Easy Meals for WEIGHT LOSS Over 50 🍴 Pahla B Fitness
– Wanna see what I ate that
helped me lose seven pounds? I know you do, let's go! Hey, killer bees, it's Pahla B, your best middle-aged fitness friend. And around here, we are
all about making peace with your menopausal body
by finding a healthy weight and moving in ways that
feel like self-love. And you know what really
feels like self-love to me? Eating the foods you already know and love in portions that make
sense for your goals. You guys, a quick disclaimer here. I am not a nutritionist or a
dietician, and honestly, I am never gonna tell you what you
should eat to lose weight. But I'm super happy to share with you the recipes that I enjoy. Make sure that you open
up the description box for the link to go to my website
and print out the recipes.
Here in this video, I'm gonna show you pictures
and tell you about the meals. But if you want ingredients
and measurements and stuff, head over there. I've got four super simple and really delicious dinner
ideas to share with you today. Are you ready? Here we go. Recipe number one is my all time favorite comfort food in the
whole wide world, cottage pie. You might know this
dish as shepherd's pie. And honestly, I have no
idea why my family calls it something different, because
they're essentially the same. It might be a regional thing. I mean, my father's father
grew up in Liverpool and cottage pie is what he
taught my grandmother to make when he came over to the States. This one's super easy with
just a few ingredients, and the lazy way I make it,
only one pot and one pan.
It's a perfect, deliciously
satisfying casserole of mashed potatoes, seasoned ground beef and frozen peas and carrots. I start with the ground beef because that takes the longest to cook. I saute a small onion and
a little bit of olive oil, and then I add the ground beef. Now I season the beef with garlic powder, black pepper and cumin. Not everybody likes cumin, but I use it in nearly everything I cook. And you can use the
seasonings that you like best. When that's crumbled and browned, I add the peas and
carrots to warm them up. And while those are warming,
I make the mashed potatoes.
Now of course you are
absolutely welcome to peel and boil the potatoes and
cook them the slow way. But around here, I open up a package of instant potatoes and call it dinner. Now, traditional cottage
pie or shepherd's pie has you layering the
ingredients with the potatoes on top and then broiling it
in the oven until it's crispy. But since that would require another pan and a longer cooking time,
I simply pop the beef and veggies right into
the mashed potato pot. I mix it up, I let it sit for
a few minutes with the lid on to make sure everything is
combined and heated through. And then I serve it right on up. I like ketchup on mine,
and my husband eats his with barbecue sauce, and
either way, it's yummy.
Now I know that some of
you will look at this meal and think that's not low
calorie enough for weight loss. And you might be right or not. So let me tell you you two quick
reasons why I don't believe in eating low calorie meals
while you're losing weight. Number one, because you
might actually be surprised at how many calories you need
to be eating to lose weight.
When you download my free ebook
about weight loss over 50, there's a link in the
description box, it includes the calculations you need
to find the right number of calories for you to lose weight. It's different for all of us. Some of us don't need low calorie at all. And number two, I truly
believe that the fastest way to give up on losing
weight is to eat foods that you don't really enjoy.
Taking all the oils and creams and carbs out of your meal is honestly pretty likely to make you feel deprived
and even unsatisfied. It's much easier and kinder to yourself to eat delicious foods that
you already know and love, in the right sized portions. For cottage pie, the easiest
way to manipulate the calories either up or down is with the ground beef. When you buy 93 or 95%
lean versus 75 or 80%, it'll save you hundreds of calories if you need to save them. And if you actually need
to add more calories to make it fit your
calorie target for the day, I suggest that you add potatoes to the recipe, because I love potatoes. Recipe number two is
something that I made up a few years ago when I
had very few ingredients in my pantry and no time to get to the grocery store before
I needed dinner on the table.
And you'll notice that
I name my homemade meals the same way I named my exercises. Cheesy Ricey Nom Noms are cheesy and ricey and nom nom-licious. Like everything I make, this one's simple, with just one pot and one pan. But it does take a little
bit longer to prepare, because it bakes in the
oven for about 30 minutes. You'll start by making the steamed rice, and while that's cooking,
you'll grate the cheese. These two ingredients are where the bulk of the calories are in this dish. So you can either make more
of them or less, depending on how you need to fit them
into your target for the day. Once the rice is cooked,
you'll stir in the can of condensed cream of chicken
soup, which by the way, you could easily swap
out cream of mushroom if you wanted to, to
make this meal meatless. I just really don't like the taste of cream of mushroom soup. And then you put in the peas and carrots.
For the beans, I really like
to use S&W Chili Beans because it comes in a mildly spicy
sauce that you don't rinse off like you do with regular beans. It makes the meal a little
bit more creamy that way. But I've also made it
with regular black beans and it's still really good. Either way, I usually add
a little garlic powder, black pepper and cumin, of
course, because that's what I do.
And then I spread the
shredded cheese on top. Baking it in the oven gives
it a nice crispy layer on top that I'm way too lazy to
wait for with cottage pie, but feels completely necessary with Cheesy Ricey Nom Noms, go figure. So, so good! Recipe number three is
the most complicated of the four, with the most
dishes and the most cleanup. But somehow I still love to make this one, because it is incredibly delicious. And it kinda makes me
feel like a fancy cook, because it has a sauce. Teriyaki Chicken Bowls are in
heavy rotation around here, I make them nearly once a week. I start by boiling the water for the rice at the same time that I start
cooking the chicken thighs.
And while those are cooking,
I chop up the broccoli and start making the teriyaki sauce. The sauce and the rice are the
two places where you can cut or add calories really
easily with this dish. Personally, I like it super, super saucy. I literally make four times the amount of sauce that the original
recipe called for. So that's where a lot of the calories are in my version of the recipe,
and all of the added sugar. So feel free to make less sauce or have a smaller portion of rice. If you need more calories
to meet your target for the day, add an extra
spoon or two of rice or sauce and it's a really easy add-on.
When the chicken is cooked, I chop it up into bite-size pieces and pour in the sauce to simmer. While the sauce is cooking, I
start steaming the broccoli. I prefer the broccoli to be barely cooked, so this is the last thing I do. When the sauce is thickened,
it's ready to serve. Personally, I think this
one has the best leftovers, it's just as good the second
day as it is the first. And then we go from the most complicated dish to the simplest. Recipe Number four is something I have been making since my
husband and I started dating, and I still love it, and him, today. Tortillas and beans! Although to be honest, the word tortillas is a bit of a misnomer. These are actually really a lot more like tostadas the way that I make them. And if you've never made
homemade tortillas before, you are in for a treat, they
are ridiculously easy to make and they're so, so good.
You mix the Maseca with water, you portion out your tortillas, you smash 'em flat and you cook 'em. That's it, it takes five minutes. And while they're cooking, by the way, I just toast them in a non-stick pan. I don't use any butter
or oils to fry them. You totally could, I just, I
never have so I still don't. I open up a can of refined beans, I mix it with a can of corn. And I only use the corn because it adds a little
sweetness and crunch. You could very easily not have it, and the whole meal would
still be delicious. And I warm those in the microwave for a couple of minutes,
for like two minutes. For toppings, I like
grated cheddar cheese, cherry tomatoes, and avocados. I use a little bit of ketchup, some taco sauce and some lime juice. There are so many ways that you could manipulate
the calories on this one. I mean, for starters, you
can make your tortillas like they're supposed to be made. The amount of Maseca
that I use to make four or five tortillas is
actually supposed to make 19.
Like I said, I really like them thick. It's much more like a tostada. So you could also change up your toppings, omitting the cheese or
the avocado to save like at least a hundred calories each. And of course, if you need more calories, you could simply add more toppings or make your tortilla slightly larger. And you guys, my favorite thing
about tortillas and beans, the leftovers are super easy to turn into black bean burgers. And if you haven't seen my recipe for that super simple and very yummy meal, it's right in this video
here, I'll see you over there..
