A 7-day vegetarian meal plan, every meal a real recipe

Seven meatless days at the 2,000-calorie level the federal Healthy Vegetarian Pattern is written around, assembled from the public-domain USDA MyPlate Kitchen library. Every calorie below is the recipe's own published figure.

The week averages 1,996 calories a day and lands every single day between 1,977 and 2,014 — close enough that the headline number is the real one. 48 distinct recipes carry it, and none of them turns up twice.

Your 7-day vegetarian week

How a recipe earned the vegetarian label

Nothing here was tagged by hand or by eye. Every recipe in the library was scanned for animal ingredients, with the near-misses spelled out so nothing slips through on a technicality.

• No meat, poultry, or seafood anywhere in the ingredient list
• No gelatin, lard, or anchovy-based sauces
• Broth, stock, and bouillon only when explicitly the vegetable kind
• Eggs and dairy stay in — that is what makes a week vegetarian rather than vegan
• Anything ambiguous was dropped rather than let through

Where the protein comes from

Added up from the recipes themselves, the week runs 63 to 105 grams of protein a day and averages 82 g — eggs, dairy, beans, lentils, and whole grains splitting the work between them.

• Lowest day: 63 g protein
• Daily average: 82 g protein
• Highest day: 105 g protein

That average clears the 0.8 g/kg RDA for an adult up to roughly 225 pounds, which covers most people. The day-to-day spread is wide because some days lean on a bean-heavy main and others on eggs; each day card prints its own real total.

What the federal pattern asks for at this level

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025 include a Healthy Vegetarian Pattern, and at 2,000 calories a day it names specific amounts:

Vegetables

2½ cups a day

Fruits

2 cups a day

Grains

6½ ounce-equivalents a day, at least half of them whole

Dairy

3 cups a day

Protein foods

3½ ounce-equivalents a day

Protein, by subgroup

Per week: 3 oz-eq eggs, 6 cup-eq beans, peas, and lentils (shared with the vegetable group), 8 oz-eq soy products, 7 oz-eq nuts and seeds

This week is assembled to that calorie level, not audited against those cup-and-ounce amounts meal by meal. Treat the pattern as the target to drift toward; the methodology has the full table and where every figure comes from.

Make the week your own

Every day is a template, not a prescription. Swap any meal for another day's at a similar calorie count, or pull something different out of the recipe library — each dish carries its own USDA nutrition panel, so the arithmetic stays honest when you rearrange it. Every dish in the curated vegan recipes collection fits a vegetarian week too.

Want a different calorie level? The ready-made calorie plans run 1,200 to 2,500 with the whole library behind them, and the MyPlate calculator turns your age, height, weight, and activity into the number worth aiming at.

Vegetarian or fully vegan?

Both weeks come out of the same library and the same screen. The difference is what stays on the plate.

See the vegan week

Sources

Recipes are from the USDA's MyPlate Kitchen, a public-domain library preserved here after MyPlate.gov was shut down in January 2026. Every calorie and gram of protein on this page is that recipe's own published value. MyPlate.food is an independent tool, not affiliated with the USDA.

Healthy Vegetarian Pattern amounts are from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025, Appendix 3, Table A3-4. The pattern is the federal government's; assembling these recipes into a week is ours.

Protein RDA (0.8 g per kg of body weight) from the Institute of Medicine's Dietary Reference Intakes, 2005.

Vegetarian meal plan FAQ

Does this vegetarian meal plan include eggs and dairy?

Yes. Vegetarian here means no meat, poultry, or seafood, with eggs and dairy still on the table — the same definition the Dietary Guidelines use for their Healthy Vegetarian Pattern. If you want those gone too, the vegan week is the same idea with a stricter screen: no eggs, dairy, honey, or gelatin, and zero cholesterol on every recipe's panel.

How much protein does this vegetarian meal plan give me?

Between 63 and 105 grams a day, averaging 82 g, added up from the recipes' own USDA nutrition values rather than estimated. That clears the 0.8 g/kg RDA for an adult up to roughly 225 pounds. The day-to-day range is wide because some days lean on eggs and dairy and others on beans and lentils, so each day card shows its own real total.

Is this the USDA's vegetarian meal plan?

The pattern is federal; the week is ours. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025 define a Healthy Vegetarian Pattern and the calorie level this plan is built at, and every recipe comes from the USDA's public-domain MyPlate Kitchen library with its own published nutrition. Assembling those recipes into these seven days is our work, and MyPlate.food is an independent tool, not affiliated with the USDA.

Is 2,000 calories a day right for me?

2,000 is the reference level the Dietary Guidelines use for adults, which makes it a reasonable starting point and a poor personal answer. Your own number depends on age, height, weight, and how much you move — the MyPlate calculator works it out in about two minutes, and the ready-made calorie plans run from 1,200 to 2,500 so you can take the same real-recipe format at your level.

Do any days repeat the same recipe?

No. All 48 recipes across the week are distinct, so seven days means seven genuinely different sets of meals rather than the same chili three times. That's a constraint on how the week is assembled, not a happy accident — and it's why the plan draws on a library of a thousand-plus recipes instead of a handful of favorites.

Do I need an account to use or print this plan?

No. The whole week is on the page, every meal links to its full recipe with ingredients and steps, and the print button lays all seven days out on plain paper. An account adds saving plans and recipes across devices.