A Video Guide for How to Make a Healthier Weeknight Dinner in 15 Minutes

recipe

Do you ever suffer from cooker’s block? It’s the blank you draw around 3pm when trying to come up with what to fix for dinner.

Cooker’s block is often the most debilitating when combined with a recent commitment to eat healthier.

The pressure to make the perfect healthy meal your family will eat can be enough to render you overwhelmed and stuck.

Try a Burrito night - A realistic and healthy Full Plate dinner

There are lots of delicious and healthy ways to Power Up a burrito.

Best of all, burritos are easy to customize so you don’t have to cook two separate meals if your spouse isn't as excited as you are about eating healthier.

First, let’s visualize a typical burrito meal

A typical burrito plate. Two white flour tortillas filled with refried beans, lean ground beef, cheese sour cream and salsa on top plus a side of chips.

This typical burrito meal weighs in at 1338 calories, 11 grams of fiber and a days worth of fat.

While this meal is quick to cook and it won’t make waves with the fam, it also won’t help you lose weight mainly because of the high amount of fat.

A healthier burrito meal if you only have 15 minutes

A healthier version of burrito night doesn’t have to mean spending all evening in the kitchen. Watch the video below to see how we Powered Up the fiber to 19 grams and cut the calories almost in half, down to 708. As you increase the fiber the fat and subsequent calories come down.

Here’s what you’ll need for the 15 minute burrito meal.

Ingredients. Whole wheat flour tortillas, lean ground beef, canned fat free refried beans, microwavable corn (bagged), fresh diced tomato, diced avocado, fat free cheese, salsa and a side of pineapple.

Watch the meal come together step by step in this short video.

Takeaway: The 15 minute burrito meal is a great step towards eating a healthier Mexican themed dinner. The meal contains 19 grams of high fiber foods so you’ll stay full longer and it features half of the fat and calories than the typical burrito meal contained does.

Will this meal help you lose weight? Possibly. But if you’re goal is weight loss, you’ll want to consider the 30 minute burrito meal below.

An even healthier burrito meal if you have 30 minutes

If you’re able to invest an extra 15 minutes in preparing dinner, you’ll end up with a burrito meal that is not only healthier but will help you lose weight. Watch the changes we make to transform this meal into a weight loss meal with a whopping 26 grams of fiber and only 544 calories.

Here’s what you’ll need for the 30-minute burrito meal.

Ingredients. Whole wheat flour tortillas, fat-free refried beans, microwavable corn (bagged), diced fresh tomatoes, diced avocado, fat free cheese, salsa, spinach a side of Grilled onions, carrots, & peppers, side of a microwaved bag of broccoli and a side of pineapple.

Watch the meal come together step by step.

Takeaway: The 30-minute burrito meal is more weight loss friendly because we’ve replaced even more of the low fiber/high calorie foods with high fiber/low calorie foods.

Now it’s your turn

You have everything you need to cook a healthier Mexican dinner that your family will savor and that won’t keep you in the kitchen the whole evening.

Enjoy!

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Full Plate Living is a small-step approach with big health outcomes. It's provided as a free service of Ardmore Institute of Health.

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