Meal Prep 101

Equipment, Tips, and Deals

Ultimate Daily Dozen meal planning guide for 2023

Some links in this post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links it will generate a commission which helps fund this informative website.

Reading to start planning your Daily Dozen meals in 2023? In this post I share a Daily Dozen meal planning guide for beginners. Keep reading to learn more about this diet, as well as tips for creating a successful meal plan.

Daily Dozen meal planning guide for 2023

Here’s how we create meal plans to follow this diet plan:

What is the Daily Dozen?

The Daily Dozen is a term used to describe a diet and lifestyle routine created by Dr. Michael Greger. Dr. Michael Greger is founder of a website called nutritionfacts.org. On this website he shares evidence-based information about diet, water intake and exercise for optimal health and longevity.

The Daily Dozen includes recommendations for consuming mostly whole food, plant based meals and ingredients, as well as recommendations for water and exercise for each day.

What is meal planning?

Meal planning is a term used to describe the action of creating a document which includes meals for a specific time period, such as a week, month, or even year.

Why create a meal plan for the Daily Dozen diet?

Creating a meal plan is very helpful for following any specific diet.

Here’s several reasons for creating a Daily Dozen diet meal plan:

  1. A meal plan helps keep you on track and accountable.
  2. A meal plan can be used to track the meals you have consumed so you can cross reference your original plan with what you actually consumed.
  3. Keeping track of each item in the Daily Dozen diet can be difficult because it is a very specific diet. For example, each day a person should consume three servings of legumes and three servings of whole grains to adhere to the diet. This can be difficult to remember throughout a busy day.
  4. Creating a meal plan and tracking meals is important so you can be sure you are actually following the Daily Dozen diet.

Plan and track your Daily Dozen [Easy Vegan Meal Planner™]

How to create Daily Dozen meal plans in 4 simple steps

Here’s our four step method for planning Daily Dozen diet using templates.

You can purchase these template for instant download in our online shop for just $8.

In summary, you will:

  1. PLAN meals
  2. SHOP for ingredients
  3. PREP meals
  4. TRACK nutrition and meals

Step 1: Choose Daily Dozen meals for the week

First, decide what you want to eat for the week using the PLAN template.

Here’s an example of a handwritten version and a PDF version using the Easy Vegan Meal Planner templates:

Here’s an example of how to create weekly handwritten Daily Dozen meal plans.
Sample view vegan meals, meal plan and ingredient list for camping.

Step 2: Take inventory and shop for ingredients

Next, go through your food pantry and storage areas and make a list of the ingredients you already have that are required for your meal plan. Then, create a shopping list for the items you still need, if any.

Here’s an example of a handwritten grocery list and PDF grocery list using the Easy Vegan Meal Planner SHOP template:

PDF Grocery Shopping List Template

 

Here’s how to create a handwritten healthy grocery shopping list on a budget using the Easy Vegan Meal Planner™.

Step 3: Create a meal prep plan

Once you have your meal plan and ingredients, it is time to do some meal prep. Here’s an example of a meal prep plan using the Easy Vegan Meal Planner PREP template:

Sample view of meal prep plan for a camping trip.

 

Here’s a handwritten vegan weekly meal prep example template.

Step 4: Track Daily Dozen meals with a template

Lastly, as you are enjoying your meals for the week, you can track your nutrition and water intake using a the TRACK template. This is helpful to give you a visual of nutrition you still need to consume, or to see if you are consuming too much of one item.

Here’s an example of the PDF Daily Dozen diet tracking template:

Sample view of meal tracking template.

Daily Dozen meal planning tips

Here’s our tips for meal planning following this diet:

Create a list of favorite meals

If you have a list of meals that you enjoy consuming regularly, keep this list handy while meal planning. This will help you choose meals that will be desirable.

For example, we enjoy these staple meals each week, using variations to keep it fun and exciting:

  1. Bean soup
  2. Breakfast wrap
  3. Tempeh sandwich

Above are the basic meal ideas, and we change up the flavors now and then so we don’t get bored eating the same thing all the time. This ensures we are still getting our Daily Dozen nutrition, without overwhelming ourselves with new recipes often.

Create a list of favorite ingredients for each category

If you have specific ingredients you enjoy often, keep a list handy of these items during meal planning. For example, we like to consume the same cruciferous vegetables basically every week: Cauliflower and Broccoli. Because these are our favorite cruciferous vegetables, we plan meals around these items for each week. This helps us meet our nutritional goals for this category and makes it easy to plan meals.

For each favorite ingredients, we have several meal options that can be chosen for the meal plan. For example, we have several ways we enjoy Broccoli, such as:

  1. Roasted Broccoli
  2. Broccoli Soup
  3. Veggie burgers made with Broccoli inside

This is an example of three meals that can be created using this staple ingredient. We rotate through these options to keep meals fun and interesting.

Aim for 5 meals per day

In our opinion, consuming five smaller meals per day following the Daily Dozen is the easiest way to meet our nutrition goals.

Enjoying somewhat smaller meals more often throughout the day helps keep meals exciting and delicious, while also providing a variety of nutrition and ensuring we eat everything on our plates.

For example, here’s what one day of meals on the Daily Dozen sometimes looks like for us in five meals:

  1. Peanut butter and berry jelly sandwich with whole grain bread
  2. Bean salad with leafy greens, roasted broccoli and vegetables
  3. Trail mix
  4. Lentil vegetable soup with whole grain bread or brown rice
  5. Fruit salad with hemp seeds

The above daily meal plan includes complete servings of all Daily Dozen nutrition including:

  1. Legumes
  2. Whole grains
  3. Fruits
  4. Leafy greens
  5. Vegetables
  6. Cruciferous vegetables
  7. Berries
  8. Nuts
  9. Seeds
  10. Herbs & Spices

Of course, you can consume less meals and more food at each meal, it just depends on how you prefer to consume your Daily Dozen. For us, spacing out the nutrition throughout the day works best for our schedule and appetites.

Plan seasonal meals

Its easy to envision enjoying the same exact meal each day, however it is a good idea to consider the season you are currently in while meal planning.

For example, during winter months many people prefer to eat warming meals such as soups, casseroles, and roasted vegetables. During summer months, many people prefer to eat cooling meals such as salads, smoothies and sandwiches.

Daily Dozen meal planning videos

Here’s several videos we created about this topic:

Further reading: