The Best New Year’s Resolution-Friendly Meals From Green Chef

So, you’ve decided that this is the year you’re finally going to stick to your dieting goals. While it’s certainly not going to be easy the whole way through, you’ve found a way to make it way more manageable and exciting - by subscribing to Green Chef! Green Chef certainly offers one of the best meal subscriptions for those who are looking to hit their weight goals or live healthier all around. Whether you’ve committed to keto, follow a plant-based diet, or have to eat a gluten-free diet, Green Chef has plenty of options for you to love. Here, I’ll outline 4 of the best New Year's resolution-friendly meals from Green Chef and discuss how each meal is the perfect fit for certain dietary needs.

The Best Green Chef Meals for the Most Popular Diets

Best for Keto - Blackened Barramundi with Dijonaise

Keto has become wildly popular over the last decade and many people swear by it. However, if you’re going to do keto properly you need to keep a close watch on your net carbs and prioritize fat consumption. Not only that, you need to make sure you’re eating nutrient-dense food, not just downing butter and bacon for every meal.

Green Chef’s Blackened Barramundi with Dijonaise is by far one of its best options for those who are keto as it has a macronutrient profile of 62 g fat, 16 g carbs, and 31 g protein. Many dieters fail to eat enough fat on keto, which leads to low energy, weakness, and cravings - this meal ensures that you get plenty of it.

The barramundi is a great choice for lean protein and in combination with the walnuts adds omega-3 fats to this meal. If you’re wondering where the rest of the fat in this meal is coming from, it’s the cooking oil you choose so definitely make sure to use high-quality olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, or another type of healthy fat to prepare this meal with.

The Blackened Barramundi with Dijonaise is also accompanied with collard greens, bell pepper, tomato, onions, and celery so you won’t be skimping out on your greens in this meal and your total net carbs per serving is only 10 g - about ⅓ of what you want to consume per day while on keto.

Best for the Mediterranean Diet - Salmon with Red Peppers & Olives

If keto or paleo is not for you, then you might gravitate towards the Mediterranean diet instead. Like keto, the Mediterranean diet prioritizes heart-healthy fats but also allows you to consume whole grains, fruits, and a wider range of vegetables. Its meals are generally composed of proteins including fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, and yogurt and, in general, its macronutrient profile is composed of 50% carbs, 15% protein, and 35% fat.

Green Chef’s Salmon with Red Peppers provides those on the Mediterranean diet or non-plant-based dieters who are not on keto, with a well-balanced meal that’s guilt-free and downright delicious. Each serving provides 54 g fat, 46 g carbs, and 38 g protein.

Salmon is a wonderful option for a protein that’s rich in omega-3 fats and pairs well with the portion of couscous you’re given. Since the meal has a higher composition of fat, you need to be cautious about your carbohydrate intake as fat slows down the digestion of carbs and you don’t want to drown this fat-centric meal with an abundance of carbs from additional couscous. It also contains kale which is one of the most nutrient-rich vegetables you can add to your meal.

Best Meal for Plant-Based Dieters - Baharat-Spiced Couscous Salad

This meal is great because it works whether you’re a flexible vegetarian or a strict vegan - something that can be hard to achieve in other meal subscriptions. The Baharat-Spiced Couscous Salad is focused on, you guessed it, couscous that’s paired with roasted chickpeas and carrots, radishes, dates, and mint. Its macronutrient composition is 38 g fat, 84 g carbs, and 21 g protein.

Something worth mentioning here is that it’s incredibly hard to balance most plant-based meals when it comes to macros, as most options for protein are also accompanied by higher amounts of carbs - think beans, quinoa, nuts, nutritional yeast, and so on. I believe this is one of Green Chef’s most balanced plant-based meals as many other options include 16 g+ higher carbs per serving and about half the protein. Also, the pairing of chickpeas with pine nuts and couscous helps improve this meal's amino acid profile, but you’ll have to check with Green Chef to see what the total amino acid profile for this meal is before assuming it provides a complete protein source.

Best Fast & Fit Meal - Garlic-Honey Chicken

If you’re not totally restricted by diets and are searching for a meal that’s a bit more fun but still helps your waistline, then you should try Green Chef’s Garlic Honey Chicken. Its macronutrient profile is 32 g fat, 51 g carbs, and 51 g protein (not that you need this much protein in one meal, but you can always cut your portions down and save them for later).

This dish pairs chicken cutlets with pearl couscous, kale, roasted red peppers, and almonds, then it tops it off with a sweet and flavorful gluten-free teriyaki sauce, lemon, honey, and spice blend. If you’re someone who has issues with blood sugar, I would definitely suggest either removing or at least reducing your addition of the teriyaki and honey since each serving of this meal prepared the standard way has 11 g of sugar.

Also, something else that’s great about this meal is most of the fat per serving is controlled by you since it stems from the cooking oil and butter. Thus, if you need your meal to have less fat to better absorb the carbs or to cut down on calories, just adjust the amount of fat you add to the meal - i.e. cut down your portions in half, so use ½ tbsp of oil rather than 1 tbsp of oil to reduce the fat by roughly 7-8 grams.