- 3 hours ago
Looking for easy, high-protein dinners that work for real life? In this video, Nicole shares five simple, satisfying dinners that anyone can make—each using just 5 ingredients (plus pantry staples) and delivering a balance of protein and fiber to help keep you full and energized.
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00:00With the new year and new you, I've got new recipes.
00:02You're only five ingredients away
00:04from five new high protein dinners.
00:07They also are high in fiber
00:09because now we know that's important too.
00:11For me, the best way to stay on track
00:13is to keep things easy and approachable
00:15and that's what I've got for you today.
00:16I'm starting off with skillet, chicken and white bean stew.
00:20Five ingredients here, bone in, skin on chicken thighs.
00:24This is my favorite thing to start a one pan meal with.
00:28White beans, cannellini beans,
00:30whatever kind of bean you like.
00:32Cherry or grape tomatoes.
00:34A great flavor shortcut for some cheese.
00:37And then baby spinach.
00:38This gives us that added nutrition to the meal and round it out.
00:41Per usual, when it comes to my ingredient counting dinners,
00:44you know that pantry staples do not count.
00:47Pantry staples include things like onions and garlic,
00:51which you should have at all times.
00:53Of course, all our dried spices, salt and pepper,
00:57olive oil, butter, you get the idea.
01:00Stock that pantry, then you only need five ingredients.
01:02Let's go.
01:03I'm gonna start by seasoning
01:04and then crisping up my chicken thighs.
01:06This is what's going to lend the flavor
01:08throughout the whole dish.
01:10Chicken thighs are one of the best, most affordable proteins
01:14and chicken in general is high in protein.
01:16So I'm just gonna season it simply
01:18with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
01:19Just, you know, measure with your heart, people.
01:21Don't feel like you have to stick
01:22to the exact recipe measurements.
01:25All right, and then this goes down into a skillet.
01:26I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil
01:28just to help them get going.
01:29You're gonna place these skin side down
01:31and let them cook for at least five minutes
01:34without touching them.
01:35Skin automatically tightens up.
01:37Once it's down, season the other side,
01:40and then you gotta learn to walk away.
01:42I would say go prep the other ingredients,
01:43but other than chop an onion,
01:45you really don't have to do anything else.
01:46Cook it for about one minute on the second side
01:48and then take them out.
01:49They're not gonna be cooked at this point.
01:51Some of this skin shrunk a little too much.
01:53That's because my pan was a little hot
01:55when I first put it in, but it's fine.
01:56It has served its purpose.
01:58Look at all that great flavor it has rendered out.
02:00I'm just gonna keep that in there
02:02because it's going to cook the rest of the dish.
02:04Going in with the onion.
02:05The onion's gonna help lift some of that flavor off.
02:09I'm gonna give that just about a minute.
02:10Now we're making the stew.
02:12To further lift the flavor,
02:14we're just gonna go in with some, our tomatoes.
02:16You can cut these in half if you want.
02:17I'm just gonna cook them down.
02:18Once they start to burst,
02:20they'll release that acid to lift off the rest of the flavor.
02:23This is how you clean your skillet.
02:25Also going in with about a quarter cup of water.
02:27Now we're just gonna cook this
02:28until those tomatoes start to break down
02:30and burst a little bit.
02:31And now we go in with our white beans.
02:33Gonna go in with about another quarter cup of water.
02:36We're gonna get a good bit of flavor,
02:37but I'm gonna add in just a little bit more salt and pepper here.
02:40This is gonna be one of those good, rustic meals.
02:42It's still cold outside.
02:44This is gonna warm you up.
02:45I promised high protein,
02:46which we are definitely getting from the chicken
02:47and also the beans,
02:48but the beans also give us that fiber we're looking for.
02:51So I'm gonna add the chicken back in at this point
02:53and let it finish cooking.
02:55So it just kind of simmers in this.
02:56It's gonna give off a little more liquid too as it cooks.
02:59Any juices that have accumulated, let them go in.
03:02And I'm gonna cover this
03:03and let it simmer until that chicken's cooked.
03:05I love a one pan meal.
03:07It's been about 25 to 27 minutes.
03:10That chicken is cooked through,
03:11and look at all those juices that have come.
03:13This is a true stew now.
03:15I'm gonna take the chicken out and stir in that spinach.
03:18I'm doing the whole box
03:20because we're trying to get all the fiber we can,
03:21and it's gonna cook down to nothing.
03:24And then I'm going in with Boris and cheese.
03:26This is just like the biggest flavor booster.
03:29It's gonna add creaminess.
03:31Even though it's pretty creamy from the beans,
03:34you could really use this as an optional ingredient.
03:37Half is really all you need.
03:38You can put the whole block in if you want to.
03:40That's just one of those secret shortcut ingredients
03:43when you're trying to cut or minimize ingredients.
03:46Doesn't that look good?
03:47And it doesn't look like it was only five ingredients.
03:49We're talking, the chicken just created
03:51so much magic in this one pan.
03:54Give it a little taste.
03:58Mmm.
03:59My God, that is good.
04:00Might just add a little more pepper.
04:02Let me show y'all how good this looks.
04:04And if you're not watching your carbs,
04:06get the crusty bread.
04:07This is even better than I thought it was gonna be.
04:09Start with our white bean stew.
04:12Chicken on top.
04:14You can garnish if you want.
04:15We're just keeping it at five ingredients for this one.
04:17High protein, high fiber.
04:20100% delicious right here.
04:21How do it taste?
04:22Let me tell you.
04:24It's really hard to mess up chicken thighs, y'all.
04:26Look how perfectly juicy that is.
04:29If you're not cooking with chicken thighs very often, you are really missing out.
04:39Definitely the best cut of chicken.
04:41This is comforting.
04:42It's so full of flavor.
04:43It does kind of make you feel good.
04:44Like it doesn't feel like you're eating anything, you know, unhealthy.
04:48It's definitely hearty also.
04:50Besides the little bit of worsen cheese, those beans lend so much creaminess.
04:54You get the juicy burst of tomato.
04:55Chickens cook perfectly.
04:57I hate when we start off so good because it's gonna be hard to beat this one.
05:00But I'll try.
05:01Next up, five ingredient salmon teriyaki bowls.
05:04This dinner incorporates a couple of great shortcuts.
05:07Of course, we're starting with salmon, high protein indeed.
05:11It's also one of the easiest fishes to cook.
05:14Edamame, just frozen shelled edamame.
05:17This is going to add fiber and more protein.
05:19I'm also using frozen pre-cooked jasmine rice.
05:23You can make your own.
05:25You can just buy the pouches.
05:26You can do whatever.
05:27You want to get a good store-bought teriyaki sauce.
05:29Not one that's like super thick.
05:31I like this one that has, you know, a bunch of seeds in it.
05:34It's on the thinner side.
05:35And then avocado.
05:37This is just going to add great flavor, a little creaminess,
05:39and it's going to add to the texture moment to make that perfect bite.
05:42Start out by lining your baking sheet with a little foil
05:45because teriyaki sauce is sticky.
05:48Okay, when you go to cook it, you don't want that mess in your pan.
05:51You can give it a spray also.
05:53And you're just going to place your salmon fillets right down on it.
05:56And I'm going to do just a little bit of salt and pepper.
05:59And then you're going to drizzle a little bit of your teriyaki sauce on top of the salmon.
06:03And then we'll use more later to top our bowls.
06:06And you can just rub it or brush it over the top.
06:09This is going to help give the salmon a good crust.
06:12So this goes into the oven 450 degrees for just about 10 to 12 minutes.
06:16You'll know your salmon is done when it starts to kind of have that white
06:20stuff kind of come out the sides a little bit.
06:22So it's got its own little internal thermometer.
06:24And that gives me enough time to make our rice and edamame.
06:28And you're just going to prepare both according to package directions.
06:34Look at this.
06:34And you can see what I was saying, how the white is kind of coming out the sides a little bit.
06:41That tells you it's done.
06:43Rice on the bottom.
06:44See, I like doing bowls and things like that because they're kind of build your own.
06:47And my kids love that because they can make it with whatever toppings they like.
06:51Edamame on next.
06:53About a half a cup is a serving here, which is like nine grams of protein and eight grams of fiber.
06:59It's good.
07:00Then I'm going to take one salmon fillet per bowl
07:03and just kind of flake it on top.
07:05And see, it just happens so easily because it's cooked so perfectly.
07:11Now I'm going in with some avocado.
07:13This is really just going to help make this, you know, we've got all kinds of things going on.
07:16That edamame is going to be slightly like crisp tender.
07:19Then you're gonna have this creamy avocado.
07:21It's kind of buttery and it goes great with that kind of tangy teriyaki sauce.
07:25I've warmed up a little more of that teriyaki sauce to drizzle over the top.
07:28Optional garnish, but I'm going for it.
07:31Some green onion, that looks divine.
07:35Salmon teriyaki bowls, only five ingredients.
07:38I'm excited about this perfect bite.
07:40You can probably just go straight in and come out with it.
07:48This has so much flavor.
07:49That salmon is cooked perfectly.
07:51It's so buttery.
07:52This is another one that just kind of makes you feel good.
07:54When you eat it, you feel healthy, you feel satisfied.
08:02That's the family friendly.
08:03A teriyaki, you know, has a little bit of a sweetness.
08:06You can add a little kick to balance that out.
08:12Next up, you know, I've always got something for that taco Tuesday.
08:16This five ingredient dinner is pork and black bean tostadas.
08:20Lots of protein from the pork.
08:22I'm doing pork tenderloin.
08:23You could also do a pork shoulder ingredient in two.
08:25Black beans to season it.
08:28Taco sauce.
08:29You could also do enchilada sauce.
08:30Something that's really like concentrated and potent is what we want here.
08:34We're going to serve it up on tostada shells.
08:37I know sometimes when we're doing high protein, we're doing low carb.
08:41These are not that good and they're just freaking delicious.
08:44And then, you know, one of my favorite shortcuts
08:46when we're trying to make five ingredient dinners are the bagged salads
08:50because they have multiple ingredients within one bag.
08:52And this guacamole crunch is going to be delicious on top of this.
08:55And it rounds out the meal.
08:57Just going to simply place our pork tenderloins straight into the slow cooker.
09:01And then we are simply pouring over our taco sauce.
09:03This kind of gives us that taco seasoning packet,
09:07but also the liquid tomato base like a salsa.
09:10So it's kind of like a two for one special here.
09:12We can check for seasoning later,
09:14but I'm just going to pour this whole bottle over the pork, set it, and forget it.
09:17You can go low here four to six hours or high for about three hours.
09:21Pork tenderloin is done.
09:23I'm just going to transfer it to another cutting board
09:26and kind of shred it up a little bit.
09:28Then to this flavorful liquid, I'm going to go in with our black beans
09:31and kind of let them soak in some of that flavor.
09:34I'm going to give them a little bit of a mash.
09:36That way I can kind of spread it onto the tostada
09:38and then it's really going to absorb some of that liquid.
09:41That's happening. I'm going to shred this pork up a little bit.
09:43All right, so after it's shredded,
09:44I'm just going to go in with a knife and kind of chop it up a little bit
09:48so that the pieces aren't too long.
09:51That is ready to go.
09:52I'm just going to transfer it to a dish.
09:54So I like to set this up kind of like stations, like a taco station.
09:58I'm going to spoon some of this juice over it.
10:00Do that before you put the beans in.
10:03Some of the juices, keep that moistened a little bit.
10:06And we build our tostada.
10:08Put some beans on the bottom.
10:10Top it with our good pork.
10:11And then our salad mix, whatever Southwestern salad mix you want, right on top.
10:18I'm going on with a little more taco sauce.
10:21Dinner number three is done.
10:24High protein, high fiber.
10:25It's really not that hard to get protein and fiber and still make it exciting.
10:35That is so satisfying because of all the textures going on.
10:38This is such a good, hearty dinner.
10:39It's not going to leave you hungry after a couple of these.
10:42I mean, this is a fun twist.
10:44An easy five ingredient twist to your taco Tuesdays.
10:49A flavor twist on this next five ingredient dinner.
10:51How about chicken curry stuffed sweet potatoes?
10:55This is the perfect something different you're looking for in your weekly rotation.
10:58It's going to be healthy.
10:59It's packed with protein and fiber and most of all, flavor.
11:03So the five ingredients here, we're going to use just pre-cooked chicken.
11:07You can do this ahead of time in your meal prep,
11:09or you can buy a rotisserie chicken and cut it up.
11:11And of course, sweet potatoes, one per person.
11:14Some cilantro.
11:15That's going to be our green veggie.
11:17Store-bought shortcut is some madras curry sauce.
11:21This is going to go so well with the sweet potatoes.
11:23It's really going to boost just like a simple kind of plain chicken and sweet potatoes.
11:28It's got the coconut cream in there, but also garlic, ginger, lots of spices.
11:33I mean, that's going to be good.
11:38And then for some added nutrition, bulk it up.
11:41Fiber and more protein.
11:44Some chickpeas.
11:45Start by getting your potatoes cooking.
11:47You can do this in the oven or in the microwave.
11:50Give them a little poke.
11:51I've already washed them.
11:52And then I always cook sweet potatoes on foil lined or parchment lined baking sheets
11:57because they tend to ooze and get a little sticky.
11:59In we go.
12:00Those usually take about 45 minutes.
12:02I'll go ahead and get my simmer sauce going.
12:05And this is what we're going to stuff the potatoes with.
12:07So I am going to use my favorite pantry staple that goes in almost every single thing I make.
12:12An onion.
12:12This just kind of helps take something that's store-bought and make it taste a little more homemade.
12:17All right, so then everything else just gets mixed together in a pan.
12:21In a skillet, add some olive oil.
12:23Get the onion going.
12:24Kind of add just about a half a teaspoon of salt to help it soften up.
12:27And then you want to cook this down until the onion is translucent.
12:31That way you don't get, you know, a crunchy bite of onion.
12:34Because the sauce isn't going to take long to cook.
12:36And also that's where the maximum like aromatics can, you know, kind of leach out into the rest of the dish.
12:42So just let it go about four minutes.
12:45All right, when it's starting to get translucent, go in with our simmer sauce.
12:49Then I'm going to add a little water to the jar.
12:52Kind of stretch the sauce a little further.
12:54Oh my god, immediately it smells so good.
12:57And then I'm also going in with the chickpeas.
12:59A lot of times when you do a chicken curry like this, it has cubed up sweet potatoes in it.
13:04So the fact that we're serving it in a sweet potato just makes sense.
13:08All right, and then I'm also just going to go in with the chicken.
13:10And I'm just going to let it kind of simmer in here for about 10 to 15 minutes.
13:13This is a meal where if I was making it for my kids, like my son's not going to eat it like this.
13:18But he will eat the chicken, he will eat the sweet potato, and he'll just keep that separate.
13:22So I'm not cooking two dinners.
13:25He's just missing out.
13:26I'm just going to cover it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
13:30This one may be the easiest of the day.
13:33Definitely the most interesting.
13:35All right, we have our baked sweet potato.
13:37Give it a smash.
13:39Fluff it up a little bit.
13:40And we're going to load it up because we've got to get our protein in, you know.
13:44You want to get a little bit of everything.
13:46The cilantro is what's going to make it.
13:48If you are one of the people that does not like cilantro, you got to put something fresh on top.
13:53Green onions would be a great substitute here.
13:55But this is going to be so good.
13:58You could also serve this with, you know, some green beans or a salad.
14:02But I had to keep it five ingredients.
14:05This right here is a complete meal.
14:07There's going to be so much flavor in that sauce that you really don't have to add any extra seasoning.
14:13Look straight in with the fork, straight out with the perfect bite.
14:20Mmm.
14:23Mmm.
14:23I'm telling you, if you love a sweet potato curry or really any kind of curry, this is the perfect dinner.
14:29This, to me, is the ultimate new year, healthy dinner.
14:34Looking for something different to break up the weekly meal rut.
14:38Chicken, curry, sweet potatoes, five ingredient dinner is the meal for you.
14:43Mmm.
14:44For my final trick, I am bringing out some carbs with this high protein meal.
14:48We are doing a five ingredient high protein pasta bake.
14:52Starting with the pasta.
14:54You want to choose whatever high protein pasta you like.
14:58I couldn't really find a lasagna noodle that is high protein, so I'm doing a rigatoni.
15:04There are lots of protein options out there.
15:06This is the one I like because it tastes more like pasta.
15:08I know it doesn't have the most protein of any.
15:10They have these that are like 20 and 21 grams of protein per serving.
15:14But you got to look at the servings to really make it make sense.
15:17All pasta has some protein in it.
15:19And if you're looking for extra fiber, you may just want like a whole wheat pasta here.
15:24And they do have the whole wheat lasagna.
15:26You do whatever you like.
15:27I'm going to do whatever I like.
15:29Ingredient number two, store bought sauce.
15:31If you make your own, you may have more ingredients than five.
15:35But shortcuts when it comes to five ingredient dinners.
15:38Cheese.
15:39I've got the Italian blend cheese because it's more than one
15:42variety of cheese and I can keep the ingredient list down.
15:45And then instead of ricotta cheese, we're going to do cottage cheese.
15:48I like to find the super small curd or do what I do.
15:53If you find the large curd, just whip it up a little bit with your blender or food processor.
15:57And then you're going to get more of the texture of that ricotta cheese.
15:59But this has a lot of protein in it, 13 grams per serving.
16:03But the bulk of our protein is going to come from our meat.
16:05So we have three really good sources of protein here.
16:08All right.
16:08So I'm just going to start by cooking my pasta and my meat.
16:12I'm using a lean ground beef.
16:13So I'm going to start with just a little bit of olive oil in to, you guessed it, cook some onion.
16:18I'm just going to boost that flavor a little bit since we're using a store bought sauce.
16:22All right.
16:22When that gets going, go in with your ground beef.
16:24Just going to add in just a little bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder.
16:28All right.
16:29And then once this is getting browned and crumbled, then you stir in your sauce.
16:32What's good about sheet pan lasagna is that it's going to cook in less time than regular
16:36layered lasagna.
16:37Plus you get all the crusty bits on the outside.
16:41That's what makes it so good.
16:44While that's cooking, I'll go in with my pasta.
16:46We're just going to cook it till it's al dente and you want to salt the water.
16:50That'll take about 10 minutes.
16:51This will take about 10 to 15 minutes and then we'll get it on the sheet pan.
16:58Eating healthy and getting facials.
17:01You're going to return your pasta to the pot and stir the sauce in.
17:05You could stop here, but why?
17:07About to make this triple delicious.
17:09On a sheet pan, drizzle some olive oil.
17:12You want this to go all around the edges because this is what's going to help
17:15that pasta get a little bit crispy.
17:17All right.
17:17And down goes our pasta.
17:20Alternatively, you could do this in just a baking dish and make it like a layered
17:24baked pasta, like just baked ziti.
17:27But I'm telling you, this really just gives it kind of like a whole different experience.
17:30And because we're using high protein pasta, sometimes
17:33the texture is not the same as, you know, our traditional pasta that we know and love.
17:38So to make it kind of extra crispy, just kind of, I don't know, kind of helps it along.
17:43Now for the cheese.
17:45So I'm going to mix the cottage cheese that we've blended up a little bit.
17:51And then I'm going to mix in some of the Italian blended cheese also into this,
17:55along with a little bit of garlic powder, salt and pepper.
17:59If you wanted to do a sixth ingredient, this would be the time to add it.
18:03And you can add in some chopped spinach or fresh basil here.
18:08I am missing the veggie in this dinner.
18:11So you could just serve it with a little salad.
18:13Okay. And then we're going to dollop this over the pasta.
18:16My dad uses cottage cheese instead of, or cottage cheese in his lasagna normally.
18:22I think a lot of people do that.
18:23So this really isn't weird.
18:25It's not really a high protein hack.
18:28People have been doing that a lot.
18:29And then we're going to sprinkle on the rest of the cheese and pop it in the oven.
18:32You're going to cook this at a pretty high temperature.
18:35You want to go about 425 until everything is bubbly and kind of crusty around the edges.
18:42Crusty bits all over.
18:45Don't look at this and think like it's dried out.
18:47We want all that on the top and underneath is all the saucy goodness.
18:50I am garnishing with some Italian parsley.
18:54I'm just going to sneak a bite.
19:01See, everybody would just want to pick around this pan,
19:03but because it's in the sheet pan everybody's going to get their own piece like this
19:07and they can do this all they want.
19:08You can even eat this meal with your hands.
19:10I give you permission.
19:11Just makes it more fun.
19:13The five ingredient high protein sheet pan pasta bake.
19:18This really makes the high protein pasta seem like regular pasta.
19:21I'm telling you.
19:22You just kind of changed it up a little bit to give it a more kind of interesting texture.
19:26Mm-hmm.
19:30See, crusty on the top.
19:33That little chewy, cheesy crispiness is to die for.
19:36But then it's still really saucy on the bottom.
19:39I'm not mad at this at all.
19:41A little cottage cheese, Italian cheese mixture.
19:44Let me see how that is.
19:48Mm.
19:51You're going to have to trust me on this one.
19:53And you want to make this pasta bake.
19:55Even if your goal is not high protein,
19:58it should be your goal to put this on the dinner table sometime this week.
20:01I really think these recipes are going to help you hit your protein and fiber goals this year.
20:05Either way, you're putting something delicious on the table.
20:08Let me know which one you try first.
20:11Mm.
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