Buy it or make it
Knowing you need 130 g of protein is not the same as knowing what to have for dinner. Each of these is a whole meal with the protein counted, and each one comes two ways: made from fresh ingredients, or swapped for something that needs no cooking at all. Pick whichever the day allows.
Add what you want as you go — the list follows you between pages, and you make one trip to the shop at the end rather than one per ingredient.
Seared salmon with lemony chickpeas
A whole meal in one pan, and one of the easier things to face when appetite is low — the lemon cuts the richness that puts people off fish on a bad day.
Cold protein bowl, no cooking
For the mornings when the thought of cooking is worse than the thought of eating. Nothing here needs heat, and it takes about two minutes.
Chicken and lentil traybake
The highest-protein thing on this site for the least attention. Everything goes in one tin and the oven does the rest.
Cottage cheese scramble
Stirring cottage cheese through eggs adds protein without adding volume, which matters when a full plate is the problem.
Tuna and white beans, straight from the tin
Nothing is heated and nothing is cooked. A tin, a pouch and a bag of spinach, which is about the limit of what is possible on a bad day.
Cold prawns with edamame and avocado
Bought ready-cooked, assembled in a bowl. No heat, no smell, and a lot of protein for something that takes four minutes.
Chickpeas and boiled eggs with cucumber
Boil the eggs whenever you feel well and keep them in the fridge. Then this is assembly, not cooking.
Smoked salmon over cold lentils
The most protein here for the least effort, and the lentils bring the fibre that most cold meals do not.
Not sure how much protein you are aiming for? The protein calculator works it out from your height, weight and phase, and every dish here shows what it contributes.