Keto on a budget: this week’s meal plan

I mentioned in my Frugal Friday round up yesterday that I am looking at trying a keto diet for several reasons. To try to quit eating sugar, to lose a few pounds and because I think it may be generally beneficial for my health.

In case you haven’t come across it before, keto turns conventional thinking about weight loss and what constitutes a healthy diet on its head. It is a high fat, low carbohydrate diet.

Eat your greens

You have to include a lot of green leafy veg when you are doing keto, which is not a problem for us as we enjoy our greens. What will be harder is eating less fruit. Berries are good on a keto diet but even then you shouldn’t eat too many. Bananas and apples are a no-no as they are too high in carbs.

You can eat avocados, though – I love those!

It is said to be a good way to reduce inflammation, become mentally sharper, improve IBS  symptoms and to increase energy levels. I am hoping it may help me as these are all issues associated with fibromyalgia, which I suffer from.

So this week’s meal plan is exploring the keto way of eating. My trolley in Aldi looked super healthy this week, filled with green leafy vegetables, yogurt and meat. I was worried it would cost a lot, but it came to £35. Not too bad.

I did spend another tenner in Sainsbury’s though, getting Lactose free cream and some other bits that Aldi don’t sell.

It will be interesting to see if I can manage this way of eating without spending too much. Can I do keto on a budget?

My keto on a budget meal plan

Saturday

Home made bolognese, but without the spaghetti. Mr S can have some, but I will make courgette strip ‘pasta’ with the vegetable peeler and cook them in a little butter.

We will have grated cheddar on this plus a green salad.

Sunday

I think this recipe for garlic rosemary pork chops looks simple and tasty.

Mr S will have some form of potatoes with his, but I will stick to a big pile of kale and broccoli with mine.

Monday

I made this hassleback chicken recipe last week and it was totally delicious. Very easy to make too, and it just happens to be keto friendly.

Instead of the pepper jack cheese, I used cheddar, which worked well. It created its own sauce and tasted lovely.

Again, we will have a big pile of veg with this, probably spinach.

Tuesday

Keto taco casserole from Delish. This looks so interesting! It almost has a kind of moussaka influence.

We will have a nice big green salad with this.

Wednesday

Oily fish is something that should be eaten an, since I stocked up on frozen salmon, it fits well into my keto on a budget meal plan.

We will have the salmon cooked in butter and herbs with fried mushrooms and either veg or salad, depending on what we have most of and what needs eating the quickest.

Thursday

As I bought a large pack of pork chops we will have these again, this time as cheesy pork chops from BBC Good Food.

I won’t put onions on mine as they don’t agree with me. Instead I will use some of the hing powder (aesefitida) I bought from Amazon, which imparts a lovely onion flavour without the indigestion!

Friday

Only me for tea tonight. If there is a pork chop left I will have that with some veg. We do have frozen broccoli and cauliflower in the freezer if we have run out, which I will saute in some butter.

If not, I will make a cheese and spinach omelette and have that with the vegetables.

My plan is to keep the food as simple as possible this week, and I think my keto on a budget meal plan does just that. I have never eaten this much meat before, so it will be interesting to see how I manage that!

For someone who loves vegetarian food, it could be a challenge. However, a lot of the veggie food I enjoy really aggravates my IBS, so it might be better not to eat it.

Lunches

I think I will have to buy more salad mid week, as I plan to eat a lot of it for my lunches, with avocado, hard boiled eggs, chopped bacon, cheese or maybe a bit of chicken.

Regular readers will know that I love soup, so I might make something like this broccoli cheese soup one day. It looks heavenly! I love cheese in soup.

Breakfast and drinks

I am a bit of a tea addict. However, I usually have it with milk. You can’t have much milk on keto, so I will try to have it black.

I will also be trying a bullet proof coffee a couple of mornings. This is coffee with a knob of butter and some MCT Oil* (a coconut derivative that I bought from Amazon), but I think I will be adding cream to mine as well. I have seen some You Tubers say that this fills them up until lunchtime and they don’t need any breakfast.

Otherwise breakfast will likely be based around eggs. There are some good ideas for keto breakfasts here.

I won’t fuss around with recipes though. Once I am up, I just want to get on with my day!

Snacks

I am hoping that I won’t need to snack too much on my keto on a budget plan. However, if I do, I have lactose free cream cheese at the ready and can dip some cucumber and celery into it. I also bought some full fat Greek yogurt, which is delicious, and some nuts.

I also have pork scratchings….. strictly for emergencies I reckon!

Keto flu

I have read that you can feel worse before you feel better when you stop eating carbs. This is known as the keto flu, which happens as your body starts to reach a state of ketosis. You can find out more about that here.

I am very much hoping this won’t happen or, if it does, that it will pass quickly. I will let you know next week!

Have you tried the keto diet and did it cost a lot more? Do you think I can do keto on a budget?

As usual, I am linking up with Katy Kicker for her meal planning linky. For more of my frugal food ideas see here.

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