10 Keto Meal Prep Tips + 50 Easy Keto Recipes To Make Ahead

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Meal prep the way to your weight loss goals with these fabulous low-carb recipes for the keto diet! Consider this your one-stop shopping, must-have keto meal planning guide with helpful tips and hacks for beginners and the best keto crockpot, Instant Pot, and low carb meal prep recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

These 21 keto diet recipes are fabulous! Perfect for meal prep & planning these ketogenic recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner make losing weight taste delicious! Awesome tips for beginners! If you’re looking for low carb recipes to meal prep for the week like keto crockpot meals, breakfasts, ketogenic snacks like fat bombs and easy dinners you don’t want to miss this! #keto #ketorecipes #mealplanning #mealprep #lowcarb #lowcarbrecipes

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Are you a Meal Prepper?

Also known as batch cooking, Meal Prep Monday, or cooking all weekend, the country (and Instagram) is obsessed with it. Those of us on strict diet plans like keto understand why: making meals ahead is the key to sticking to any diet – so you can lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle!

But meal prepping doesn’t come easily to everyone! Raise your hand if you’ve ever tried to make a quick trip to the grocery store to grab your “meal prep stuff” and emerged three hours later an older – more defeated version of yourself.

Anyone?

Well, in case I’m not the only one with a hand raised here, I thought I’d share a few keto meal prep tips I’ve picked up over the past few years to simplify things for you.

Preparing meals in advance helped me stay on track when I started my weight loss journey. And in case you are not feeling stoked about spending any time on the weekend cooking, let me tell you – I was not too fond of it either, but I stuck with it, and I have lost 150 pounds (and kept it off). I can do it – you can do it.

P.S. I wrote a book that explains every detail of how I lost the weight on keto – without doing macro math at every meal. If you are a woman who is tired of trendy diet B.S. and you need a real-world roadmap to help you get healthy (low-carb style), Rebel Keto will be your new best friend.

Now, let’s get back to the Meal Prep Tips, shall we?

Planning Your Meals

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Nail down a process for finding your week’s recipes and make your grocery list. Make it easy on yourself by selecting recipes that you can eat more than once, or that you know you can use for multiple meals.

Save your recipes to a Pinterest board or screenshot your favorites-whatever works best for you.

Just find a system!

Make sure each meal includes a balance of healthy fats, lean protein, vegetables, and fiber-filled carbs.

Don’t know the right balance for you?

Here’s a Free Keto Macro Calculator that will tell you exactly what you should be eating depending on your goals!

Don’t Spend All Weekend Meal Prepping

Unless spending all day cooking, chopping and dicing is your passion, don’t spend an unlimited time meal prepping.

Set a timer for 2-3 hours and when it dings – you’re done! You’ll be surprised at the amount of food you can prep in a small window of time.

Start by cooking things like chicken or beef (that take the most time) and get the chopping & dicing done while you wait.

I like to gather any herbs and spices I’m using at this time too-just to have them all in one place. I haven’t gotten around to organizing my spice cabinet yet, so this helps save time and frustration.

Speaking of spice cabinets is it normal to have ten half-full garlic powders circa 2005? I really need to get on top of that situation ASAP!

Legit Meal Prep Tools

Want to know how to make meal prep day A LOT LESS STRESSFUL? Make sure you have the right stuff! This post covers all the coolest time-saving kitchen gadgets & must have items!

Containers

Make it easy on yourself by using perfectly portioned reusable meal prep containers.

If you prefer glass go with this Glasslock set. I know it’s tempting to go the cheap route – But consider investing a little more to be sure your food is sealed efficiently (to avoid freezer burn) and your containers will last. Plus, you won’t have to fight with those bleeping lids that are just the worst.

For a plastic option, these are great – freezer, microwave, and dishwasher safe meal prep containers!

Use freezer tape & a Sharpie to label each container with the meal info/macro #/date prepared and use by date! You may want to jot down a few recipe notes too!

Ex: Cook at 450 for 30 minutes, Serve over cauliflower rice or stop being so hard on yourself you are doing a fabulous job!:)

Cook Chicken Ahead of Time

You can pre-roast a chicken on meal prep day and use it for making soups, salads, and sandwiches later in the week.

Batch Cook Bacon

Batch cook bacon to keep on hand in the fridge or freezer for recipes-if you can keep it! Mine has a way of disappearing into my mouth.

Crockpots, Slow Cookers & Instant Pots, Oh My!

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No matter which make or model you are operating with you are looking at your best time-saver!

For example, it only takes 15 minutes to put together these mouth watering burritos in your slow cooker. Then you’ve got around 8 hours free to enjoy life until you’re in pure burrito heaven.

I’m also a huge fan of this Lemon Garlic Chicken. You can prep it in 10 minutes, and cook it in your crockpot, Instant Pot, or your oven.

Here’s 40 more of my favorite keto crockpot recipes!

You may also want to take a look at these Keto Instant Pot Recipes & 25 Low Carb Slow Cooker Recipes!

Vegetables & Fruit

You’ve got two options. Save money on veggies (and fruit) and choose recipes using those that are in season.

Yes, that does make meal planning take a bit more time, but it’s an option.

Also, you can buy fruits & veggies in bulk and freeze for later. Or buy frozen veggies & fruit-they are picked at their peak & often contain more nutrients than fresh!

Door number 2?

Just go ahead and buy them pre-cut. I’ve found that I throw away fewer onions and it doesn’t cost that much more! With three kids and a busy schedule, I consider this a fair trade for the time it saves me!

Freezer Meal Prep (Make Ahead & Freeze)

You can freeze almost anything! If you are trying to save money or plan ahead or both – Learn how to make your freezer work for you! I’m telling you freezer cooking helped me SO MUCH!

Read the Busy Mom’s Guide To Healthy Freezer Cooking if you want to know more. There’s a free Freezer Foods Cheat Sheet you can download/print/save for future reference!

The ultimate guide to meal prepping healthy freezer meals on a budget! Learn how freezer meal cooking is the key to eating healthy & losing weight while saving money with this beginners guide that covers everything from what freezes well, how long freezer meals last, safe ways to thaw food, supplies needed & more! Read now & don’t miss the free printable frozen foods cheat sheet! #freezermeals #mealprep #healthy

Plan for Your Worst Hangry Times First

Yes, hangry. You know, when hunger meets anger, and you no longer can function as an appropriate human? Those are desperate times, y’all.

If that’s 3 o’clock and you’ll be at the office or the magical wonderland that is the school carpool line, make sure you’ve prepped something appropriate to eat like one of these fat bombs or keto snacks on the go!

Dance in Your Kitchen

Wait – What? Ok – I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out on this one. A few years ago I read an Oprah-esque article about how women need to take their power back and yes, that included the kitchen.

Why not have fun?

You shouldn’t feel like you’re slaving your weekend or weeknights away!

Life is too short.

Cue up a little Rump Shaker or Cheeseburger in Paradise while you’re doing your best Betty Crocker or better yet-your best YOU.

Play whatever makes you happy. Hang a disco ball over your sink if you want to!

P.S. – You can read the article here🙂

Make It Look Good

See, now that you’ll be eating at home more often you’re going to want it to look as close to 4 star quality as possible. Especially if you love sharing your meals on Instagram:) You won’t believe the difference creating grill marks on chicken, burgers, steak, and sandwiches makes!

Pro-Tip: Buy a Cast iron skillet to pretty up your food. This is good one:)

Start Now

Without a doubt, a low carb diet works. I’ve lost 150 pounds. But I had to learn to plan and prepare my meals to get there. It wasn’t easy with a family of five, but I did it.

Planning my meals and learning the right way to meal prep for my diet got me to my goal (& keeps me here.) And if I can do, you can too.

Need a keto shopping list? Download The Ultimate Keto Shopping List

Ok. It wouldn’t be right for me to give you all of these fabulous keto meal prep tips and just leave you hanging. So, I’ve gathered the best ketogenic recipes to start meal prepping for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for you. Most of these are make-ahead situations to save you time later on in the week.