AreYouReadyToReddit’s Guide to Pre-Portioning Meals, and Keto Friendly Recipes (All item list can be purchased at Wal-Mart, or the equivalent local supermarkets. I use lowest common denominator for shopping items) General Disclaimer: I started Keto Nov 1st, 2011. I’m by no means the expert. I am open to any feedback, or discussion you wish to have. I’ve had a successful run so far, and enjoyed the process so much I’m doing it for the rest of keto. I might just cook my meals a week in advance for the rest of my life. At times this guide may seem overly simplified or written like a “Complete Dummies Guide to Keto”. This is because I don’t know you, the readers, experience with keto, or cooking, so I have written it with the most inexperienced readers in mind. Pre-Portioning: The Path to Easy Keto Pre-Portioning is the act of cooking large quantities of food in advance, and portioning it out into individual containers for food. This method lends itself to keto quite easily. Pre-portioning means: 1. You can be sure you’ve it your Fat/Protein/Carb macro, and stayed under your calorie limit if you have one. 2. You only need to “choose” keto once a week as you’re cooking, so the battle of wills is less rare. 3. Takes your laziness, and works it your advantage. 18 of your 21 meals for the week are already made, and can be ready in less than 3 minutes to eat. 4. Bonus Perk: Your kitchen will stay relatively clean when you’re not cooking in it every day. Why 18 of 21, you may ask? My system has you cooking 6 breakfasts, 6 lunches, and 6 dinners at once. That means you have a free breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the week to do with what you wish. I feel this important because you need to be flexible. Self-Control is 90% planning ahead, and 10% Flexibility. Your free meals are your chance to: test out a new dish you saw as food pron on r/keto, make a personal favorite, surprise your spouse with freshly cooked breakfast in bed, etc. Later in your program, they also work great for planned CHEAT days, because you can cheat comfortably knowing your other 6 days this week are certainly keto. Dependencies/Non-Food Shopping List Here’s what you need to have to be successful on the Pre-Portion Plan: 1. 12-18 "tupperware" containers. I use cheap Ziplock ones. I say 12 to 18 because you can brownbag your breakfast instead. When choosing your containers size is important. They need to be: a. Big enough to hold your food b. Small so you can store them all in your fridge/freezer at once. 2. Adequate Fridge/Freezer space to store 18 meals. This tie in with number one. The Ziplock containers I use are 5x5x4. If you don’t have much fridge space, you can store most of the meals in the freezer, and rotate them out as you pull from the fridge.
3.
A microwave. Not just at home, but at your work place you’re bringing the meals into.
4. Brown lunch bags. You can get like 200 of these for a few dollars, and they help with portioning. 2. Some cheap small sandwich bags. Again, you can grab 100 of these a couple dollars, and depending on what you put in them, you can re-use them. 5. A lunch pail/bag. Ideally, something with a freezing element that you can re-freeze each night. 6. A coffee thermos. Not required. However, if you’re a coffee drinker, I recommend it. With this plan you’ll already be bringing food to work, and you’d be amazed how much money you’ll save by brewing your own coffee. 7. A Four Hour Block on or around the same day every week you can devote to cooking and portioning your meals. Four hours and you get to be lazy the next six days is how I always look at it. : ) Recipes I need to mention a few things about these recipes. The first is that the portions listed are based on my BMR, and weight loss goals. They seem to average about 1200 to 1500 total daily calories for me. You may need to add/subtract from them to “meat” your target calorie intake. The easiest way to do this is add/remove whole pieces, like 1 egg, 1 thigh, etc. They can be sealed up in bags to be frozen, or put in the fridge to use as part of your free day. The second is that I acknowledge not all of us work 9-5, M-F. My lunch time is someone else’s breakfast time. So for the purposes of this guide, I will use the following definitions. Breakfast: A fast meal that can be eaten at home, on the way to work/school, or at work/ school. Lunch: A meal that is in one portion container. Can be eaten at home, or anywhere else with a microwave. Dinner: A meal that has its primary ingredients in a portioned container. But has secondary items kept separate for freshness/flavor. Ideally meant to be eaten at home with minimal preparation.
Breakfast Recipes (I only have one, love to hear about any you may have.) Standard and Simple Shopping List: 1. A dozen eggs.
2. A package of your favorite bacon. Cooking: 1. Hard boil the eggs: Place 12 eggs in a pan, fill the pan with water—you will be bringing it to a rolling boil, so do not fill it to high. 2. Bring the water to boil. Remove pan from heat, and cover. Give it about 15 minutes, and you can remove your eggs. It is very difficult to overcook hard boiled eggs. They can’t get any harder. Remove from water and let them cool. 3. Cook your bacon you have two options: a. Fry in a pan. This generally requires that you “sacrifice” a few pieces of bacon, or lube up the pan with some butter first to insure an even cooking. You’ll probably have cook in batches because of the size of your pan. b. Bake in the oven: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put some foil over a cookie sheet for easy cleanup. Place the bacon on the sheet. Place the sheet in the oven for 15 minutes. (Keep an eye on it your first time, oven and bacon mileage may v2ry.) Portioning: 1. Take 6 plastic sandwich bags. Put two eggs in each of them. 2. Take 6 plastic sandwich bags. Divide bacon evenly by 6, and separate it into the bags. 3. Take 6 brown lunch bags, put 1 egg bag, and 1 bacon bag in each. 4. Roll’em up and put them in your fridge. Result: Breakfast for 6 days. Lunch Recipes Juicy Garlic Chicken Thighs served with Broccoli and Cheese. Shopping List. 1. A 12 pack of boneless chicken thighs. Ideally with skin, but without skin is fine as well. 2. A bulb of garlic 3. 20 oz of frozen broccoli. (2 bags of the generic Wal-Mart “Great Value” brand is 28 oz, so it would be a about a bag and a half). 4. 1.5 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Cooking: 1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. 2. Place the 12 chicken thighs in an oven pant that has a cover. (If you happen to own a Pampered Chef stoneware back with cover, they’re perfect for this!) 3. Add a small amount of water to cover the base of the pan. 4. Remove the garlic cloves from the bulb. Don’t worry about skinning the cloves unless you really want the heat from the oven will do that just fine. Plus a little extra fiber never hurt anyone. 5. Cover, and let cook for approximately 2 hours. Portioning: 1. Grab 6 Ziploc Containers, use a tong/spoon to put 2 things in each. 2. Divide up the garlic cloves between the 6 containers. 3. Evenly poor the chicken fat/juice between the 6 containers. 4. Give it 15-20 minutes to cool. 5. Evenly distribute your broccoli. Broccoli isn’t an exact science, do your best.
6. Top the broccoli with ¼ of a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. 7. Seal up, and put the 6 containers in your fridge. Result: 6 days of lunches. Carne Picada with Onion and Peppers, Served with Vegetables. Shopping List 1. 2 lbs of Carne Picada. (Minced beef, designed for fajitas, or other latin recipes. 2. 1 Onion 3. 1 bell pepper (Green, red, yellow, that’s your choice.) 4. 1 bulb of garlic. (Optional, but always heart healthy.) 5. 6 Cups of frozen Bird’s Eye Normandy blend vegetables. It’s a mixture of zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots. If you don’t like those veggies, just pick something else that’s keto friendly like Frozen Broccoli.) 6. ¼ of a stick of butter 7. 1 bottle of Herdez Salsa or other Keto friendly salsa (Optional.) Cooking 1. Slice up your pepper. 2. Cut onion in half, and save the other for next week’s recipes. 3. Choose a pan that will be large enough for your carne picada. 4. Melt the butter in the pan, and sautee your onions and peppers. 5. Add the meat, and fry until thoroughly cooked. Portioning 1. Grab 6 Ziploc Containers, and divide your creation evenly between the 6 containers. 2. Give it 10 minutes to cool. 3. Put a cup of Normandy Blend veggies in each container. Note: Carrots are naturally high in sugar, so you might want to watch to make sure none of recieve contain an abnormally large amount of them. 4. Top the broccoli with ¼ of a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. 5. Seal up, and put the 6 containers in your fridge. End Result: 6 lunches. Note: Optional Salsa can be stored in your work fridge, or just added in the morning for you head out, 2-3 tablespoons. Adds some amazing flavor. Dinners No Shell Tacos Shopping List 1. 2lbs of Ground Beef 2. 2 bottles of Keto Friendly Bottle of Taco Sauce (Check your labels! Believe it or not, Taco Bell’s mild sauce from the bottle is keto friendly. Only one I’ve found on my shelves.) 3. 1 bottle of keto friendly hotsauce (optional) 4. 1 carton of sourcream 5. 1 small bag of shredded lettuce. 6. 3 medium sized tomatos. 7. Half an onion. (Optional) Cooking: 1. Brown your ground beef in a skillet. Add in 1 bottle of taco sauce, and mix it in. You now have taco meat.
2. Dice up your onion, seal it in a container, and put it in your fridge. Portioning: 1. Grab 6 Ziploc Containers, and divide your beef evenly between them. 2. Let cool 5-10 minutes. 3. Seal up, and put the 6 containers in your fridge. Heating Instructions 1. Heat up your taco meat in the microwave. 2. Dice up half a tomato. (You could dice up all three tomatos prior, but in my experience that leads to soggy tomatoes by day 6) 3. Add some of the onion, and the diced tomato to the meat. 4. Toss in some shredded lettuce. 5. A 2 tbsp. of sour cream. 6. Add more taco sauce or hot sauce to spice up as desired 7. Mix it up. Yum. Note: Pending on the lettue and your fridge, it could get iffy by the end of it. In my experience its best to buy a very small bag of shredded lettuce, and pick up a second bag mid-week. Variable Beef, or “It is what I want it to be when I want it that way” Beef. Shopping List 1. 2lbs of Ground Beef 2. 2-3 different bags of your favorite keto friendly frozen vegetables. 3. Any or all of the following sauces: a. Taco Sauce b. Frank’s Hot Sauce c. Herdez Salsa. 0 Fat, 0 carbs, 1 g sugar per 2 Tbsp d. Classico Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo Sauce. 7g Fat, 4 grams of carbs, 2 grams of sugar, per 1/4 cup. e. Classico Roast Garlic Spaghetti Sauce. 1.5 gram fat, 9 grams of carbs, 5 grabs of sugar per 1/2 cup.. f. Patak's Original Concentrated Curry Paste (Mild), 9 grams of fat, 3 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar. Per 2 Tbsp. g. Your Favorite Sauce
Cooking 1. Brown your ground beef in a skillet. Portioning: 1. Grab 6 Ziploc Containers, and divide your beef evenly between them. 2. Let cool 5-10 minutes. 3. Seal up, and put the 6 containers in your fridge. Variable beef is designed to be very flexible evening option. You choose your sauce, and veggie the night you heat it up, to help avoid repetition. Heating Instructions: 1. Grab a container of beef. 2. Add in 1 cup of your preferred veggie. 3. Microwave covered for 3 minutes. (Remember, these veggies aren’t thawed like in other recipes, it’ll take longer to cook.) 4. Add your preferred sauce, and mix it up. Don’t worry, the heat of your meat/veggies will cook up the sauce just fine.
5. Yum. Example: 1 container variable beef + 1 cup of frozen broccoli + ¼ cup of Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo Sauce = AMAZING. Important Warning: Be very mindful of your choice of sauces, and how much you use. Most sauces are fortified with cornstarch, or some form of carbs, so using them can make it very easy to go over your carb macro. For most, a little goes a long way. Especially the curry paste, a little curry flavor goes along way. (If you find the curry is not spicy enough for you, I suggest you use only 1 tbsp of curry, but add in curry powder after the fact to avoid more corn starches.) Conclusion & Things
The pork rinds, almonds, and string cheese are a great way to help manage cravings. All three can easily be portioned, and added to your “Brown Bag” you keep your breakfast items in. If you find yourself hungry, even with snacks, drink more water. We all should be aiming for at least 8 cups of water a day. I’ve found personally that a bottle of water helps me keep track of this. My bottle is 1 liter, formally housing “smart water”. So I know if I drink two of it, I’ve met my 8 cup mark. No more soda, be it diet or otherwise. Make a thermos of coffee in the morning to take to work with you. It’ll help with any caffeine withdrawal headaches. Don’t make this coffee too strong. You’re making some diet changes, and coffee is a natural laxative. If you vacate your GI tract because of it’s going to offset your meals. Better 8 cups of medium to weak coffee in my thermos instead of 4 strong ones in my opinion. If you have any 6 day recipes you’d like to see added, let me know on reddit. I’ll include them and give you credit.
