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Power Hour Meal Prep
Patty Catalano
Patty Catalano
Patty is a recipe developer and food writer. She worked Alton Brown’s Research Coordinator and podcast producer and in the Oxmoor House test kitchen. She loves maple syrup, coffee and board games. Patty lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children.
updated Sep 1, 2020
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Does the task of feeding yourself while managing macros have you coming up blank? There’s no better place to start than a Power Hour Meal Prep session for a week of nourishing meals that also help you carefully manage your carb count. Make easy egg breakfasts and grab-and-go lunches to get you through your stay-at-home workday, and finish with a week of dinners sure to please everyone around the table.
In this meal prep plan, I’ll walk you through prepping a week’s worth of keto-friendly breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Use the shopping list provided to gather your ingredients, then set aside just two hours to prepare food for the week. The keto diet is not for everyone, but this meal plan is easy to adapt for family members and children who need to include fruit and whole grains at each meal.
Looking for more keto-friendly meal plans? This keto meal plan is perfect for warm-weather weeks, or try this keto Power Hour when you have just two hours to prep.
My Meal Prep Goals
- Breakfast: A filling heat-and-eat option to fuel me all morning long (five days).
- Lunch: Easy lunches filled with produce, healthy fats, and protein (five days).
- Dinner: A variety-packed week of keto-friendly dinners (five days).
- Nutritional Goals: This week’s meal plan keeps macro nutrients within the recommended ranges for the keto diet. This means 60 to 75% of calories come from fat, 15 to 30% of calories come from protein, and 5 to 10% of calories come from carbohydrates.
Meal Prep Plan Snapshot
- Feeds: 2 adults for breakfast and lunch; 2 adults and 2 kids for dinner
- Prep Time: About 2 hours
- Meals Covered: About 80% (no weekend meals)
- Weeknight Cooking Required: Moderate. Most dinner elements are prepared and ready for the stovetop or oven.
My Meal Plan
Breakfasts
- Chile and Sausage Oven Frittata, omit the flour. This is a great recipe to use up the last mushroom from the box or other odds and ends from the fridge.
Lunches
- Tuna Nicoise Lettuce Cups
Dinners
- Mahi Mahi and salad
- Philly Cheesesteaks served on a salad instead of the sandwich bread
- use cauliflower and green beans per the recipe, or substitute with other low-carb vegetables like broccoli or zucchini that you have on hand
- Instant Pot Butter Chicken served with cauliflower rice
- Cauliflower Pizza use any mild shredded cheese you have on hand, including Italian-blend or fontina.
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My Shopping List
These are the ingredients I bought or used for this week’s keto-friendly meal plan. Shop your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer before setting foot in the store (or opening your grocery delivery app) to avoid adding items to the cart that you already have on hand. I also used staple ingredients like olive and vegetable oils, kosher salt, and black pepper that are not listed here. I organize my grocery list by department to make shopping more efficient and to avoid accidentally overlooking items.
- Produce: 2-inch knob fresh ginger, 2 heads Bibb lettuce leaves, 1 small head cauliflower, 2 pints cherry tomatoes, 4 cloves garlic, 8 ounces green beans, 1 green bell pepper, 1 red bell pepper, 1 lemon, 2 large onions, 1 tablespoon fresh parsley (optional), 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro (optional)
- Meat & Seafood: 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 1- to 1 1/2-pound pork tenderloin, 1 1/2 pounds ribeye or sirloin steak, 4 ounces sweet Italian sausage, 4 (4- to 6-ounce) fillets mahi mahi (frozen is OK)
- Dry Goods: 1/4 cup no-sugar-added barbecue sauce, 1/3 cup no-sugar-added pizza sauce, 1 1/4 cup olives, garam masala, garlic powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, salt-free Italian seasoning, 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles, 4 (5-ounce) cans tuna, 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
- Dairy: 4 slices white American cheese, 1 stick unsalted butter, 18 large eggs, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese, 4 slices provolone cheese, 3 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- Frozen: 2 (16-ounce) bags cauliflower rice
Power Hour: How I Get the Prep Done
- Heat oven. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 400°F to bake the frittata.
- Freeze steak. Freezing the steak will help you cut the steak very thinly for Philly cheesesteaks. Place steak on a plate or rimmed baking sheet and freeze until the end of meal prep, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Make frittata. Follow this recipe, but prepare it entirely in an oven-safe skillet rather than a pie plate since you will not be freezing it. Cook the sausage in the oven-safe skillet, drain the fat, then return sausage to the skillet. Add the cheese (omit the flour) and chiles in an even layer. Whisk the eggs, ground cumin, salt, and pepper together until combined, then pour into the skillet. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the eggs are set. Remove the frittata from the oven, cool on a rack, then cut into wedges. Refrigerate in an airtight container.
- Prep produce: Tuna Nicoise Lettuce Cups: Wash and dry Bibb lettuce leaves. A portion of the lettuce leaves will be used for lunch lettuce cups; save the rest for dinners throughout the week. Cut cherry tomatoes in half. : Cut cauliflower into florets and trim green beans, then combine and refrigerate these vegetables in an airtight container. Philly Cheesesteaks: Thinly slice 1 yellow onion, 1 red bell pepper, and 1 green bell pepper. Combine the peppers and onion in an airtight container and refrigerate. Instant Pot Butter Chicken: Chop 1 onion, mince 2 cloves of garlic, chop a 2-inch piece of fresh ginger. Set these ingredients to the side of the cutting board because butter chicken prep comes next.
- Make butter chicken: Follow this recipe. The recipe makes a lot of (delicious!) sauce, so when you purée the sauce, transfer half of to a freezer zip-top bag or freezer-safe container. Freeze this portion of the sauce for a jumpstart to butter chicken another week. Combine the chicken with remaining sauce and transfer to a storage container.
- Hard-boil eggs: Hard-boil 10 eggs for lunches throughout the week. Here are a few techniques to use. Cool the eggs in an ice bath and peel.
- Assemble lettuce cups: Make Tuna Nicoise Lettuce Cups for lunch by arranging 2 Bibb lettuce leaves in each lunch container. Drain tuna, flake with a fork, and spoon about 1/4 cup onto the lettuce leaves. Then add a halved hard-boiled egg, a few cherry tomato halves, 2 tablespoons of olives to each container. Finish the lunch boxes by drizzling with olive oil, and seasoning with salt and pepper. To make the lunches quickly, set up an assembly line with all of lunch containers on hand.
- Slice steak. Remove the steak from the freezer; it should be very firm, but not completely frozen. Slice crosswise into very thin, 1/8-inch-thick strips for Philly cheesesteaks. Transfer the steak to an airtight container and refrigerate.
- Thaw mahi mahi. If you purchased frozen mahi mahi, place the fillets on a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate overnight to thaw.
Breakfast
Reheat a slice of Chile and Sausage Oven Frittata each morning for breakfast. (Net Carbs: 5.4g)
Lunch
It’s easy to stay on track with keto when lunch is ready to go. Midday meals this week are the Tuna Nicoise Lettuce Cups prepped during Power Hour. (Net Carbs: 10.7g)
Dinner
Monday, Mahi Mahi and salad: Start the week with flaky white fish, seared until golden and dressed in a garlicky lemon-butter sauce. Pat the thawed Mahi Mahi dry with a paper towel for a deep sear, then season with salt and pepper. Sear the fish, then add the garlic and lemon juice. Finish with lemon slices and butter to make a rich sauce. Serve the Mahi Mahi with a simple butter lettuce leaf salad. (Net Carbs: 1.2g)
Tuesday, Philly Cheesesteaks and salad: Season the sliced steak with salt and pepper. Sauté the peppers and onions until brown and tender, remove from the pan, and sear the steak. Spread the steak into an even layer then top with the veggies. Shingle slices of American and provolone cheeses over top and cook until the cheese melts and the bottom layer of meat sizzles. Use a spatula to transfer the cheesesteak filling to plates and serve with butter lettuce leaf salad. (Net Carbs: 3.6g)
Wednesday, : Midway through the week, lean on an easy sheet pan recipe to get dinner on the table. Season pork tenderloin with salt, then brush with sugar-free barbecue sauce. Slide the pork into the oven first since it takes longer to cook than the veggies. While the tenderloin roasts for 10 minutes, toss the prepped cauliflower florets and green beans with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Flip the pork tenderloin and arrange the vegetables around the edge of the sheet pan. Return the pan to the oven and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender and the pork is cooked through. (Net Carbs: 5.2g)
Thursday, Instant Pot Butter Chicken: Reheat Butter Chicken in a pot on the stove until simmering. Prepare one bag of frozen cauliflower rice according to package directions. Serve the chicken and sauce over steaming cauliflower rice for an easy keto-friendly dinner. (Net Carbs: 8g for a serving of chicken in half of the sauce)
Friday, Cauliflower Pizza: Friday night means pizza night, even on the keto diet. Make a low-carb crust from cauliflower rice, cheese, eggs, and seasonings. Spread into a circle on a sheet pan. The thinner the cauliflower mixture, the crispier the crust. Bake on the bottom rack until brown and crisp, then flip the crust using a second sheet pan to crisp the other side of the crust. Sprinkle the crust with cheese, add a layer of sugar-free sauce, then top with more cheese. Broil to melt the cheese. Serve with red pepper flakes and fresh-torn basil leaves. (Net Carbs: 5.3g)
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Power Hour Meal Prep is the series where we help you put it all together. We show you how to eat well during the week with an hour or two of Power Hour prep over the weekend. Every plan is different; mix and match to find your own personal sweet spot.
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