5 Easy Zone Recipes for Beginners

When you're starting out, the hardest part isn't the cooking. It's combining protein, carbs and fat in the right balance. That's why we picked five recipes where all three are already in one place. The ingredient lists are short, there are no tricky techniques, and the blocks are calculated in the app. All you have to do is cook.

1. Egg and Cottage Cheese Spread Sandwich

Fifteen minutes and four ingredients: eggs, cottage cheese, whole-grain bread and a little butter. The Egg and Cottage Cheese Spread Sandwich is a good way to start the day. The eggs and cheese bring the protein, the bread brings the carbs, and the butter rounds out the balance.

2. Red Spread Sandwich

If you want more flavor in the same amount of time, the Red Spread Sandwich combines egg and low-fat mozzarella with lyutenitsa (a roasted pepper and tomato relish) on toasted whole-grain bread. It's ready in ten minutes and works for breakfast or a quick meal later in the day.

3. Ground Beef Tortilla Pizza

Lunch in twenty minutes: a tortilla for the crust, lean ground beef, tomatoes, kashkaval (a Bulgarian yellow cheese) and olives. The Ground Beef Tortilla Pizza bakes only until the crust turns golden and crisp. It's good proof that the Zone isn't just salads and grilled chicken.

4. Turkey Ham Pizza

For dinner, when you have a bit more time. The crust of the Turkey Ham Pizza is made from rice paper and egg, topped with tomato sauce, low-fat mozzarella, turkey ham, corn and pickles. It takes about 35 minutes, but most of that is oven time.

5. Pear and Cinnamon Cream

For an afternoon snack or something sweet. The Pear and Cinnamon Cream takes just skyr, pear, walnuts and cinnamon, and comes together in ten minutes with no cooking. The skyr brings the protein, the pear the carbs and the walnuts the fat, so it's balanced on its own.

Where to go from here

With these five recipes you can cover a whole day: breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack. Repeat them for a few weeks until you get used to what a balanced plate looks like, then explore the rest of the recipes in the app. If you're just getting started, you'll also find it helpful to read how to stay consistent during your first 2 weeks.