Ketogenic diet is an eating plan designed to put the body in a safe ketosis in order to burn fat for energy rather than carbs. What makes it different from many diets is the fact that it is a high fat, high protein, and low net carbs diet.
Keto works because it’s great for weight loss. However, managing your nutrient intake in a keto diet can feel like a full-time job that requires a lot of the time and energy. That’s why today I’m sharing a keto meal prep idea you can use for a week.
Keto Meal Prep For The Week
I’m going to talk about what meal prepping is and how knowing this information can help you understand and better appreciate the process.
What Is Meal Prepping
Meal prepping is essentially the decision to make your food in advance. Many people choose meal prepping in order to help them save time in their busy schedules, eat healthier, or save money from eating take out.
Meal prepping is essentially making the decision to batch prep or batch cook what you will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. It could be as simple as pre-washing and cutting up your fresh fruits and vegetables or it could be as elaborate as batch cooking 30 days worth of breakfast and dinner to store in the freezer.
Meal prepping is great for those on a keto diet because it empowers you to remain consistent and it eliminates much of the guesswork involved and deciding what you will eat on a day to day or having to cook multiple meals daily.
When you meal prep, especially on a keto diet, you can batch cook 2-3 meals in large enough portions that can be packed away and disbursed throughout the week so that all you’ll have to do is grab and go or heat and eat making it easier to stick to your diet.
See below for a few easy keto meal prep ideas.
How To Prep Keto Meals For The Week
Make a grocery list
When you’re on a keto diet you are restricted to a specific list of foods you can and cannot eat. When you’re making a grocery list, you want to make a point to not only create a delicious keto meal plan for lunch and dinner, but while you’re at it, don’t forget to include some keto-friendly snacks, such as protein bars, yogurt, cottage cheese, jerky, nuts, and seeds like almonds. For dessert, there’s keto friendly ice cream you can try. You also want to be sure to load up on lean proteins and healthy fats.
Need inspiration for what to add to your grocery list? Here are the most nutrient dense keto foods worth trying and some easy recipes too.
Wash and pre-cut your fruits and vegetables
When on a keto diet, there isn’t many fruits that you can eat, but some of the fruits you CAN eat include berries. Meal prep your berries for smoothies by going ahead and washing them and proportioning them for easy grabbing. You can freeze some and save some for snacking through the week. To prep your vegetables, it’ll make life easier if you go ahead and pre-cut things like onion, garlic, broccoli, fresh herbs, and leafy greens, etc. consider pre-prepping any vegetables you can easily toss in a stir fry or sheet pans. Not sure which fruits and veggies are or aren’t okay? See this list of our favorite keto friendly fruits and vegetables for ideas.
Batch cook your protein
Some protein you can batch cook for the week when you’re on the keto diet include ground turkey, which would be great to use and a taco salad with pico de gallo or you can also do a turkey burger with a lettuce wrap bun. You can also pre-make some steak, shrimp, boil eggs or bake chicken. All things that take less than 30 minutes of labor upfront, that can help save you a ton of time during busy mornings when packing a lunch for work or figuring out what’s for dinner in the evenings.
Batch cook your sides
Some sides that you can pre-make to go along with your protein when you’re on a keto diet include some healthy greens like broccoli, collard, greens, or kale. You can also batch cook some wild rice or a batch of baked sweet potatoes.
Buy pre-made breakfasts
Some premade breakfast you might enjoy include pancakes or waffles packed with protein like those from the Kodak brand. You can also do protein and probiotic oatmeal or you can do a keto egg (batch boil eggs) for an easy keto breakfast.
Try these keto meal prep recipes
Here are a few sugar free keto recipe ideas.
(Ground) Beef & Broccoli
Ingredients
- 2 cups Broccoli, frozen – 62 calories
- 4 oz Ground beef, 85% lean, raw – 213 calories
- 1 Tbsp Sesame seeds (Tbsp) – 50 calories
- 2 Tbsp Soy Ginger sauce – 30 calories
- 1 tsp Garlic, minced (tsp) – 0 calories
Instructions
- Spray a pan with an oil spray. Add in garlic. Stir fry beef and broccoli for 5-6 minutes.
- Remove broccoli & cut into small pieces. Add back into pan. Stir fry for another 3-4 minutes.
- Add in sauce.
- Top with sesame seeds when ready to eat.
- Notes: No soy ginger sauce? Use soy sauce. No beef? Use ground turkey, tofu, or beans/lentils. Fresh or frozen broccoli can be used here – whatever you have! Also, if you have another % lean meat, that is also fine, use what you have.
2-Step Marry Me Chicken
Ingredients
- 6 oz Chicken thigh, boneless, skinless, raw – 190 calories
- ¼ cup Cheese, Parmesan, grated (cups) – 86 calories
- 1 Tbsp Butter (Tbsp) – 103 calories
- ¼ cup Milk, whole (cups) – 37 calories
- 2 Tbsp Broth, chicken or beef (Tbsp) – 4 calories
- 1½ cups Broccoli, frozen – 47 calories
- 1 Tbsp Tomatoes, sun-dried, oil packed – 17 calories
- ¼ tsp Oregano – 0 calories
- ¼ tsp Basil, dried – 0 calories
- ⅛ tsp Red pepper flakes – 0 calories
- ⅛ tsp Garlic salt – 0 calories
Instructions
- This recipe works best when making 2-3+ servings at once. So multiply the ingredients above, and then divide by that number of servings once cooked.
- Add butter to a large pan, and heat on low until melted.
- Brown chicken for 2 minutes on each side.
- Add in the rest of the ingredients – frozen broccoli, sun dried tomatoes, broth, milk, Parmesan, and seasonings.
- Simmer on lowest heat for 20+ minutes, until chicken is cooked (internal temp 165 degrees F) and broccoli have cooked through, and most of the liquids have evaporated.
- Serve and enjoy.
- No chicken? Use tofu and vegetable broth. No dairy? Use a higher fat dairy free milk/cream e.g. coconut cream, and use oil instead of butter and Parmesan.
Asian Inspired Green Veggie Stir Fry
Ingredients
- ½ cup Broccoli – 12 calories
- ½ cup Green beans – 16 calories
- ½ Zucchini, medium – 17 calories
- 6 oz Chicken breast, boneless, skinless, raw – 190 calories
- 2 Tbsp Soy sauce (Tbsp) – 20 calories
- ¼ cup Peanuts (cups) – 192 calories
- ⅛ tsp Red pepper flakes – 0 calories
Instructions
- Cube chicken. Chop veggies into small pieces. Put peanuts in a plastic bag and crush them with a hard object, e.g., an ice cream scoop.
- Spray a pan with an oil spray.
- Cook chicken for ~5 minutes, stirring frequently, on medium heat.
- Add the green beans, broccoli, and zucchini for another ~5 minutes.
- Add in soy sauce and red pepper flakes.
- Top with peanuts at the very end (they taste better crispy, not cooked!).
Basic Turkey Chili
Ingredients
- 8 oz Ground Turkey, 99% lean, raw – 220 calories
- ¾ cup Cauliflower rice, frozen – 20 calories
- 1 cup Canned, diced tomatoes – 56 calories
- 1 Zucchini, medium – 33 calories
- 2 tsp Avocado oil (tsp) – 82 calories
- ⅛ tsp Salt – 0 calories
- 1 tsp Taco seasoning – 5 calories
Instructions
- Enjoy! to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.”
- Add oil to a pot, and stir-fry ground turkey until cooked through
- Chop zucchini into small/medium chunks
- Add in zucchini and cauliflower rice to your pot, cook through
- Add in tomatoes and seasonings, and let simmer
