Ready for a few quick, easy & fat loss friendly meal ideas?
I don’t love spending a ton of time in the kitchen. I’ve got my hands full with work and creating a life I love. But, I do want to eat amazing food (and not break the bank or spend tons of time on complex recipes along the way).
If you’d rather listen to this post than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.
If I’m going to spend time cooking (and I’m trying to do more of that), I want to be able to get multiple (different) uses out of whatever I’ve cooked. And of course, I want them to be delicious!
This week, I did that with ground beef. You could use ground chicken, ground turkey or skip the meat all together & go vegetarian.
I cooked a package of ground beef and then got three awesome meals out of it:
Spaghetti Squash Marinara
I’m on a huge spaghetti squash kick lately. It’s the only kind of squash I like!
I cut the squash in half, lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and bake it face down at 375 degrees until it’s just slightly softer to the touch. Don’t ask me how long – it depends entirely on the size of your squash. Larger squashes can take close to an hour. Smaller ones can take 20-25 minutes.
Without removing the squash from it’s shell (is it a shell?) I use a fork to loosen up the strands of squash and then toss in the leftover ground beef and some organic tomato sauce*. If you’re not sensitive to dairy, you can add a little cheese, too! I like to add ricotta so it feels a bit like lasagna.
Bonus: when you eat it out of the squash, you have fewer dishes! I’m all about that!
Broccoli Nachos
My friend Maggie inspired me with a similar meal she made. She topped broccoli with a paleo-inspired chili. Talk about making chili both more filling & more nutritious! I don’t yet have bowls in my new tiny house (they’re still at my other apartment) and I have a thing for Mexican food, so I took a slightly different approach.
I steamed a head of broccoli and topped it with my leftover ground meat as well as all my favorite nacho toppings: guacamole, jalapenos, salsa and a little bit of cheese.
This meal was ready in less than 10 minutes and kept me full for hours!
(The picture below shows a slightly different variation where I used grilled chicken, which was also delicious and a great way to use up leftover chicken breasts or thighs.)
Riced Cauliflower Chopped Suey
Did you ever have chopped suey growing up? In my family, it meant a blend of elbow macaroni, diced tomatoes, onions and ground meat. It was quick & it was inexpensive.
I don’t eat much pasta these days but I have a version of this classic that’s healthier, quicker and more filling!
I grabbed a bag of frozen cauliflower rice and threw it in a skillet with a bit of ghee* (grass fed butter with the milk fat removed because I’m a little sensitive to dairy – you could totally butter). While that heated up, I opened a can of diced tomatoes & poured off the extra water. I had some jalapeno poppers left from the Super Bowl so I diced those and added them to the cauliflower rice (you could add garlic, onions or any additional veggies you desire) along with the tomatoes. At the last minute I added the pre-cooked ground beef.
So delish and it reheats beautifully!
If you want to see more of my daily food choices, follow me on Instagram and click the little circle at the top of your Instagram feed to view my daily stories!
In October 2019, our relationship with Thrive Market changed. They decided to put their marketing dollars in avenues outside of podcasting but we still think they’re a good choice if you’re looking to save money on health & personal care products.