One of the keys to being successful in eating keto is planning meals and food prepping. It has taken me a while but I now actually plan ahead and have regular meal-prepping sessions! That means I can have keto-friendly food ready to just grab and go from the fridge if my day goes sideways – which it very often does.
In order to do this, I do quite a bit of meal prep so I can batch things together and pre-cook, chop, slice measure, etc. That way, when it comes time to cook or grab and go it is easy!
I follow pretty much the same routine every week. We now do meal planning on Tuesday and then I write the grocery list. I do a big shop on Thursday night on my way home from a class when there are ZERO people in the store. Then Hubby does a couple of small shops during the week while he is out and about. Meal prep is Friday and Tuesday. On Sunday I make bone broth and/or soup, using ingredients prepped on Tuesday or Friday.
It has helped me so much to have a regular routine that is incorporated into our life. Lots of things get PORTIONED out so I know exactly when to stop eating. We have fewer extra trips to the store and very little food waste. I always know what we are having – so there are no more conversations like this: “It’s dinnertime already what shall we have?” “Oh, gee I dunno, how about we just get burgers or order KFC from Skip the Dishes?”.
The time it takes to food prep is mostly taken from couch potato time. Our living room and kitchen are sides by side so we’ll choose a documentary-type show to have on the tv where I can listen and hubby can watch. Or if I decided to get up early to prep, I’ll throw on an audible book to listen to if it’s just me.
I also use meal prep time to make use of bulk buys This week my store had a super deal on lemons so I sliced a whole bag of them and froze them. I like to pull out a few slices every day to add to my fuzzy water (IF you do this -use a food processor to slice, drain off all the juice, and freeze the slices for an hour or so so they are frozen but still soft and break them apart so they don’t freeze all in one lump!).
I find we throw out a lot less food – I mean how annoying is it to find that you forgot to use your giant container of power greens and it is all slimy? For smoothies – I just freeze the greens into the portion needed for each one and leave only what I need for a planned salad in the fridge.
A couple of the recipes that I prepped for yesterday are cucumber dill salmon bites, and brussel sprout salmon avocado & bacon skillet, and chicken noodle soup. I sliced all the onions for the week and froze them. I also made homemade avocado mayo and ranch dip to go with the pre-cut/portioned veggie sticks. This week there was a sale on chicken breasts so I prechopped a bunch for stir fry and soup and froze it. This Wednesday I’ll be trying out jerk chicken and then saving the leftovers for lunches.
And Bacon. I precook lots. No explanation is necessary, cause Bacon is pretty much the best part of Keto.
What do your meal planning and food prepping routine look like?
