I want to share a meal plan to make life simpler while dieting on the Starch Solution Diet. This includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And at the end, I have a list of snacks. This starch solution menu also includes meal prepping ideas for every week.
This meal plan is great if you have kids in the house, the whole family can eat the same food. For maximum weight loss, always add an additional half-plate salad or cooked/steamed non-starchy veggies with your meal.
Start by reading my mini guide on the Starch Solution diet. You should definitely also read The Starch Solution book*; it also has a 7-day meal plan with recipes. The book also has around 100 recipes created by Mary Mcdougall.
Find out more about a plant-based diet in my other article and what vitamins you might want to supplement with.
Do you need to count calories?
You don't need to count calories; that is the whole idea of the Starch Solution Diet. You eat mostly low-calorie foods; vegetables, both starchy and nonstarchy, and whole grains. All high-calorie foods are cut out, such as oils, fat, cheese, sugar, and processed foods.
In this meal plan there are some nuts, seeds and avocado but not all days, you can leave it out if you want to.
WEEK 1
BREAKFAST
Choose your breakfast from these alternatives
- Oat porridge. 70g rolled oats. Eat with ½ cup berries. If you are still hungry eat also non-starchy veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper or fried cabbage, or steamed broccoli.
- Overnight oats made in plant milk with banana, fruits, or berries.
- Toast with hummus and veggies
- 1 small baked sweet potato. Eat this sweet with berries or fruits or as savory with silken tofu mayo and beans.
- Hash browns on a waffle iron -made from shredded potatoes.
- Tofu scramble and green beans, tomatoes, and bell pepper, or other veggies.
- Smoothie bowl
| LUNCH | DINNER | |
|---|---|---|
| MONDAY | Lentil shepherds pie | Potato fries/oven wedges and salad |
| TUESDAY | Boiled whole grain pasta with "cheese sauce" and steamed broccoli | Lentil shepherds pie |
| WEDNESDAY | Pasta salad | Rice, fried broccoli, and beans |
| THURDAY | Salad with rice and beans | Mexican rice |
| FRIDAY | Leftovers/Salad with chickpeas | Mushroom tacos |
| SATURDAY | Leftover tacos | Pizza |
| SUNDAY | Leftover pizza | Bean burger |
- Sunday evening: Prepare a lot of potatoes! Make the lentil shepherd's pie. Chop up some salad to boxes so you have it ready for a couple of days. Make the cheese sauce.
- Monday: Make oil-free fries in the air fryer or oven, eat with some ketchup or tofu mayo. Add half a plate of salad or cooked non-starchy veggies. Boil a lot of whole-grain pasta ready for Tuesday and Wednesday lunch and steam some broccoli.
- Tuesday: Make the pasta salad ready for lunch on Wednesday.
- Wednesday: Cook double whole grain rice. Make fried broccoli on a pan. (season with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce) Use canned beans for convenience. Make rice and bean salad ready for the next day.
- Thursday: Make the Mexican fried rice, use rice leftovers. Make your lunch salad for the next day.
- Friday: Taco Friday. Choose some oil-free vegan taco recipe such as mushroom tacos.
- Saturday: Make some pizza and let everyone choose their favorite toppings. I love roasted bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and arugula.
- Sunday: Make some bean burgers. Prepare roasted veggies for monday.
WEEK 2
Some more breakfast ideas
- Cooked oats, eat with apple or banana or as savory with fried veggies.
- Cooked quinoa. Serve this sweet with plant milk, cinnamon, cardamom, and shredded apple or as savory with steamed or fried veggies.
- Oat-banana pancakes
- Tofu scramble on toast
- Green smoothie with chia or linen seeds
| LUNCH | DINNER | |
|---|---|---|
| MONDAY | Salad with roasted veggies | Whole grain pasta or quinoa with vegan bolognese and roasted veggies |
| TUESDAY | Bolognese and pasta | Baked sweet potatoes with beans and salsa+ salad. |
| WEDNESDAY | Sweet potato and kale salad | Noodle stir fry with tofu. |
| THURDAY | Leftover noodle stir fry | Risotto |
| FRIDAY | Leftover risotto | Lasagna |
| SATURDAY | Leftover lasagna and salad | Green curry with rice |
| SUNDAY | Sandwich brunch or leftovers | Pumpkin soup |
- Monday: Make the vegan bolognese and cook some pasta or quinoa so there is extra for the next day's lunch.
- Tuesday: Sweet potatoes in the oven. Make some extra for lunch, those you can prepare in the oven as cubed.
- Wednesday: Make a simple noodle stir fry, use whole grain rice noodles for it. Make enough for lunch as well.
- Thursday: Choose some risotto recipe, I love lemon risotto, just skip the oil.
- Friday: Make some lovely veggie lasagna, you can skip the vegan cheese and olive oil.
- Saturday: Green curry with rice. You can saute the onions in veggie broth instead of oil. Coconut milk is high fat, you can change it to regular coconut milk.
- Sunday: Sandwith brunch can be a nice thing for the weekend. For example whole-grain toast with tofu scramble and oil-free hollandaise sauce. Make pumpkin soup, lentils or canned beans makes this more filling. Take leftovers for work the next day.
Snacks ideas
- Kale chips
- Carrot sticks with hummus
- Chocolate pudding, you can change the sugar to maple syrup or date paste.
- Plant-based yogurt (0fat) with berries or fruits
- Cauliflower wings
- Air fried potato or sweet potato chips
- Rice pudding
- Date oat balls
- Banana nice cream
- Nachos with salsa
- Cucumber sticks with ranch dressing
- Air-popped popcorn
This is how you should eat to achieve maximum weight loss
Read the post about how to do maximum weight loss McDougall style. Eat 50/50 plates. So always have some salad also prepared and eat of the dinner recipes only a half plate. Fill out your tummy with soup and salad. This cabbage soup is great to make in addition to the other foods, this is such low-calorie and gives you extra veggies and fiber. Limit your fruit intake to 1-2 per day.
Learn about calorie density; you cut out more calorie-dense foods for a while like nuts, avocados, and flour products and eat more salads, soups, fruit, cooked starches like beans, potatoes, rice, quinoa, and a bit more of the nonstarchy veggies that have fewer calories.
To achieve maximum weight loss, don´t eat in the late evening, try to have a 12 hour night fast. Non-starchy veggies are great to snack on in the evening.