Free Healthy Recipes

A couple of years ago, I started following a 40/30/30 diet plan (aka “Zone Diet”). In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble putting together meals that had the right proportions. For one thing, I had “The Nut Problem”. It seemed like every other Zone recipe that I found would end in something like “Eat with 18 peanuts on the side” or “Add 5 almonds”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like nuts. They’re healthy, and they make a convenient snack. But the problem is that I like meals. My definition of a meal is simple: A meal should be a grouping of food that goes well together. It’s a set of foods that are related either by a theme (like Mexican, Italian or Grilled) or by some special set of flavors.

I was tired of reading meal suggestions like “A small salad, 3.5 oz turkey and 6 peanuts”. That’s not a meal! I know that for some people, eating is all about fueling the body. I suspect that if you’re that type of person, you don’t see the problem with a small salad, 3.5 oz turkey and 6 peanuts. That’s not me though. I can eat meals that taste good and are plenty healthy, but if they’re boring, I’ll have a hard time sticking to the plan.

My other big problem was that it can be hard to take a regular recipe and make it over into a 40/30/30 recipe. It’s a trial and error thing, and for every successful healthy recipe that you come up with, there’s a bunch of gooey, dry, rock-like or sawdusty flops along the way. I went through a bunch of that, and I figured maybe if I pass along what I came up with, I could spare you some of the same problems.

So that’s why I started the site. It contains what I’ve come up with for healthy recipes that follow a 40/30/30 plan. They’re free recipes, because, hey, who doesn’t like free? All I ask in return is that, if you like what you read here, send a friend our way. If you don’t, send them anyway so they can laugh.

I’ve done my best to make the meals make sense, to not seem contrived or hacked together. I’ve also done my best to make them healthy.

In my experience with this type of eating, the proportion of macronutrients (carbohydrates to proteins to fat) is the primary factor to success. The ingredients themselves seem secondary. At least that’s how it’s worked for me. By now, we all know that olive oil is a healthier fat than bacon grease, and the recipes here use common sense in that regard. I haven’t gone overboard though. There are pasta recipes here, and some red meat. There’s some white flour and a little sugar too. Like the site says…”balanced”.

In putting the meal plans together, I thought about how busy my average week is. Most times, I’ll try to make a batch of something on Sunday night that will last for lunches most of the week. A lot of the recipes make four or more servings (depending on your caloric needs), so the meal plans also make use of leftovers.

Enjoy!