Sunday

Ingredients (1 portion)

• 3 eggs
• 60 g smoked salmon trimmings (the rest of Thursday's pack)
• 60 g mushrooms
• 20 g baby spinach
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 pinch black pepper

Method

1. Wipe and slice the mushrooms. Beat the eggs with the pepper in a jug.
2. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan (about 20 cm) over a medium-high heat. Cook the mushrooms for 3 minutes, until golden. Add the spinach and cook for 30 seconds, until it wilts. Tip them onto a plate.
3. Turn the heat down to medium. Pour the eggs into the pan and let them set for 1 minute, then gently pull the edges into the middle with a spatula, letting the runny egg flow to the edges. Cook for 2 minutes, until almost set.
4. Spoon the mushrooms and spinach over one half, add the salmon, and fold the other half over. Slide it onto a plate.

Why it is a high-protein start

Three eggs and smoked salmon give about 32 g of protein. It uses up the rest of Thursday's salmon, and the mushrooms and spinach add vegetables to the plate.

Swaps

Feta in place of the salmon. Cherry tomatoes with the mushrooms. A slice of wholemeal toast on the side.

Ingredients (1 portion)

• 1 portion chicken, white bean and spinach soup, from Saturday's lunch (kept in the fridge)
• 1 slice wholemeal bread
• 1 pinch black pepper

Method

1. Tip the cold soup into a saucepan. Add a splash of water (about 50 ml) if it has thickened.
2. Heat it over a medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring, until it is bubbling and steaming hot all the way through. (Or microwave, covered, for about 3 minutes, stirring halfway.)
3. Toast the bread and serve with the soup, with a little pepper.

Why it is a high-protein lunch

It is the easiest lunch of the week, with about 38 g of protein from the chicken and beans and nothing to cook from scratch.

Swaps

Grated cheese on the toast. A spoonful of Greek yoghurt on top. A handful of extra spinach stirred in at the end.

Ingredients (4 portions of beef; the vegetables and gravy are for tonight's portion)

• 800 g beef topside joint, fully defrosted if frozen
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 pinch black pepper
• 1 carrot, cut into large chunks (tonight's portion)
• 1 parsnip, cut into large chunks (tonight's portion)
• 150 g potato (1 medium), cut into chunks (tonight's portion)
• 100 g broccoli florets (tonight's portion)
• ½ cube reduced-salt beef stock cube, for the gravy (tonight's portion)

Prep (about 15 minutes)

1. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Take the beef out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
2. Peel the garlic and cut it into thin slivers. Make small cuts all over the joint with the tip of a sharp knife and push a sliver of garlic into each. Rub the joint with 1 tsp of the oil, the thyme and plenty of pepper. Put it in a roasting tin.
3. Prepare the carrot, parsnip and potato now, toss them with the other 1 tsp of oil in a bowl, and leave them until you need them.

Cooking (about 1 hour 15 minutes, mostly hands-off)

1. Roast the beef for 20 minutes to brown the outside. Turn the oven down to 180°C (160°C fan) and add the vegetables to the tin around the beef. Roast for another 40 to 50 minutes for medium (a little pink in the middle, about 60°C on a thermometer) or 60 to 70 minutes for well done (no pink, about 70°C or more).
2. Take the tin out. Lift the beef onto a board, cover tightly with foil and rest it for 15 minutes. Keep the vegetables warm in the switched-off oven, and roast them for 10 minutes more if they are not soft.
3. Make the gravy: stir half a stock cube into 150 ml of boiling water, pour it into the roasting tin and scrape up all the browned bits over a medium heat for 3 minutes, until it has reduced a little.
4. Steam or boil the broccoli for 4 minutes, until tender.
5. Slice the beef thinly across the grain. Serve one quarter with the roast vegetables, the broccoli and the gravy.
6. Slice the rest of the beef and put it into three containers, with a little gravy on each to keep it moist.

Why it is a high-protein dinner

Topside is one of the leanest cuts of beef, with about 45 g of protein in a 140 g portion and very little fat, and the roast vegetables and broccoli make up the rest of the plate. One joint gives four meals for about 20 minutes of work.

Swaps

A gammon joint in place of the beef, boiled for 30 minutes then roasted with a little mustard (it is saltier, so use less gravy). A sweet potato in place of the potato. Green beans in place of the broccoli.