One of the most comforting meals to enjoy this time of year is, by far, a hot and hearty pasta dish.
While so many people are focused on soup season, it’s also the perfect time of year to celebrate other filling and comforting foods, like pasta! However, pasta is notorious for being a non-weight-loss-friendly food, as it is a refined carbohydrate often topped with fattening ingredients. Still, it’s a great food that all should be able to enjoy, and people like nutrition specialist and content creator MaKayla Thomas have found ways to work it into a healthy diet. The specialist, who lost 55 pounds post-partum, recently shared her recipe for beefy, cheesy pasta that’s easy to make and great for slimming down safely. Read more about how she makes it below.
@makayla_thomas_fit cozy crockpot meal, couldn’t be easier and macros here are too !!! #crockpotmeals #fallrecipes #healthymeals #dinnerideas #mealideas ♬ That's How Strong My Love Is (2020 Remaster) – Otis Redding
MaKayla Thomas Starts The Base For Her Beefy, Cheesy Crockpot Pasta
One of the best parts about MaKayla’s cheesy pasta recipe is that it not only can help satisfy cravings, but it also is super easy to make, as it’s done in a crockpot!
To start, she adds one pound of lean ground beef to her crockpot along with classic Italian seasonings, including garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, and a healthy squeeze of tomato paste. Next, she adds a cup of beef broth and a jar of Alfredo sauce before mixing everything together.
Thinning down the alfredo sauce with the beef broth helps everything come together into a new, richer sauce to coat the pasta. After adding her beef, seasonings, sauce, and broth, MaKayla gives everything a stir before she puts the lid back on her crockpot and cooks it all on low for four to five hours. However, you could also do it on high for two to three hours.
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MaKayla Adds Her Pasta & Cheese To Her Dish
Once the beefy, saucy base for her dinner meal is finished cooking, the nutrition specialist throws in a handful of shredded cheese and two cups of her cooked pasta of choice, which is rigatoni, but you could use whatever you want. She stirs everything together once more, and that's all!
In her video, MaKayla notes that her pasta recipe serves six, making it a great dinner idea for those with families or those who love to meal prep with leftovers for the rest of the week. She serves her pasta with a side salad for some added fiber.
The content creator notes that this recipe "couldn't be easier" to make, and that each serving contains only 334 calories and a solid 25 grams of protein through the beef and bone broth, adding that the "macros are fire."
"Healthy meals don't have to be boring," she wrote.
