The Keto Diet has gained in popularity over the past few years. But, like any other diet, part of the difficulty can be to find keto snacks. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the time to make our best food choices with small windows of opportunity.
Usually, this is where we turn to premade snacks. Premade snacks can be healthy ideas conveniently packed up nice and neat for us. The rub on this is that buying premade keto snacks can make us thinner and our wallets.
Luckily, with a little bit of planning and preparation, you can have plenty of keto snacks waiting for you when you need them. Best of all, they will fit any budget.
What Is Ketosis?
Before diving into any diet, you should understand what it is and its effects on your body. The goal of the keto diet is to put your body in a state of ketosis. Ketosis is essentially a point when your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates to use for energy. When that happens, your body begins to burn fat and create ketones that fuel your body.
Ketosis not only helps you burn fat but has been known to have other positive uses as well. For example, when not being explicitly used to lose weight, many people with diabetes find ketosis an excellent way to regulate blood sugar.
During the transition to ketosis, many people will feel the adverse side effects. These side effects can include headache, fatigue, stomach issues, dizziness, and cramps. Typically these will all fade away as your body adjusts. However, if they don’t, you should ask a doctor or consider a different type of diet.
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What Is the Keto Diet?
The keto diet is very similar to another popular diet, the Atkins Diet. As you might have guessed based on ketosis, the keto diet eats foods high in fat and protein but low in carbs. They are a few variations of the keto diet that will have slightly different ratios of fat, protein, and carbs you would want to eat. Still, those are typically for specific use cases like athletes or diabetics.
For most people using the diet, the primary goal is simply cutting down on carbs and replacing them with good fats. The exact ratio of your intake doesn’t matter as much.
Foods To Avoid on the Keto Diet
Before we get into the snack, here are the types of food you can generally look to avoid while on the keto diet.
You should avoid foods high in sugar, such as soda, juice, cakes, ice cream, and candy. In addition, high carb foods considered grains or starches (think rice, pasta, cereal, etc.) should also be highly avoided.
Some lesser-known foods to avoid would be beans or legumes like peas, kidney beans, or chickpeas. In addition, potatoes, carrots, and other root veggies are typically not seen as keto-friendly.
Condiments can often be a diet killer too. Many are packed with sugars and other generally unhealthy ingredients. If you are attempting the keto diet or any other diet, condiments with high amounts of sugar should be avoided.
Foods To Use in Your Keto Snacks
Some staples will likely be the base for most recipes when making any keto snacks. Here are some foods in general that help makes good keto snacks:
- Eggs
- Cheese
- Jerky
- Nuts and Seeds
- Nut Butters
- Avocados
- Peppers
- Cucumbers
- Celery
- Cream Cheese
- Olives
Many of these foods are not expensive and will fit any budget. Nuts can be a little pricey, but you can typically find some on sale or buy them in bulk at retailers like Costco.
Keto Snacks for Any Budget
Ok, now that we know our typical keto snack ingredients for any budget, what can we make with them? Here are some of my favorite keto snacks to make:
Flax Crackers
Alright, not exactly a recipe here, but I do enjoy crackers, which are typically a no-no while attempting the keto diet. Luckily, the diet is becoming more mainstream, and you can pick up keto snacks like Flax crackers. They have all the crunch and taste of crackers but are low in carbs and high in fiber.
These make an excellent substitute for any cracker-related snack you might have. Cheese and crackers, crackers, and nut butters are just two ways you can continue to enjoy crackers while on the keto diet.
Olives
Olives in their own right can be a good keto snack, but much like the flax crackers, you can substitute olive-based spreads into your typical snack ideas.
Yogurt
Much like the previous two items, yogurt is an excellent idea for keto snacks on its own. But, again, like the last two, you can use it in many different recipes to add some extra protein to anything.
Thicken up smoothies and shakes or use it as a spread base. Yogurt has many keto-friendly uses that will help fill you up come snack time.
Eggs
Eggs will make a great addition to your keto snacks recipe book. Packed with protein, they can help keep you full any time of day. In addition, hard-boiled eggs are the easiest to travel with or have on the go.
While at home, having eggs in any way you like will be a good keto snack. Add in other keto-friendly ingredients listed above to make them even more filling. Ingredients like cheese, veggies, and meats (um, bacon and eggs, anyone) will make an even more filling keto snack.
Try mixing your ingredients and putting them into a cupcake tin or similar baking sheet for another on-the-go option. You can make mini-sized egg cupcakes in the oven for another easy egg snack you can take with you wherever you go.
Salads
Salads don’t typically scream “filling snack,” yet, they seem to be part of every diet, usually leaving you hungry. As a keto snack, you can use lettuce or even kale as the base of your salad, but again add in other keto-friendly and filling ingredients.
Olive, cheeses (parmesan is my favorite to add), deli meats like turkey, eggs, nuts, seeds, and other keto-friendly foods can be added to any salad to make a filling keto snack you can have at home or work.
Collard Greens
Collard Greens are also an excellent base for a salad as one of your keto snacks. Collard greens are packed with vitamins and minerals and are high in fiber, vital for any keto snack.
Like the salad suggestion above, adding other keto-friendly foods will make them a more filling snack. Avocados, chicken salad, tuna, or turkey are some of the more common items to add to your collard greens.
Veggies and Nut Butters
Any veggie that is high in fiber will make a good keto snack. Adding any nut butter as a dip will make it that much better. Peanut butter is a good source of protein, but be careful of which kinds you buy. Most are also packed full of added sugars, which defeats the whole point of the keto diet.
Alternative nut butter like almond butter and sunflower butter offer just as much tummy-filling protein as traditional peanut butter, if not more, and most have low amounts of sugar, if any. Try a few different kinds of butter out to find your favorite and make it a staple part of your best keto snacks.
Veggies and Guac
If veggies are your thing, then don’t forget about the guac! Avocados are one of the best keto snacks out there. On its own, it can be a great superfood to have as a snack. However, it’s also excellent at adding flavor to any other snack as well.
Making guac is a great keto snack to add to your veggies. Simply mash up an avocado or ten, chop up some red onions, regular onions, squeeze in some lime juice, and then salt and pepper to taste. Then, Viola! You have your very own guacamole keto snack!
Avocado Egg or Chicken Salad
Avocados can also replace the mayonnaise traditionally used in different types of “salads.” To make them keto-friendly, replace that mayo with an avocado and cream cheese or even avocado and yogurt-based dressing. Then, add some fresh lime juice into the mix to give it even more taste that will make you forget why you ever used mayonnaise in the first place.
This will work for any “salad.” Try it for egg salad, chicken salad, or tuna (also a good keto snack on its own) salad.
Fat Bombs
We’ve neem so programmed to believe fat is bad for us that the keto snacks called fat bombs sound like precisely what we should be avoiding on a diet. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Fat bombs are typically a combination of coconut oil, nut butter, avocados, cream cheese, or yogurt.
Not all of these ingredients are in all fat bombs. You can mix and match until you find the right flavor for yourself. Making the fat bombs is quick and easy too. Simply make the base from the ingredients you like most, make little balls out of the mix, and refrigerate for a few hours. After that, you’ll have some of the most filling keto snacks there are out there waiting for you at a moment’s notice wherever you go.
Buffalo Cauliflower Bites
If you are anything like me, you love to make things a bit spicy. Buffalo-flavored recipes are some of my favorites. One of the top keto snacks for me fitting the bill is buffalo cauliflower bites.
These keto snacks are easy to make as well. Simply chop up some cauliflower and mix it with the buffalo sauce of your choosing. Add in some melted butter and roast them in the oven. If you have an air fryer, you can pop them in there too, for an even better crispiness factor.
Keto Sliders
A critical factor in successfully using the keto diet is to find a replacement for anything you’d typically have that uses bread or a bun. An easy fix for that is to simply use lettuce!
One of my favorite keto snacks is to cook up some mini meatloaves or burger patties and stick them into some lettuce. Of course, you may season them a bit to spice them up. Add avocado, cheese, or other keto-friendly ingredients to make them tastier.
Bell Pepper Nachos
Now here is a great keto snack. If lettuce doesn’t do it for you in replacing buns or bread, then try peppers. Cut whole bell pepper into halves or quarters, and you’ve basically got mini, crunchy little plates.
When it comes to keto snacks, you can add ground beef or ground turkey and make some delicious nachos. Add in all your typical nacho favorites like avocado, sour cream, cheese, and olives, and you have a super filling, super keto snack. You have the peppers raw or stick it all in the oven to really give them that traditional nachos taste.
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Keto Snacks on Any Budget Conclusion
Just because you’re on a diet doesn’t mean you have to give up having great-tasting foods and snacks. It also doesn’t mean you need to destroy your budget either. As you can see, there are plenty of wallet-friendly keto snacks. Hopefully, you’ve found a few you like, time to dig in!
