Unofficial Slimming World 7-Day Meal Plans: Free Weekly Menus & Ideas

If you are sitting there wondering what on earth to eat this week, you are definitely not alone. I find deciding what to have for dinner every single day much harder than actually cooking it sometimes!

Meal planning can make healthy eating so much easier because you have already made those decisions before you are hungry, tired and staring into the fridge hoping something exciting will magically appear.

Over the years I have created lots of different unofficial Slimming World 7-day meal plans, including plans for meat eaters and vegetarians, budget meal plans, quick and easy weeks, summer menus and plans for one person.

I’ve brought them together here so you can find a weekly meal plan that actually suits your life rather than trying to make your life fit around somebody else’s meal plan.

I’ve also included a complete 7-day Slimming World-friendly meal plan below if you simply want someone to tell you what to eat this week!

My experience of Slimming World meal planning

If you have read my blog before, you will probably know that Slimming World was a huge part of my own weight-loss journey. I lost more than 10 stone, and while my views on weight loss and dieting have changed considerably over the years, there are still plenty of things I learned during that time that I find useful.

Meal planning is definitely one of them.

For me, having some idea of what I was going to eat meant I was much less likely to get to 6pm absolutely starving and decide that nothing in the fridge looked appealing.

That doesn’t mean you need every mouthful planned for the next seven days.

In fact, I think being too rigid can sometimes make healthy eating harder. If Wednesday comes around and you really don’t fancy the meal you wrote down on Sunday, swap it for Thursday’s dinner or choose something else.

A meal plan should make your week easier, not become another set of rules you feel you have failed at following.

A quick note about Slimming World and this meal plan

Just Average Jen is an independent website and isn’t connected with or endorsed by Slimming World.

Slimming World changes its plan from time to time, so I always recommend checking current information from Slimming World itself if you are a member, particularly for Healthy Extra choices and the values of individual foods.

Recipes can also change when manufacturers alter ingredients, so don’t assume something has the same value simply because it did when you last bought it.

I prefer to use meal plans like these as ideas and inspiration rather than something that has to be followed perfectly.

You can swap meals, change ingredients and adapt recipes to suit your tastes, dietary requirements and whatever happens to be lurking in your fridge.

Free 7-day Slimming World meal plan

If you want a ready-made week to get you started, this is an easy one.

I’ve deliberately included familiar meals rather than seven days of obscure ingredients you’ll buy once and discover at the back of the cupboard three years later.

Where a meal uses something that may count towards your Healthy Extra choices or allowance, check this against the current plan.

Monday

Breakfast: Breakfast quiche with grilled tomatoes.

Lunch: Vegetable couscous. This is also a handy one to make in advance if you need something you can take to work.

Dinner: Garlic mushroom and spinach pasta bake with vegetables or salad.

If you are vegetarian, this day already works without any changes.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Gingerbread baked oats with fruit.

Lunch: Rosemary and caramelised onion mini quiches with salad.

Dinner for meat eaters: Caribbean pepperpot stew with boiled rice.

Vegetarian alternative: Mushroom stroganoff with boiled rice.

If you know Tuesday is going to be hectic, make your lunch the night before so there is one less thing to think about.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast with mushrooms.

Lunch for meat eaters: Turkey chilli with a jacket potato.

Vegetarian alternative: Vegetarian or Quorn chilli with a jacket potato.

Dinner for meat eaters: Homemade doner kebab with salad and pitta bread.

Vegetarian alternative: Falafel with salad, yoghurt dip and pitta bread.

This is exactly the sort of day where planning ahead helps. Homemade kebab feels much more like a proper midweek treat than something you are eating because you are “on a diet”.

Thursday

Breakfast: Cherry Bakewell overnight oats.

Lunch: Curry loaf with a big salad.

Dinner for meat eaters: Chicken fajita pasta bake.

Vegetarian alternative: Lentil and vegetable moussaka.

Overnight oats are particularly useful if your mornings are chaotic because you can make them the night before and just grab them from the fridge.

Friday

Breakfast: Breakfast quiche with tomatoes.

Lunch: Minestrone soup with wholemeal bread.

Dinner: Butternut squash risotto.

By Friday I am usually very pleased if Past Jen has already decided what Present Jen is eating. It removes that Friday-evening temptation to decide that opening an app and ordering dinner technically counts as meal planning.

Not that there’s anything wrong with having a takeaway, of course. I just prefer it to be because I actually want one rather than because I forgot to buy food!

Saturday

Breakfast: Fruit with fat-free yoghurt or fromage frais.

Lunch: Sweetcorn fritters with rocket and salsa.

Dinner: Cowboy cheesy potato bake.

For a vegetarian version of the potato bake, use your favourite meat-free mince.

Weekends are also where I’d leave a little flexibility. If you are going out unexpectedly, move Saturday’s dinner to another day rather than feeling that you’ve somehow “ruined” the plan.

Sunday

Breakfast for meat eaters: Baked ham and eggs with grilled tomatoes.

Vegetarian breakfast: Poached eggs, baked beans and grilled tomatoes.

Lunch: Mango couscous.

Dinner: Leek macaroni cheese with plenty of broccoli or other vegetables.

And that’s your week done!

You don’t have to follow it exactly. Steal Monday’s breakfast, Wednesday’s lunch and Saturday’s dinner if those are the only things you fancy. The point is to give you ideas, not homework.

Vegetarian 7-day meal plan

Most of the week’s meals above are already vegetarian or have an easy vegetarian alternative.

If you would prefer to see it all together, your week could look like this:

Monday: Breakfast quiche and tomatoes; vegetable couscous; garlic mushroom and spinach pasta bake.

Tuesday: Gingerbread baked oats and fruit; caramelised onion mini quiches and salad; mushroom stroganoff with rice.

Wednesday: Scrambled eggs, toast and mushrooms; vegetarian chilli and jacket potato; falafel, yoghurt dip, salad and pitta.

Thursday: Cherry Bakewell overnight oats; curry loaf and salad; lentil and vegetable moussaka.

Friday: Breakfast quiche and tomatoes; minestrone soup and wholemeal bread; butternut squash risotto.

Saturday: Fruit and yoghurt; sweetcorn fritters, rocket and salsa; vegetarian cowboy cheesy potato bake.

Sunday: Poached eggs, beans and tomatoes; mango couscous; leek macaroni cheese and broccoli.

You can also mix the vegetarian and meat-eating plans throughout the week. You certainly don’t need to identify yourself as a vegetarian to eat a mushroom stroganoff on Tuesday!

Don’t fancy that plan? Choose one that suits you

One of the problems I have with generic meal plans is that they often assume we all live exactly the same life.

We don’t.

Some people are feeding four hungry family members. Some are cooking for one. Some need meals that can be ready in twenty minutes, while others are trying to keep the food bill as low as possible.

That’s why I’ve created different plans over the years.

7-day budget meal plan

If your food bill is the priority at the moment, my budget Slimming World meal plan is designed around inexpensive family meals.

It includes meals such as shepherd’s pie, pasta arrabbiata, sausage traybake, jacket potatoes, homemade soup and mushy pea curry.

Before doing your shopping, check the freezer and cupboards. Building even two or three meals around ingredients you already own can make a surprising difference to the week’s food bill.

Quick and easy meal plans

If you are short on time, choose one of my quick and easy weekly plans.

I find these especially useful during weeks when I know I have lots going on. There is very little point planning seven elaborate dinners if I know perfectly well that I won’t have the time or enthusiasm to make them.

Batch cooking can help too. A curry, chilli, soup or pasta sauce that makes several portions gives you another meal for virtually no additional effort.

Meal plans for one

Cooking healthily when you live alone — or when everyone else in your house wants something different — presents its own problems.

Buying ingredients for one can be expensive, recipes often serve four and nobody wants to eat exactly the same dinner four nights in a row simply because the recipe made four portions.

My healthy meal plans for one person are designed with that in mind.

Freezing individual portions is your friend here. So is deliberately choosing recipes that share ingredients, so half a bag of spinach doesn’t spend the following fortnight slowly turning to slime in the bottom of your fridge.

We’ve all been there.

One-pot meal plan

If your idea of a good dinner is one that doesn’t leave the kitchen looking like you’ve catered a wedding, have a look at my one pot meal plan.

One-pot meals can be brilliant for busy evenings and usually mean less washing up too.

There are meat and vegetarian options, so you can mix and match them throughout the week.

Summer meal plans

There are weeks when the idea of putting the oven on feels unbearable.

My summer meal plans include lighter and easier meal ideas for warmer weather, with both meat-eating and vegetarian choices.

These can also be useful if you simply don’t fancy lots of heavy meals, regardless of the season.

Winter meal plans

At the opposite end of the spectrum, sometimes I want proper warming food.

My autumn and winter plans include the sort of soups, curries, casseroles and filling dinners that I actually want when it is cold and miserable outside.

Healthy eating certainly doesn’t have to mean living on salad in January.

Meal plans packed with vegetables

If you know you’ve fallen out of the habit of eating plenty of vegetables, choose one of my vegetable-heavy meal plans.

You don’t need to suddenly eat enormous bowls of plain steamed vegetables either.

Add vegetables to curries, pasta sauces, chilli, casseroles, soups, omelettes and traybakes. I find it much easier to eat more vegetables when they are simply part of meals I already enjoy.

A week with treats

Healthy eating doesn’t mean never eating chocolate, dessert or the foods you love.

I have also created a 7-day meal plan with treats, including a date-night meal and desserts.

I think this is an important one because I’ve experienced the other extreme. When food starts being divided too rigidly into things you are “allowed” and things you “shouldn’t” eat, healthy eating can stop feeling particularly healthy.

A sustainable way of eating has to leave room for real life.

How to make your own 7-day meal plan

You don’t actually need to use one of mine. Once you get into the habit, making your own weekly meal plan can take ten or fifteen minutes. I start with the things that can’t move.

If you’re eating at your mum’s on Sunday, going out on Friday or won’t be home until late on Tuesday, put those things onto the plan first. There is no point buying ingredients for seven dinners if you’re only going to eat five of them at home.

Next, look through your fridge, freezer and cupboards. Is there chicken in the freezer? Half a bag of potatoes that needs using? Pasta you’ve had since approximately 2019? Use those as the starting point for a few meals.

Then choose dinners. I find dinner easiest to plan first because it tends to be the meal requiring the most ingredients. Once dinners are sorted, fill in breakfasts and lunches. Finally, think about leftovers.

If Tuesday’s chilli makes four portions, could Wednesday’s lunch be leftover chilli with a jacket potato? Could Sunday’s leftover vegetables become soup for Monday? Suddenly you’re planning fewer meals and wasting less food.

Should you plan snacks too?

You can, but you don’t have to. If you know you get hungry around 3 pm every day, pretending you won’t want anything isn’t particularly useful. Instead, buy some snacks you actually enjoy.

That might be fruit, yoghurt, popcorn, boiled eggs, vegetable sticks and dip, crackers, cheese or whatever works for you and the eating plan you are following.

I would rather deliberately have a snack than spend two hours thinking about biscuits because I’ve decided I’m not “supposed” to be hungry.

Make the plan work for your family

One of the biggest misconceptions about following a weight-loss plan is that everyone else in the family needs a completely separate dinner.

Usually they don’t.

If you’re making chilli, curry, pasta bake, roast dinner or fajitas, those are perfectly normal family meals.

You might change the accompaniments or portions depending on what different family members need, but cooking three separate dinners every evening is a quick route to being thoroughly fed up with meal planning.

If your family is particularly fussy, start by planning meals that everyone already eats and gradually introduce something new.

What if you don’t stick to your meal plan?

Nothing happens. The meal-planning police don’t turn up. Seriously, though, I think this is worth saying because I used to approach weight loss much more rigidly than I do now.

A plan is there to help you. If you planned chicken curry and on Thursday you can’t face chicken curry, eat something else. Move it to Friday. Freeze the chicken. Change the plan. If you have an unexpected meal out, enjoy it.

One meal doesn’t determine your health or your weight any more than one salad does. What matters much more is what your habits look like over time.

Can a 7-day meal plan help with weight loss?

Meal planning doesn’t cause weight loss by itself.

It makes it easier to choose meals that fit your approach, reduces impulse purchases, and helps you think about the overall balance of your food.

If you are trying to lose weight, your overall energy intake still matters.

I personally find planning particularly helpful because it removes some of the decisions around food. When I’m hungry, I don’t necessarily make the same decision that I would have made earlier in the day when I wasn’t hungry.

Having ingredients ready doesn’t mean I have to eat the planned meal. It simply gives me an easy option.

Do I need to follow the same Slimming World meal plan every week?

Definitely not.

You could use the complete plan above this week and then choose a budget, summer or quick-and-easy plan next week.

Alternatively, make your own hybrid.

Take three dinners from one plan, two from another and add two family favourites.

That’s probably more realistic than expecting somebody else’s ready-made menu to match your life perfectly.

Can I use these meal plans if I’m not following Slimming World?

Of course.

The recipes are still food!

You can use these menus as general meal inspiration if you’re calorie counting, following another weight-loss programme or simply trying to get more organised.

Just calculate anything you personally need to track according to the plan you follow.

If you’re not interested in Slimming World at all, you might prefer my 7-day healthy meal plan, which is focused on general healthy eating rather than Slimming World.

Do the meal plans include shopping lists?

Some of my downloadable meal-planning resources include shopping lists, and you can also make one quickly from any of the plans on this page.

Before buying everything on it, check what you already have.

It sounds ridiculously obvious, but I can’t be the only person who has bought another jar of cumin because I couldn’t remember whether I had any, only to discover three jars when I got home.

Ready to choose your week?

You don’t need the perfect meal plan.

You just need one that makes the next seven days a little easier.

Start with the complete plan above if you want everything decided for you, or choose one of my specialist meal plans if budget, time, season or cooking for one is more important.

And remember that you can change it.

Meal planning has worked best for me when I’ve treated it as a useful shortcut rather than another diet rule. If Wednesday’s dinner becomes Thursday’s lunch and Saturday’s carefully planned meal becomes an unexpected evening out, the plan has still done its job.

It helped make eating well that week easier — and that’s really all I want a meal plan to do.

Have these ideas helped you? Let me know which suitable for Slimming World 7 day kickstart menu you try and how you get on. If you cook my recipes, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram!

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