheese or chicken 400 g · Flour, egg, breadcrumbs · Oven chips 500 g · Roasting vegetables 700 g · Lemon 1
Two pans, two dinners, one kitchen — the night the plan stops pretending everyone wants the same thing. Salmon and vegetables onto a tray at 200°, fifteen minutes, hands off. Breading line for the cheese or chicken while the salmon cooks. N's goes on first and comes off first. H: chicken baked with cheese if he likes, potatoes. A: the salmon, roasted vegetables, a squeeze of lemon — the best meal of the week for no more effort than theirs.
Nbreaded cheese · chips · cucumber700 kcal · 26 P · 60 C
Hchicken & cheese · potatoes780 kcal · 48 P · 55 C
Mchicken with cheese · potatoes · extra1,150 kcal · 60 P · 110 C
A150 g salmon · roasted vegetables · salad520 kcal · 45 P · 18 C
Lunch · Sunday
Roast chicken, big
20 min active90 min totalServes 4
For four: Whole chicken 1.8 kg · Potatoes 1.2 kg · Roasting vegetables 700 g · Butter, salt, lemon · Flour for gravy 1 tbsp · Cucumber 1
Buy it bigger than you need — the carcass becomes the week's chicken soup, and there's enough for a light Sunday supper. Salt it heavily and leave it out thirty minutes; cold chicken into a hot oven cooks unevenly. 200°, ninety minutes. Potatoes into the fat at the halfway mark, a second tray of vegetables for A. Gravy from the pan. N's plate stays plain. Strip the carcass while it's warm — it goes straight into the soup pot.
Nchicken · 200 g potatoes · cucumber650 kcal · 40 P · 45 C
Hchicken · potatoes · gravy820 kcal · 52 P · 55 C
Mextra chicken · 400 g potatoes · gravy1,200 kcal · 65 P · 105 C
Achicken · roasted vegetables · salad · no potatoes520 kcal · 52 P · 20 C
Soup · Mon & Sun
Chicken soup — always clear
20 min active90 min totalServes 4
For four: Chicken (bone-in or Sunday's carcass) 1.2 kg · Carrots 300 g · Parsnip 150 g · Celeriac 150 g · Onion 1 · Root parsley 100 g · Water 3 L
Cold water, chicken in, bring it up slowly — a soup rushed to the boil goes cloudy and never comes back. Skim the grey foam for the first ten minutes; that is the whole difference between good broth and grey broth. Roots in, lid half on, ninety minutes at a bare tremble. Freeze half the broth — it is the ramen. No noodles: it only lands on a rice, mash or potato night.
Nbroth · plain chicken160 kcal · 16 P · 8 C
Hbroth · meat · roots200 kcal · 20 P · 10 C
M2 bowls · bread380 kcal · 26 P · 28 C
Abroth · chicken · every vegetable190 kcal · 22 P · 8 C
Soup · Wednesday
Lentil soup — no bread
15 min active45 min totalServes 4
For four: Brown lentils 300 g · Smoked turkey sausage 200 g · Carrots 200 g · Onion 1 · Garlic 3 · Smoked paprika 1 tsp · Bay 1 · Stock 1.5 L
Onion and carrot down in oil. Off the heat, paprika in — paprika burns in three seconds and turns the pot bitter. Lentils, stock, bay. Thirty minutes, lid on. Ladle N's bowl out now, before the sausage goes in. Turkey sausage in for the last ten minutes. A: no bread — this soup is 20 g of protein on its own and the best-value bowl of the month.
Nthin bowl, no sausage220 kcal · 12 P · 30 C
Hfull bowl320 kcal · 18 P · 40 C
Mfull bowl · bread520 kcal · 24 P · 70 C
Afull bowl, no bread300 kcal · 20 P · 35 C
Soup · Friday
Pea & carrot soup — no roux
10 min active30 min totalServes 4
For four: Frozen green peas 500 g · Carrots 300 g · Onion 1 · Stock 1.2 L · Sour cream 150 g · Flour 1 tbsp (no more) · Parsley · Boiled egg (A) 1
Onion and carrot softened, stock in, twenty minutes. Peas in for the last five — any longer and they go grey and sad. Thickened with sour cream whisked with one spoon of flour, not a roux (a roux is 200 kcal you did not need). This is the soup that sits in front of pizza and pasta because it is light enough to. A: a boiled egg in the bowl turns it from a side into a meal.
Nplain, no parsley180 kcal · 7 P · 22 C
Hsour cream stirred in220 kcal · 9 P · 25 C
Mwith csipetke or nokedli400 kcal · 14 P · 50 C
Awith a boiled egg260 kcal · 18 P · 25 C
The one shop
Week 1 shopping list
Everything Week 1 needs for four, in one trip, grouped by aisle. Tap an item to check it off as it goes in the trolley. No pork, no shellfish — salami means beef or turkey. Assumes oil, salt, and basic spices are already in the cupboard.
Quantities are a guide for a family of four across the seven days. The broth for the soups comes free from Sunday's roast carcass, so it is not on the list.
Sunday prep
Forty-five minutes that carry the week
A plan that cannot absorb a bad night is not a plan, it is a wish. Here is the Sunday block, what lives in the freezer, and the swaps for when a dish flops.
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The Sunday block
Fruit, ready to grab. Keep a bowl of whole fruit out at eye level, and cut only what will be eaten that day — cut fruit does not keep. Ready fruit gets eaten; fiddly fruit does not.
Egg muffins, 10 minutes of work. One tray, into the oven while you cut the fruit. They are Rotation F, Monday to Wednesday, and they keep in the fridge till midweek.
Soup roots, 10 minutes. Carrot, parsnip, celeriac — peeled and chopped for the week's soups, in a box in the fridge. Every soup then starts as a ten-minute job.
The broth, hands-off. On chicken-soup weeks, get the pot on early and freeze half. That frozen broth is the ramen later, and it is why the ramen costs almost nothing.
Cook Sunday's roast big. The carcass becomes the week's chicken soup, and there's enough for a light Sunday supper too.
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What lives in the freezer
Chicken broth, in half-litre boxes, labelled. This is the ramen.
Bolognese, one portion of every batch — a pasta night that needs no cooking.
Rice that outlived its meal. It waits in the freezer for the next rice day.
Half the soup, whenever the pot is bigger than the table.
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The five-minute rescue
Boiled eggs, always six in the fridge.
Cottage cheese and a tomato — under two minutes, 25 g of protein.
Tinned chickpeas, olive oil, lemon, feta.
A tin of tuna over the salad greens that are already washed.
The swap bench — when a dish flops
Every swap keeps the starch rule and the protein intact. Nothing here turns into pasta at nine o'clock.
The curry was refused.
Plain fried chicken, rice, cucumber. You already pulled N's plain strips — do that for everyone. Twelve minutes.
The salmon did not thaw.
Eggs. Three each, cottage cheese, salad. Twenty-five grams of protein for eight minutes.
No time to cook at all.
The frozen bolognese — and the pasta rule still holds. If there was rice at lunch, make it eggs instead.
Somebody is ill.
The chicken broth from the freezer, with rice in it. This is what the freezer is for.
Nothing left and it's Thursday.
Tinned chickpeas, olive oil, lemon, feta and whatever cooked meat is in the fridge. Eight minutes, 35 g protein.
M is still hungry.
Peanut butter on toast and a banana, or a milk-oats-banana-PB shake. Never chips.
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