Build a Day — Pick 5 Recipes, Check Your Plate (Free, No Login)

How it works

Build a day of meals from real USDA recipes and check it against the five MyPlate food groups — free, with no account.

1. Pick a recipe for each meal

Browse 1,072 USDA MyPlate Kitchen recipes and add one to each slot: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and dessert.

2. Watch the food groups fill in

Every recipe carries its real food groups. As your day fills, the five MyPlate groups light up — and you'll see what's still missing.

3. Share or print your day

Copy one clean link to paste into Google Classroom or Teams, or print your day as a single page.

Using this in class?

Build a Day was born as a real class assignment: send students here to pick a breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, and dessert, then check that all five food groups show up. Students don't need accounts — they turn in a link or a printed page. Pair it with our free printables and food-group quizzes. Printable tip sheets · Food-group quizzes

Is Build a Day free? Do students need an account?

Yes, it's free, and no — no account, no login, no email. The day you build lives in your own browser and in the link you copy; nothing is stored on our servers.

How do students turn in the assignment?

Two ways: copy the share link and paste it into Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, or an email — or print the finished day as one clean page. The link contains only the recipe picks, nothing personal.

What does it teach?

The five MyPlate food groups. Every recipe carries its real USDA food-group data, so students see immediately whether a full day of their own choices covers fruits, vegetables, grains, protein foods, and dairy — and what's missing.

Where do the recipes come from?

All 1,072 recipes are from USDA's MyPlate Kitchen, preserved on MyPlate.food after MyPlate.gov was shut down. Each shows its ingredients, directions, and food groups.