Mediterranean diet meal plan: a 7-day sample week with recipes and a grocery list

What is a Mediterranean diet meal plan?

A Mediterranean diet meal plan is a week of meals built on the way people traditionally ate around the Mediterranean: mostly vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts and extra virgin olive oil, fish a few times a week, moderate dairy, eggs and poultry, and little red meat or added sugar. Cleveland Clinic calls it a pattern rather than strict formulas, and Harvard Health says there is no single Mediterranean diet (both checked November 1, 2026).

What does a 7-day Mediterranean diet meal plan look like?

Here is one sample week for one person: a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner and a snack each day. Two dinners are cooked for two and eaten again at the next day's lunch, and breakfasts repeat, as in EatingWell's plan, so there is less to cook. 2 of the 7 dinners have no meat or fish.

The week was built to meet Cleveland Clinic's serving goals, and the page checks it against them:

IZeat wrote these recipes and computed their figures from USDA values; creators' tested versions will replace them as they are published.

What do you eat for breakfast on a Mediterranean diet?

Whole grains, fruit and a protein food: yogurt with fruit and nuts, oats, eggs with vegetables, or whole-wheat toast with ricotta and tomato. These are the breakfasts the health guides list, and the 5 of the sample week.

Cleveland Clinic suggests at least one serving of vegetables at each meal. 2 of the 5 breakfasts here have fruit but no vegetables: Greek yogurt with berries, oats and walnuts and Pear and walnut overnight oats. Add a handful of spinach or a sliced tomato on the side to follow that tip; every lunch and dinner of the week has vegetables.

Greek yogurt with berries, oats and walnuts

1. Spoon the Greek yogurt into a bowl.
2. Top with the berries, the oats and the chopped walnuts.

Ricotta and tomato toast with an orange

1. Toast the bread and spread the ricotta over it.
2. Top with the sliced tomato, drizzle the olive oil and season with pepper; eat the orange on the side.

Spinach and mushroom omelet with toast and an orange

1. Heat the oil in a pan and soften the chopped onion and mushrooms, then wilt the spinach.
2. Pour in the egg and egg whites, beaten together, cook until set and fold.
3. Serve with the toast, and the orange on the side.

Pear and walnut overnight oats

1. Stir the oats, milk and cinnamon together in a jar, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.
2. Top with the diced pear and the chopped walnuts.

White bean shakshuka with pita

1. Heat the oil in a small pan and soften the chopped onion and pepper.
2. Add the tomatoes and the beans and simmer until thick.
3. Make a hollow, crack in the egg, cover and cook until the white is set; serve with the pita.

What are Mediterranean diet lunches?

Grain and bean salads, soups and big salads with fish or chickpeas, each with whole-wheat bread or pita. Two lunches of the week are the previous evening's dinner.

Chickpea and bulgur tabbouleh with pita

1. Mix the cooled bulgur with the chickpeas and the diced cucumber and tomatoes, and plenty of chopped parsley and mint if you have them.
2. Dress with the lemon juice and olive oil, and serve with the pita.

Lentil and vegetable soup with whole-wheat bread

1. Heat the oil in a pot and soften the chopped onion, carrot and celery.
2. Add the tomatoes, the cooked lentils and a glass of water, and simmer until the vegetables are tender.
3. Serve with the bread.

Greek salad with chickpeas and pita

1. Chop the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber and mix them with the chickpeas and olives.
2. Crumble the feta over, dress with the olive oil and lemon juice, and serve with the pita.

Tuna and white bean salad with pita

1. Mix the drained tuna with the beans, the diced pepper and the thinly sliced onion.
2. Dress with the olive oil and lemon juice and serve on the lettuce, with the pita.

What are Mediterranean diet dinners?

Fish or seafood with vegetables and a whole grain, bean and lentil dishes, and chicken once in the week, all cooked in olive oil.

Roast salmon with zucchini, peppers and brown rice

1. Toss the sliced zucchini, pepper and onion with the oil on a tray and roast until tender.
2. Add the salmon to the tray and roast until it flakes.
3. Serve with the brown rice.

Chickpea and spinach stew with bulgur

1. Heat the oil and soften the chopped onion and garlic.
2. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas and simmer, then stir in the spinach until it wilts.
3. Serve over the bulgur.

Cod with lentils, spinach and tomatoes

1. Heat half the oil and warm the lentils with the garlic, the chopped tomatoes and the spinach until it wilts.
2. Cook the cod in the rest of the oil until it flakes, and squeeze the lemon over.
3. Serve the fish on the lentils, with the bread.

Chicken with white beans, eggplant and tomatoes

1. Roast the diced eggplant and tomatoes with the garlic and half the oil until soft.
2. Cook the chicken in the rest of the oil until cooked through, then slice it.
3. Stir the beans into the vegetables, top with the chicken and serve with the pita.

Whole-wheat pasta with shrimp, tomatoes and spinach

1. Heat the oil with the garlic, add the tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes.
2. Add the shrimp and cook until pink, then stir in the spinach.
3. Toss with the cooked pasta.

Sardines on whole-wheat toast with tomato and cucumber salad

1. Toast the bread and lay the sardines on it.
2. Serve with the sliced tomato and cucumber, dressed with the olive oil and lemon juice.

Lentil and eggplant bake with pita

1. Heat the oil and soften the onion, garlic and diced eggplant.
2. Add the tomatoes and lentils, spread in an oven dish and bake until bubbling.
3. Serve with the pita.

What snacks fit a Mediterranean diet?

Fruit, nuts, and raw vegetables with hummus, as Cleveland Clinic suggests.

Almonds and an orange

1. Weigh the almonds into a small bowl.
2. Peel the orange.

Hummus with carrot and cucumber, and an apple

1. Cut the carrot and cucumber into sticks.
2. Dip them in the hummus; eat the apple on the side.

An apple, grapes and walnuts

1. Slice the apple.
2. Serve with the grapes and the walnuts.

A pear, grapes and almonds

1. Slice the pear.
2. Serve with the grapes and the almonds.

What goes on the grocery list for the week?

The grocery list is the sum of every meal's grams, the leftover lunches included. Cross off what you already have before you shop.

How do you start a Mediterranean diet as a beginner?

1. Cook with extra virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil and animal fats such as butter, as Cleveland Clinic advises.
2. Add vegetables to every meal, as Cleveland Clinic suggests, and choose fruit for snacks.
3. Switch to whole grains: whole-wheat bread and pasta, bulgur, oats, brown rice.
4. Eat beans, lentils or chickpeas at least three times a week, and fish three times.
5. Keep red meat rare and choose fish, poultry or beans instead.
6. Plan the week once, then shop from one list, as the weekly meal plan guide explains.

How many calories is a Mediterranean diet meal plan?

It has no set number: the Mediterranean diet is a pattern of foods, not a calorie count. The sample week here comes to 1,780 to 1,950 kcal a day as written, and how much you eat depends on your age, size and activity; the calorie calculator gives a reference.

Some published plans are set much lower. EatingWell's 7-day plan is set at 1,200 kcal a day, with versions at 1,500 and 2,000 (checked November 1, 2026). Eating 800 to 1,200 kcal a day is what NHS Scotland calls a low-calorie diet, done for a limited time after talking to a doctor, nurse or dietitian. It is too restrictive for most people. A varied week with enough food is easier to keep, and this page promises no weight change.

Cleveland Clinic and Harvard Health report research linking the Mediterranean pattern with a lower risk of heart disease over years; those are study findings about long-term eating, not a result of one week.

How do you keep track of the week as you go?

A plan says what you meant to eat; what counts is what you actually ate. A lunch out, a bigger portion or a swapped dinner changes the day.

IZeat is the five-star chef calorie tracker that suggests satisfying, great-tasting meals, so you enjoy every calorie you have left. It works inside ChatGPT, Claude or any other assistant: IZeat knows your numbers for the day, which foods fill you up and what you like.

After you connect your assistant, say what you ate in one sentence. IZeat logs the meal and returns the day's calories, protein, carbohydrate and fat, with the source of each figure.

Where are other meal plans?

How to plan any week, step by step, is in the weekly meal plan guide. Recipes by need are on the high protein meals list and the low calorie meals list. A DASH diet meal plan, a high protein meal plan and other diet plans each get their own page in the Recipes section as they are published.