I am going to break down my ideal meal plan on how to hit your daily dozen! I am excited because I feel that this meal plan/way of eating is most conducive to hitting your daily dozen, increasing fruit and vegetables in your diet, being easy and sustainable, and being affordable for any budget! It will most definitely make your weekly meal prep incredibly easy and highly nutritious.

So what is the Daily Dozen?

The daily dozen is a daily checklist (way of eating) developed by Dr. Michael Greger.  Rather than a restrictive diet or meal plan, it is a checklist of 12 food groups with ideal serving sizes one should aim to meet daily. It is a positive way of rethinking how to get different nutrients into your body throughout the week.

Check out this video where Dr. Micheal Greger breaks down the ideal nutritional servings for each category in the Daily Dozen Checklist below.  

 Here is a link to a neat visual with the imperial (cups, etc.) measurements of the daily dozen. 

I highly recommend downloading the free Daily Dozen app from the App Store. It has all the information you need on serving sizes and vegetable options.

Simplified Daily Dozen PLANT-BASED Meal Plan Break Down

Breakfast - Daily Dozen Oatmeal

For breakfast, I'm going to keep it simple! Every day I am going to have oatmeal! Oatmeal with flax seeds, to be precise.

The great thing about oatmeal for someone like me who still has problems getting fruit in my diet is that oatmeal acts as a great carrier for various fruit/ berries! You can have oatmeal with bananas, pumpkin puree, dried cranberries, frozen strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc.

Loaded oatmeal with fruits, berries, spices (such as cinnamon), flax, pumpkin puree, hemp hearts, chia seeds, crushed nuts, and/or peanut butter ticks off at least 5 or 6 categories from Dr. Michael Greger’s daily dozen in one go! 

To Make:

• 1 cup rolled oats

• 1/2 cup plant-based milk or water

• 1/3 cup pumpkin puree

• 1/2 a banana

• 1 tsp hemp hearts

• 1 tbsp ground flax seed

• 1 tsp chia seeds

• 1 tbsp crushed nuts

• A drizzle of peanut butter

• An optional drizzle of date syrup or maple syrup

• 1/4 cup frozen blueberries

• 1 1/4 tsp turmeric

• A dash of cinnamon

The bonus of choosing to eat oatmeal every day is that it is so easy and quick to whip up. 

This is one of the simplest ways to increase your fruit intake in a low-stress way. I love using frozen berries simply because I don’t have to cut or clean any of the fruit myself! 

Lunch - Daily Dozen Salad Lunch Ideas

Salads and I never got along before! I thought that salads were uncreative meals for middle-aged women who wanted to lose 5 lbs quickly. I thought of salads as dull and unsustainable 'diet' food. I felt that if you ate salads, you were an elementary person. I know that sounds harsh, but honestly, that is how I felt about them!

I would never let myself have just a salad as a meal! I think as a plant-based person; I wanted to show people that whole-food plant-based eating is not about eating “rabbit food.” I believe this negative view of veganism is what made me extra defensive about salads.

However, my friend accidentally changed my view on salads quite recently. She is doing a challenge called Salad September (#saladseptember)! All of September, you have to make sure you eat at least one salad a day. This doesn't mean you have to replace an existing meal with a salad! It just means that before the day is up, you have to have eaten a salad.

I said I was interested without expecting any real accountability. The next thing I knew, my friend was asking if I ate a salad! I was like, oh dear, I guess I'm doing this for real. I am officially part of #SaladSeptember. It is now day two! I have completed the second day of the Salad September Challenge, and I love it.

I am now willing to let go of my pessimistic view of salads and eat them daily for the following five reasons.

THE MAIN REASON: Salads are an easy way to check off about 7 categories in the Daily Dozen Challenge!

1. Beans: I love to add toasted chickpeas, regular black beans, or lentils (from a can) to my salad. You can quickly put in 1 cup of any of the above to hit 2 (out of 3) servings of beans.

2. Greens: Obviously! 2 cups worth of leafy greens, raw or cooked, will complete your daily dozen quota for the day.

3. Cruciferous: Pro-tip; I love to throw in cooked or raw mini florets of broccoli in my salads because they are very filling and high in fiber. You only need 1/2 cup a day!

4. Berries: If you add 1/2 cup of fresh berries or a small 1/4 cup of dried berries (such as tasty cranberries), you can hit your one daily recommended berry serving.

5. Fruit: If you chop up some pears, figs, apples, cantaloupe, pineapple, peach, etc., this can count towards one or possibly two servings of the three recommended fruit servings a day.

6. Vegetables: Non-leafy vegetables are so easy to eat in a salad. 1/2 a cup of 2 vegetables or a combination of vegetables will complete your recommended vegetable count for the day. Some excellent choices are cucumber, carrot, avocado, beets, onion, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes (though technically a fruit, I know), corn, bell peppers, and spicy peppers, etc.

7. Nuts: This can count towards your 1/4 cup of nuts per day.

With all that said, you still have dinner to complete some of these recommendations! I would focus on hitting the areas you know your dinner will lack.

Below are some more reasons I have become a salad bowl for lunch fan.

Number 1: Salads are affordable!

Often, I would meal prep all these creative meals, and I would do my best to buy the proper amount. I would make sure I followed all the recommended measurements for vegetables. Unfortunately, it seems no matter how hard I tried; I'd always have leftover veggies that went bad. By ensuring that I am having a salad every lunch, I nip this problem in the bud. I look through my fridge and pull out whatever I can, and throw it in the salad. No more wasted vegetables!

Most veggies are pretty cheap when you think about it, so buying a few more cheap vegetables and cheap leafy greens are great on any budget. 

Number 2: Eating the same thing is easy and stress-free! 

If I'm honest, it has been very challenging for me to think of different lunch and dinner ideas that can last all week long. When it came to preparing unique lunches and dinners to feed two active adults for a whole week, it was a struggle.

We would always run out around Wednesday or Thursday. It takes a lot of creative effort to come up with all these new meals! 

Now that I don't have to stress about lunch, I can focus my energy on just creating two or three elegant dishes to eat for dinner all week long!

Number 3: Salads are great for your microbiome!

It is only day 2 of this challenge, and I am already craving fresh salads. I am still in shock about it. It seems crazy to me! I thought for a moment that maybe this was just a placebo effect. But, I guess it's the gut bacteria within me just craving that delicious, diverse, fresh, probiotic goodness. My body is loving the salad vibes. 

Number 4: Salads make it easy to eat more raw vegetables!

Despite my best efforts to add raw vegetables to my main dishes, it always proves challenging. Salads are a hands-down easy way to ensure you get your leafy greens, raw vegetables, and a variety of different vegetables in one go.

Number 5: Salads are an easy way to eat more fruit! 

Even as a plant-based person, I struggled with getting the recommended amount of fruits and berries in my diet. Looking at Dr. Micheal Greger’s recommended Daily Dozen checklist, my fruit and berry intake was sorely lacking.

I am a savory person. For instance, I never crave smoothies for breakfast, only peanut butter or tofu scrambles. Likewise, I would never desire an apple for a snack. I instead make a sandwich or eat some nuts. I have found that eating salads effectively enables me to eat more fruits and berries. Therefore, I highly recommend using salads to hit your daily dozen vegetables and fruit quotas! 

Dinner - Get Creative and Meal Prep Ahead 

It is straightforward to finish off your Michael Greger’s daily dozen!

You have probably already had a good amount of whole grains thanks to your oatmeal breakfast, and you have probably had a lot of fresh raw vegetables and leafy greens, thanks to your salad lunch!

Now all you need is a hearty dinner with delicious whole grains, herbs and spices, and some mix of beans and veggies. For plant-based people, this isn't difficult!

You can pick pretty much any ethnic cuisine and create something delicious using these materials. For my blog, I am trying out different ethnic cuisines pretty much every week!

So, for instance, this week, I made two great Cuban stews for dinner. I have long-grain jasmine rice, black bean stew (Cuban style), and one picadillo stew with chickpeas and sweet potato! This fits perfectly with my meal plan and helps me finish off the daily dozen by the end of the day!

For more creative plantbased meal prep ideas, feel free to check out my food page. 

Making eating fruits and vegetables easy While hitting your daily dozen! 

I am so excited about this method because I feel it just makes things so incredibly easy for anyone trying to eat healthily and hit their daily dozen!

Breakfast = oatmeal.

Lunch = salad.

Dinners = Whatever exciting whole-food plant-based recipe you chose to meal prep on either Sunday or Monday!

No more running out of food midweek. No more stressing about what you should have for lunch. Meal prepping like this is just such an easy way to make sure you are eating highly nutritious throughout the day. It saves you time and money. 

If you give this a go, please let me know! I am so excited, and I hope this helps you on your journey for whole-food plant-based eating. I also hope this enables you to change your view of salads if you were ever like me, a highly defensive plant-based person that hates salads! 

Thank you to Nadine Primeau, Jonathan Ybema, Klara Avsenik, Taisiia Shestopal, Aneta Pawlik, and Sven King for your incredible free to use photos! <3