Protein Focused Meals! Full Week of EASY HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS Dinners! Weight Watchers Dinner Ideas!
Welcome to my channel! I’m Lauren! Plus Size Mom of 2, who naturally lost 80lbs with diet and exercise, using Weight Watchers. I’m relaunching my Weight Loss Journey 2024 to get back to my pre pregnancy weight, as well as continue on my journey of becoming an overall healthier mom! On my channel you’ll find Recipes, Grocery Hauls, Day in the Life Vlogs and all about my journey to living a healthy life of balance!
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In Today’s Video:
01:13 Big Mac Salad 11pts/serving
For Dressing/Sauce, Mix Together: 2 Tbs chopped onion, 1/2 cup Plain Non Fat Greek Yogurt, 2 Tbs Light Mayo, 2 Tbs Ketchup, 1 Tbs Mustard, 2 Tbs Red Wine Vinegar, 1 Tbs chopped pickles or Relish, Salt/Pepper/Onion Powder/Garlic Powder to taste.
06:45 Sticky Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs 11pts/serving (1.5 thighs)
For Simmer Sauce, Combine: 1/4 cup honey, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, pinch of red pepper flakes, 1 heaping Tbs minced garlic. Pour over chicken thighs in a pan over medium high heat, and turn every few minutes so they become glazed. Cook until they reach 165 F.
10:00 Soy Chicken Stir Fry 0pts/serving
11:17 Ribeye with Air Fried Brussels and Roasted Mushrooms 8pts (4.5 oz of lean trimmed steak, veg are 0pts)
13:24 Tuscan Chicken Sheet Pan 7pts/serving (serves 4)
Combine 2lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast tenders, 1/2 lb fresh green beans, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, and 1 large spoonful of minced garlic in a large bowl. Season with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese, 1 tsp Italian Seasoning, salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Roast in the oven at 350 F for 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
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Hey guys welcome back to my channel it’s Lauren as you can hear by the cacophony of noises behind me it is almost dinner time here in my house in today’s video I’m going to take you guys along with the week of dinners I have made this
Week I’ve been focusing on trying to do mostly like a protein and veg easy meals that I can follow while on my health and weight loss journey I do follow the WW plan so I will list all ww points down here recently I’ve just noticed how good
I feel when I eat just like a simple piece of protein and veggies on the side making up most of my meal rather than having as many carbs at night that’s not to say I’m against carbs you guys know I’m all about balance during my health
Journey I eat carbs fats proteins but I was interested in what meals I could come up with that were variations on the protein and veg mainly for dinner and I’ve been focusing more of my carbs in the morning afternoon and I’ve been feeling really good this week so tonight
If you can hear I’m sizzling in the pan I have some burgers going for our two kids however my husband and I are going to do a little twist we are doing big Mac salads I’ve shared this before on my channel they’re one of our go-to all-time favorite dinners so come along
And see what we’ve eaten this week while following ww focusing on high protein and vegetable dinners I have some really delicious meals to share with you guys first step is Browning some ground beef this is 8020 I have half a pound in here cuz it’s just my husband and I eating
These salads tonight um I will measure it after it’s cooked though to figure out my points for the salad so anyway just Browning this it is seasoned I just seasoned it lightly with some salt pepper and garlic powder super basic like anything you would use to um season
Up your Burgers if you have a certain burger seasoning you like add that in cuz again we want all the flavor of a nice juicy burger in this salad once cooked through um just strain off any grease whatever your preferred method is I just like to use some paper towel with
Some tongs and I just kind of blot up any of the excess grease out of there I like to do this up first because that way it gets to cool down a little bit in the pan I don’t know why I have a weird thing about like hot meat protein on a
Cold salad I want this to cool off a little bit to be more room temp by the time I put it on top of the salad the rest of the salad is so simple I’m going to chop up some of this head lettuce I like to chop mine pretty fine so you get
Nice little bites and it’s not like too big pieces um I’m going to dice some yellow onion this is going on top of the salad as well as mixed into the dressing I have shredded cheddar cheese um I just shredded a whole block the other day to
Use in recipes and stuff this week so it’s in a ziplock bag and then of course we cannot forget our dill pickles on our Burger so these are going to get chopped since we’re making the salad for two I’m probably going to use about half of this
Head of lettuce save the other half for salad another night I try to get closer to you drinking courage my red cup now I will soon make Ave o i this is a pretty big yellow onion so I’m just going to use about a quarter of
It again we’re going to dice that down nice and Fine maybe I adore you yeah I Feeling High baby iore I did about 3/4 of that into the salad and now this much I’m going to leave to the side cuz we’re going to mix it in with our big mac salad dressing and finally yeah chop up some pickles
This is like five or six um dill pickle spears about the size of a whole dill pickle um again pickles are zero points on the WW plan they’re a great way to add a ton of flavor to your food with a nice acidic crunch with little to no
Points so pickles are a great thing to add into recipes we also love adding banana peppers if we have them home essential to the salad being a big mac salad of course we need that classic Big Mac sauce here’s everything I’m using to make our dressing for today it’s a base
Of mayonnaise and some plain nonfat Greek yogurt you could also Swap this out for some Blended cottage cheese that would add great protein and a little bit of a thicker consistency um I like doing that as a blend I have yellow mustard ketchup red wine vinegar and of course I
Have that diced onion from earlier and then for seasonings some garlic powder onion powder salt and pepper that’s it we’re going to add all of that together in this bowl mix it up and then we can build our salad I like to keep anything that has points for WW separate that way
Josh and I can build our own bowls based on our preference um in here is just all of our zero point Foods the lettuce the onion the pickles I’m going to give that a toss and then we can build our Bowl starting with that add however much
Measured out ground beef we want cheese and then of course the dressing at the End feel and High baby I adore You control I you [Applause] Try one more item you could add directly to your sauce is either more chopped up pickles or if you have some sweet relish home um I’m skipping that stop today because I don’t have any at home right now but that’s okay um I did put a tiny
Little splash of pickle juice right in here just for the added pickly flavor um yeah but that part’s kind of optional but I do think it helps bring all of the pickle Big Mac flavor in and here is our big mac salad so delicious is it a burger no is it a
Salad yes does it kind of help curve that craving of wanting like a big old Big Mac burger I think so super satisfying super tasty and it came together really fast this is a great week night meal sometimes if I’m wanting to up my protein even more on this
Without you know a bunch of extra stuff I’ll plop a big old dollop of cottage cheese right on top I love cottage cheese on salads I know the texture isn’t for everyone but I really like it it adds a creaminess I feel like I get to cut back on dressing a little bit
When I do that so I might go ahead and pop a little bit of that on my salad but here’s a look at the other recipes that we made this week this next recipe may have been my favorite one of the week it’s sticky honey garlic chicken thighs
With a side of steam broccoli my family also loved this one I started by making my glaze which was A3 cup of Honey fun tip when you’re working with honey and you have to measure it out give your measuring cup a little Spritz of avocado oil it’ll create some slip so after you
Pour the honey in and then pour it into the bowl you’re using it should slide right out without having to use a spatula and try getting all the nooks and crannies of that measuring cup and lose a lot of honey honey is expensive so you want all that you’re measuring in
That cup to go into your recipe then I added a teaspoon of garlic powder and a teaspoon of onion powder a/ teaspoon of some smoked paprika and a tiny sprinkle of some red pepper flake I didn’t want to make this too spicy since my kids
Were eating it too but if you like spice go for it add a little more next I added in 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar apple cider vinegar also works really well whichever you have on hand and a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic we garlic with love around here the more the
Better I gave that a good stir and set it aside and then I seasoned my chicken thighs with salt black pepper and garlic powder you could have easily done six chicken thighs for this recipe but I had four left over in the fridge but these were some pretty big juicy thighs so it
Actually fed my whole family pretty well the girls ended up splitting one and Josh and I each had one and a half in a heavy bottom pot or Skillet on your stove I used my Dutch oven I just sprayed a little bit of avocado oil on the bottom I popped my seasoned chicken
Thighs right in there and started browning them on one side and while that started to Brown I went ahead and got my steamed broccoli ready this is a bag of frozen broccoli it is a steamable bag but it’s already open cuz I just use part at a time I just popped what was
Left in a glass container with a little bit of water and microwaved it for about 4 minutes after a minute or two on medium high heat I was able to flip my chicken thighs I just want to get them a little bit Brown on each side before
Going in then with my honey garlic sauce this is going to thicken up and bubble as the chicken Cooks in it and going to glaze all over with a nice sticky coating I flipped them a couple times over about 8 minutes to build up that sauce on the outside and made sure the
Chicken cooked all the way through reaching an internal temperature of 165 before I pulled them to rest on my cutting board then I just sliced them up measured out the portion I wanted and served with my steamed veggies for the kids I added some applesauce pouches and rice since this is something
New they’re trying we always add a few familiar things so steam broccoli rice and applesauce all very familiar for them Nora how’s the chicken good is good she aced it lyla’s still unsure about it but she’s trying it right are you trying new things yeah
And you got lot of stuff you do like she’s eating actually quite a bit of it and dad’s almost done I’m guessing you liked it yeah yeah another great fast week night meal I’m pulling out the use of my crock poot I’m doing a chicken stir fry so in this
Small crock pot I put two boneless skinless chicken breasts 13 cup of reduced sodium soy sauce about a teaspoon of garlic powder/ teaspoon of onion powder and half a teaspoon of some ground ginger I gave the chicken a couple flips to make sure it was coated well and there was some moisture still
At the bottom of the crock pot I probably could have added a a/2 cup of water just to make sure the chicken didn’t get too dried out I would probably do that next time and then I set it on low for 8 hours and just let
It cook all the way through and by dinner time the chicken was perfectly marinated cooked all the way through and Shred easily with a tongs I mixed up more of the same seasonings I used to coat the chicken into a little simmer sauce added the shredded chicken sauce
And a package of Frozen stir fry veggies this one was snap peas carrots onions and water chestnuts covered it with a lid and let it all come together until the veggies were steamed through and the chicken was soft and the sauce coated everything I had some leftover rice from
The night before that my husband ate his on top of but if you’re looking for a lower carb substitute cauliflower rice is also great underneath this dish this next night was truly a meat and veg dinner so easy came together really quickly and honestly I repeat this like
Once every week or every other week but sometimes we switch out the protein so I’m doing two vegetable side dishes I have some air fryer roasted brussel sprouts I sprayed them with a little avocado oil season with some salt pepper garlic blend from Kinders and then air
Fry them at 375 for 12 minutes in the air fryer and in that 12 minutes that those are cooking we’re going to get the rest of this dinner done I had two ribey steaks that I seasoned simply with some pink Himalayan salt I made sure to Pat
The steaks really dry before adding them to my frying pan I seared them on both sides I like to do a method where I do 3 minutes flip them 3 minutes flip them one more time and do another 2 to 3 minutes and this all depends on the
Thickness of your steak it may have to adjust but the best way to get that perfect steak is just to keep checking the internal temperature I like to pull mine off to rest when it hits like 135 to 137 I add a Sprinkle of flaky sea
Salt and let those rest a full 10 minutes so they maintain all of their moisture and reach that full internal temp for medium rare which is one 45 F the Brussels are still going and the steak is resting now I’m going to go ahead and clean and fully dry my
Portella mushrooms and then I slice them about a/4 of an inch thick I don’t want them too thin cuz I want them to have a nice bite to them these are going back in the same pan that I cooked the steak in to absorb some of that flavor don’t
Overcrowd them and make sure to keep stirring that’s how you’re going to get a nice Browning I cook mine for about 5 minutes by then our Brussels are perfectly charred up the steak has rested and is ready to be sliced and you can definitely enjoy steak on your
Health journey I like to trim mine really well of any extra fat slice it and then I always use my food scill to measure out a portion that keeps me on track while enjoying something I really love if you’re not a steak person easily Swap this out with a really nice piece
Of salmon or even a piece of grilled chicken it’s just a simple protein and veg kind of dinner and the last recipe I have to share with you guys for dinner this week was a tus skin chicken sheet pan meal I love sheet pan meals they are
So easy you prep the items sauce them pour them out on a sheet pan bake them in the oven minimal dishes and they always come out so tasty so for today’s sheet pan meal I have three boneless skinless chicken breasts and I just sliced them up kind of into tender shape
I added those to a bowl with some washed and trimmed green beans and a pint of cherry tomatoes of course going in with a big old heaping spoonful of minced garlic and then for seasoning I’m going in with 1/4 cup of olive oil sometimes I use a spray of avocado
Oil which is zero points instead but other than the dressing and a little bit of Parmesan cheese the rest of the meal is zero points so we’re going to splurge on a healthy fat and use some olive oil today I also went in with a/ quar cup of
Good balsamic vinegar and then seasoned with salt pepper and Italian seasoning about a teaspoon wor I added a/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese gave it a good stir so the seasonings oil and vinegar coated everything well and then dumped it right out on a sheet pan that was lined with aluminum
Foil for easy cleanup I just made sure to spread everything out so the chicken didn’t overlap each other and then popped it in the oven at 350° for about 20 to 25 minutes again I used my thermometer to make sure the chicken was cooked through the veggies
All came out nice and roasty toasty a little extra sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and this meal was ready to go this made delicious leftovers and would be a great meal prep option for the week two okay guys that is what was on the menu for dinner this week I hope you enjoyed
Following along today’s video maybe I gave you some ideas to put on your menu for next week let me know in the comments what are you making your family this week for dinner if you enjoyed today’s video please hit that thumbs up like button subscribe if you haven’t yet
I have lots more Family Recipes coming your way and until next time bye I always do never thought I wouldn’t jump oh what a fool but if I fall I will get up again