5 Easy Keto Meals for a Week of Lower-Carb Dinners

What’s for dinner this week? If you follow the ketogenic diet, you want high-fat, low-carb meals that are nourishing, satisfying and (most importantly) delicious. Below, you’ll find five recipes for easy keto meals that are made for weeknight cooking, plus tips to prep the next day’s meal ahead of time — and a handy grocery list. Ready? Let’s get cooking.

Related: What to Eat on Keto: Your Complete Keto Food List

5 easy keto meals for lower-carb weeknight cooking

Monday: Creamy keto chicken soup

This Creamy Keto Chicken Soup is as tasty as it is nourishing — and it only clocks in at 5 net carbs per serving. The recipe uses a whole chicken to make a savory stock, so you’ll want to plan ahead: Start the chicken in a stock pot or slow cooker four and a half hours before dinner. Crunched for time? Use pre-cooked chicken and two 32-oz cartons of chicken stock, and start the recipe at step 3.

Prep for tomorrow: Follow step 2 in tomorrow’s recipe to make your pad Thai sauce. Chop your cilantro and green onions. Store everything in covered containers in the fridge.

Tuesday: Shrimp pad Thai

This flavorful dish uses shirataki noodles, a keto-friendly pasta alternative made from the konjac plant, for a lower-carb dish that’s packed with protein and quality fats. You’ll use coconut aminos, Brain Octane oil, cashew butter and lime to create a fresh and flavorful sauce that tastes just as good hot off the stove or cold for lunch the next day. If you’ve never purchased shirataki noodles, you can find usually them at your local grocery store in the refrigerated section near the tofu — or buy them online.

Prep for tomorrow: Follow steps 1-3 in tomorrow’s recipe to make your chimichurri sauce. Store it tightly covered in the fridge.

Wednesday: Steak with chimichurri sauce

It’s steak night tonight, and this chimichurri sauce will elevate your steak game to legendary levels. For maximum browning (and maximum flavor) on your steak, allow it to come to room temperature and pat dry before pan-searing. Round out the meal with a low-carb side like a simple salad or mashed cauliflower.

Prep for tomorrow: Spiralize the zucchini and slice the skirt steak into thin strips. Peel and cut the ginger into thin strips. Stash everything in covered containers in the fridge.

Thursday: Low-carb beef stir fry

Stir fries are the ultimate weeknight meal because they come together in a flash, and this dish is simple, but flavorful thanks to coconut aminos and ginger. Because you prepped half the recipe ahead of time, dinner will be ready in minutes. Zucchini holds onto a lot of water, so you might notice some extra liquid with your zoodles. Just pat them dry with a paper towel before cooking.

Prep for tomorrow: Zest and juice your lemon, and store the zest separately from the juice in the fridge. If tomorrow’s chicken needs to defrost, now’s the time to take it out of the freezer.

Friday: Low-carb angel hair pasta with lemon chicken

End the week with a fast and flavorful pasta dish that makes the most of shirataki noodles. You’ll cook the chicken in a flavorful mix of garlic, salt and oregano, then make a pan sauce with lemon juice, butter and a secret ingredient: Bulletproof Collagelatin. This protein-packed mix of collagen protein powder and gelatin gives you a silky sauce that clings to every noodle.

Grocery list

Pantry

• Apple cider vinegar
• Turmeric
• Dried oregano (or 1 tsp. minced fresh oregano)
• Coconut cream
• Chili flakes
• Salt and pepper
• Brain Octane oil
• Coconut aminos
• Cashew butter
• Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
• Avocado oil
• (2) 7 oz. packages shirataki fettuccine noodles
• (2) 7 oz. packages shirataki angel hair noodles
• Collagelatin

Produce

• 3 1/2 cups cubed fresh pumpkin (or two 15-ounce cans of canned pumpkin, BPA-free)
• 2-3 limes
• 2 lemons
• Ginger (at least 2 inches)
• 3 medium zucchinis
• Fresh parsley
• Fresh cilantro
• Fresh basil
• Fresh mint
• Shallots (optional)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 green onions
• 4 cashews (optional)
• 1 sprig thyme or rosemary
• 1 bunch baby bok choy
• 1 head broccoli
• Himalayan pink salt

Meat

• 1 pasture-raised whole chicken
• 2 pasture-raised eggs
• 18 medium-size, wild-caught shrimp
• 16 oz. grass-fed steak
• 8 oz. grass-fed flank or skirt steak
• 1 lb. pasture-raised chicken breast