I want somebody to organize my week

Give me two weeks of menus.

Approximate daily total: 1755 calories · 146 g protein · 210 g total carbohydrate · 40 g fat · 32 g fiber.

Approximate daily total: 1775 calories · 138 g protein · 188 g total carbohydrate · 57 g fat · 36 g fiber.

Approximate daily total: 1860 calories · 144 g protein · 220 g total carbohydrate · 47 g fat · 29 g fiber.

Approximate daily total: 1720 calories · 153 g protein · 191 g total carbohydrate · 45 g fat · 30 g fiber.

Approximate daily total: 1655 calories · 139 g protein · 179 g total carbohydrate · 47 g fat · 32 g fiber.

What to do next: Week 2 — in the book, page 129 · The shopping list · Change a day without redoing the week — in the book, page 132

In the book: Week 1 · Build a routine, page 126 — the full answer continues there.

Give me the shopping list for those weeks.

These are edible-use totals for one adult, before rounding up to package sizes. They are not a promise that one bag or can contains the listed amount. Check drained weights, trim, bones, shells, and the labels of what you buy. Pantry seasonings, water, and optional extras are not listed.

Cooked rice, lentils, beans, and quinoa are listed at the weight used in the meals. Buy ready-cooked products or convert using the yield of your own cooked batch; do not buy the same weight of dry grain and assume it equals the cooked amount. Raw and cooked chicken are separate entries. The family roast is counted as one serving; making its full batch produces extra servings for other people or the freezer.

Printable: the Kitchen & Training Kit (free PDF)

In the book: Shopping lists for the exact example weeks, page 133.

I want to cook once and eat all week.

Read the first three days before buying. Choose the components that repeat: rice, washed vegetables, cooked eggs, and a poultry dish. Set out shallow storage containers and label them before the food is ready.

Start the longest task first. Put the sheet-pan meal in the oven. Cook a batch of rice while it roasts. Wash and chop the vegetables you will eat soon. Mix overnight oats if they are on tomorrow’s menu. Hard-cook eggs, chill them safely, and keep them separate from ready-to-eat salad ingredients until assembly.

In the book: A realistic Sunday prep session, page 137 — the full answer continues there.

I only need the minimum trip to the store.

Buy a protein food you like, a second one for variety, a vegetable you can cook with almost no effort, fruit, a grain or potato, and something that makes the meal taste good. Eggs, Greek yogurt, frozen broccoli, apples, oats, and olive oil can be a beginning. Chicken, beans, frozen peppers, oranges, rice, and salsa can be another.

Keep one backup meal where you will need it. Shelf-stable tuna and crackers at work are useful only if you are willing to eat them. A freezer portion of soup is useful only if you remember it exists. The best emergency dinner is the one that gets used.

In the book: The minimum useful shopping trip, page 27 — the full answer continues there.

The week just fell apart.

Swap a lunch with a dinner if that makes the day easier. Freeze a portion you will not use. Replace a meal with another recipe you enjoy, then recognize that the printed total no longer applies exactly. You do not need to recalculate everything to eat competently; you do need to avoid presenting an unchanged number as though nothing changed.

By the second week, notice which three meals you would make again without consulting a plan. Those are the beginning of your own menu.

In the book: When the week changes, page 138.