= PROTEIN POW(D)ER !

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Protein Cake

2012-01-27T10:38:00.013Z

I was going to call it The Nutella Cake because of it's hazelnut + chocolate BOOM factor but then I decided that'd probably lead people to think that it contains Nutella, which it does not. It's darker chocolatey (whereas Nutella is sweeter and more attuned with milk chocolate) and actually more chocolatey than hazelnutty (Nutella packing, I would say, a slightly stronger hazelnut than a chocolate punch). Anyways, THIS cake was yummmowarawuuu! Here's the recipes:

Cake Ingredients - blended and baked for ~ 20 minutes at 180 C (356 F) in a flatish cookie tray:

1 cup liquid egg whites

1/2 chocolate brown rice protein pow

2 tbsps of 100% cocoa POW

2 tbsp pea protein (or coconut flour)
1/2 cup of oatflour

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 pot (170g) of Greek Yogurt (I used

2%)

When the cake came out, it was kind of a rectangular-ish 'thing' so I grabbed my ring cutter (aka a cake ring, aka -> this) and cut out two circles. Then, I proceeded to make my frosting/filling and spread it in between the two cake layers (I was going to just use nut butter in between but then decided last minute to just add frosting in the middle too) and then the top.

Frosting/Filling Ingredients - mixed together with enough water to bind it all together:

3 tbsp of hazelnut butter
1/2 cup of chocolate hemp protein pow

2 tbsps of chocolate brown rice protein pow

1 tbsp of 100% cocoa POW

As you call tell in my illustration above, it took 6 steps to make the cake but really, those 6 steps took like a minute each so don't be like 'ughhh... that probably takes aaaages..."

To make the frosting look kind of flowery and nice, I used a cake nozzle and a ziplock bag. Basically, what I did was, once the frosting/filling was ready, I took out a plastic ziplock bag, cut off the end, stuck a cake nozzle in there, added the frosting/filling to the bag, and squeeeezed (I'll make a video of this process soon, to clarify). KA-POW! ready :-D

Macros per 1/4 of the cake: 277kcals, 32g protein, 16g carbos (1.7g sugars), 10g fat (1.4g sat), 5.8g fiber!

Mini Protein bagels with Cream Cheese

2012-01-26T11:43:00.001Z

At first I thought of steaming them, boiling them, poaching them? Isn't this how bagels are 'normally' made? Ah, 'normally'... There is no 'normally' in protein cooking, is there? To tell you the truth, I frequently just make my recipes by following texture, taste, and appearance, sending The Traditional or 'normal' to the wind. Recoil in horror at this confession, bona fide chefs: I used my donut tray to make my bagels. The one that makes 18 donuts. This one. I like making little things just because you can eat more of them but, of course, if you want more regularly sized donuts and/or bagels, get your hands on a number more like this (I highly recommend baking with silicone moulds - always - unless of course, you have a fetish for scrubbing baking trays? they make life so much easier). Alors, let me just straight into this recipe:

Ingredients - blended together and baked in a donut tray for ~ 20 minutes at 180 C (356 F):

3/4 cup of egg whites

1/8 cup of buckwheat flour

1/8 cup of unflavored whey isolate protein

1/8 cup of pea protein

1/8 cup of oatflour

1 tsp of wheatbran (optional)

1 tsp of honey

1/2 tsp of salt

Let them cool, slice them in half, sigh at their cuteness (optional) and go cuuuuurayzeeee with eating them! I actually had several of them for breakfast - with cream cheese and some passionfruit soft cheese I accidentally also made, OY! how I loooooove them!! Try, try, try this! They ended up bagel-like and bready and, hand in hand with the cream cheese? Mount Olympus were they good!! Ah, ah, ah, does the fun ever end, I wonder?

Macros per 1 mini protein bagel (out of 18) without cream cheese (because you can top them with whatever you fancy the most):

15kcals, 2g protein, 1.6g carbos (0.1g sugars), 0.2g fat (0g sat), and 0.2g fiber!

Lemon Poppyseed Protein Cubes with Hazelnut and Cinnamon

2012-01-25T18:07:00.005Z

Originally, I intended to build a tower out of the protein cakes but, walking home from the gym today, I decided it was high time to use some of the hazelnut butter that I made last week ;-) I settled on cubes as soon as I got back from the gym and saw the cakes: they were perfectly rectangular and just screaming to be 'cubed.' Result was an absolute revelation of cakey hazelnut protein goodness!

Ingredients - blended together and baked for ~20 minutes at 180 C (356 F) into rectangular mini loaves (I used something like this):

1/2 cup of ricotta (can sub with cottage cheese)
2/3 cup of quark (can also sub this with cottage cheese?)
2 tbsp of apple fiber (can sub with coconut flour or oat flour?)
2 tbsp of vanilla brown rice protein power
1/2 cup of liquid egg whites
1/4 cup of vanilla whey
2 tbsp of poppy seeds
1 tbsp of vanilla essence
1 tbsp of lemon rind

Yeah so, I took them out of the oven to let them cool, went to the gym, got home, and cut each rectangle in half. I then placed one half on top of the other and then spread some hazelnut butter in between. Then, I sprinkled some cinnamon on a plate and some hazelnut butter on another plate. What I did was just roll each cube on the hazelnut butter first and then on top of the cinnamon. All in all, I used 1.5 tbsp of hazelnut butter so not much at all is needed - just enough to make the cinnamon 'stick' (and the nut butter hit you with hazelnut nommmmness ;-))

Macros per 1 cube (out of the six that the above recipe yielded): 113kcals, 12.2g protein, 5g carbos (1g sugars), 5g fat and (1.5g sat) and 1.7g fiber!

Dark Chocolate Covered Vanilla Protein Cake Pops!

2012-01-24T18:37:00.002Z

I was trying to find lolly sticks - plain lolly sticks -- but no dice: they were nowhere to be found. Not wanting to give up on the idea however, I walked over to a local candy shop, intent on finding some candy to behead. It so happened that Drumstick lollies were on sale -> 10 for 50p! (i.e. ~ $0.78 cents). So, I brought them home, took a picture of them, and, to be honest, felt absolutely no distress (distress of the "oh no, wasted food!"- kind) as I removed and discarded the candy-heads.

See, I've always hated candy, especially chewy candy so down with force the knife went and around the kitchen the (ridiculously hard) candy flew (it was pretty intense and I had to vacuum the kitchen afterwards... in retrospect, I'm thinking I should have done all this inside the safety of a plastic bag?) Anyways, what I did was really simple. I took out my chocolate silicone tray (this one) and made a protein muffin mix out of the following:

Ingredients - blended and baked at 180 C (325 F) for ~ 20 minutes:

1/2 cup of egg whites

2 tbsp of quark (it's a type of soft cheese that you can sub with just cottage cheese)

6 tbsp of vanilla brown rice protein (vanilla casein would also work)

3 tbsp of ground almonds (or another flour if you don't do nuts)

1 tbsp of oat flour (or coconut flour or ground oats)
1/2 tsp stevia (optional)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking powder

They came out super cute and, as soon as they cooled out, I stabbed them >:-D with the lolly stick. At that point, I took out a big bowl and set it on top of a pot of boiling water. On the bowl, in went 2 squares of 90% chocolate (I used Lindt, mon amour). So, yeah, all I did was dip the muffins in there with the stick and roll them around. I coated a couple of them afterwards in flaked coconut and another couple in ground almond, just to see. To be honest, I kind of like the plain ones best ;-) All in all, man. This was so fun to make (and eat!) You can use any protein muffin batter too, just keep an eye on the bad boys so they don't overcook in there and tadaaaaaaaa protein cake lollies! :-))))

Macros per 1 out of 10:
50kcals
5.5g protein
2.3g carbos (0.4g sugars)
2.3g fat (0.3g sat)
0.7g fiber

A Banaberry Protein Parfait Cake

2012-01-23T16:10:00.005Z

Warning: this cake contains pumpkin, strawberries, an apple, a banana, and raspberries. It also contains 50g of protein. Saaaaaay, what!? Big smiles. I loved it. It combines moist cakeyness with fruitiness, smooth yogurt and mmmmmm!! Here's what I did:

I blended and, at 180 C (356 F), I baked the following ingredients on a brownie tray (any flat tray will do though, or even a cake pan):

3/4 cup of pumpkin

1/2 cup of egg whites

1/2 cup of raspberry whey concentrate (from Maxirrrraw!)

1 little bottle of Actimel (I just saw it in the fridge and boom -> in it went)

2 tbsp of dried strawberries (this is optional)

1 whole apple (with skin)

1 banana
2 tbsp of coconut flour

When it was ready, it came out as a flatish-looking rectangular cake. I let it cool and what I did next was just cut out two circles out of it using a cake ring (this is optional as you COULD just cut your cake into two and top one side with the other) and proceeded to add some Total 0% yogurt + raspberries + almonds between layers and on top.

Macros (per one complete parfait cake): 498kcals, 50g protein, 57g carbo (39g sugars), 7g fat (3g sat) and a whooping 21g of fiber!

Chocolate Orange Protein Cupcakes

2012-01-22T17:24:00.000Z

Do you think these muffins are cute? Do you want to eat them? Would you like to learn how to make them? All you need, besides your batter, a blender, an oven, and muffin cases is a pipping nozzle like THIS. You don't need the bag to attach it to or anything - you JUST need the nozzle. Pipping nozzles are dirt cheap, super easy to use and well, they make stuff look all serious ;-)

Ingredients - blended together and baked at 180 C (356 F) for ~ 20-25 minutes:

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree (could sub this with cooked sweet potato)

1 cup of liquid egg whites

1/2 cup of quinoa flakes (could sub with oats or barley flakes)

1/4 cup of milk (I used coconut milk but any will do)
2 tsp of baking powder

2 tsp of orange zest

2 tsp of vanilla essence
1/2 cup of vanilla brown rice protein (or vanilla casein?)

This yields six muffins. When they're cooked, take them out and let the cool a bit. Then, get a bowl out and mix 2 scoops of casein - I used this chocolate orange casein - and mix it with 5 tsbs of greek yogurt and about 5 tbsp of milk. Add one tbsp of milk at a time, until you get a frosting-like mixture - creamy and not overly watery. So, OK. When the casein mixture is ready, stick your nozzle in a plastic sandwich bag (a ziplock bag will do). Push the nozzle to the corner of the bag and cut a corner off the bag so the nozzle sticks out. Then, just stuff all the casein mix in the bag, twisting the top so there's pressure and the casein comes out as you press it.

That's it!!! The muffins came out super soft, cakey, and mmm! + the frosting!? woopa :-D You can store them in the fridge too and, as the casein cools in there, you'll notice it becomes even more like frosting (it hardens up a bit) so yeah, big thumbs up! (PS - with almond butter inside? -> !!!)

Macros per one muffin (out of six): 150g, 10.3g carbos (2g sat), 21g protein, 2.8g fat (2g sat) and 2.75g fiber!

Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Protein Marble Cakes

2012-01-21T19:04:00.003Z

Today's is the blog's one year birthday, can you believe it? 349 recipes and 360,571 views in a year! What!? :-)) It's by no means perfect yet but, here I am, slowly but surely making (what I think are) improvements! Really though, on today's anniversary of the blog, I want to extend a massive thanks to YOU for reading this blog, for sharing the journey, and for joining me in cooking with your pow(d)ers. This recipe goes out to you <3

I made this recipe to celebrate the blog and, I've got to say, it turned out absolutely marvelous --> waaaa! In addition to having the perfect cakey and soft texture combination, these little marble cakes also came out looking ultra handsome, don't you think? and oh so so nommmmable!

The recipe is really easy. It basically involves two steps and two protein batters - one chocolate and one vanilla. You just bake the chocolate batter first for ten minutes, you take it out, you top it with the vanilla batter, and then you throw the whole thing back in the oven for fifteen to twenty mins. That's it. If you want, as soon as the cakes come out of the oven, you can also rub a piece of 90% chocolate on top (since the little cakes are hot when you take the out, the chocolate melts right on top - creating a crust when it cools.)

Ingredients for the chocolate protein bottom: blended and baked for ten minutes in a mini loaf pan (you could also bake this in a regular bread, brownie, or cake pan... or even in muffin cups! Because I wanted to make lots of little ones though, to have as snacks, I used a baking tray like this one) set at 180 C (356 F):

1 whole apple (deseeded, obviously)

1 tbsp of rolled oats

1/4 cup of quinoa flakes

1 tbsp of almond butter (could use PB too)

1/4 cup of brown rice protein pow

2 tsp of toffee flavdrops

1/2 cup of egg whites

2 tsp of cocoa pow

When the cakes are cooked enough that you can stick a knife/fork/chopstick in there and it comes out clean, take them out and let them cool a bit. As they cool, make your vanilla protein filling by blending

Ingredients for the vanilla protein top:

1 200g container of Total Greek Yogurt (the full fat one)

1 cup of liquid egg whites

1/2 cup of vanilla whey (I used this one)

2 tbsp of ricotta cheese

2 tsbp of oat flour

What you then do is just pour the vanilla on top of the chocolate cakes and stick it back in the oven for 15~20 minutes at the same temperature (make sure you keep an eye on them and don't let them overcook. Take them out as SOON as your knife/fork/chopstick comes out clean. You can the mixture to be moist and not overly bready). Finally, like I mentioned above, you can melt a chocolate on top by just rubbing it on the hot cakes (easier than melting the chocolate in a bain marie and pouring it on the cakes).

Macros per one mini cake out of seven: 177kcals, 17g protein, 11g carbos (3g sugars), 7g fat (1g sat) and 2g fiber!

"Welcome to the Powders"

2012-01-20T23:35:00.006Z

"WHY, Anna, WHY?" she asked me, as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, going through my cupboards as she spoke. "Why do you eat protein powders? I mean... what's so GREAT about them?"

At first I didn't know what to say, which option to pick out amongst the many I found myself juggling in my head. This is a question I get fairly often and one I usually answer without having to even think it over. Suddenly however, there I was, not sure which answer to begin with. Should I talk about the benefits of high(er) protein diets? Should I bla bla bla about the convenience of using powders as protein supplements? Should I go into how great it is to cook with protein powders? Should I talk about the benefits of high(er) protein diets in the context of exercise in general and weight training in particular? Should I list all the great foods you can make with protein powders, list them in no apparent order? Should I...

But, before I could answer, she went on to add, "and why is it that do you have so many different kinds of protein powders? aren't they all... pretty much the same?" No. "No they're not", I replied. "Why, let me walk you through the world of protein powders..." (Click on the drawing below)

A Failed yet Incredibly Illuminating Protein Dark Chocolate Gateau

2012-01-20T16:47:00.030Z

Even though this recipe didn't exactly work, it brought to light several revelations that, taken together, made this whole failed attempt absolutely worth it. Before I go into what these revelations were though, there's a few things I'd like to point out.

First is the fact that I've never made a gateau. I guess it was 'a bit' presumptuous to think that I could make a gateau without following a recipe; that I could make a rich chocolate gateau without using sugar, butter, or full fat (whipping) cream; that I could make a rich chocolate gateau using instead protein powders; that I could make a chocolate protein gateau that looked and tasted 100% like 'real' gourmet-style gateau; that I could make a gateau and have it turn out picture perfect on my first attempt.

What can I say though? Carrying out some experiments requires a bit of delusion sometimes - a bit of fearless conviction in 'winging it' as a methodology. Let me tell you what happened. It all began with me trying to make a crust.

Crust Ingredients - blended together and pressed onto the bottom of a cake ring:

1/2 cup of rolled oats

1/2 cup of ground almonds

1/2 cup of vanilla whey

1 tbsp of almond butter

1/2 tsp toffee flavdrops

I blended all this together with a small amount of water and packing it down onto the bottom of a cake thing. I stuck this in the oven (at 160 C / 320 F) for 10 minutes and took it out before proceeding to make my filling - the actual 'meat' of the gateau.

This is where revelation #1 came screaming out at me (thanks to the gateau that Mr. Blumenthal's cooked on How to Cook like Heston): Passionfruit + chocolate = MADNESS. Mount Olympus... fufffffffffff... I couldn't believe it. I had never thought of combining those two ingredients and AAAAAAA!

Filling Ingredients - mixed together in a bowl:

1/2 cup of strained passionfruits+milk+half-fat cream (to get this, I just put 1/4 cup of low-fat cream + 1/4 cup of whole milk in a pot with two scooped-out passionfruits. Right before the above was about to boil, I removed this from the heat and used a strainer to strain the passionfruit, leaving all the passionfruity liquid on a bowl.)

1/4 cup of vanilla casein + water

2.5 tsbps of cocoa powder

4 squares of 90% chocolate - melted

I added this chocolate creaminess to the crust, stuck in it the freezer, and waited 20 minutes before I took it out. BIG mistake, this was. I should have waited longer! Because it had definitely not frozen - it all just collapsed, revealing also way too much crust :-((( To sum it all up, here is a list of mistakes and revelations. MISTAKES: My ratio of crust to filling was off (I made way too much crush) + Not enough time in the freezer + Possible lack of egg in the filling + Possible lack of potential usage of powdered gelatine (so it definitely sets)? REVELATIONS: Passionfruit simmered in cream/milk + melted chocolate = OMG!!!!! You should SERIOUSLY Consider adding this to Chocolate Protein Puddings and/or protein shakes because Oh, la, la, laaaa! + The crust, while not crunchy, was verrrrrrrrrrrry tasty and super easy, to say nothing of + the filling, even eaten solo, was out of this galaxy!

Macros per 1/4 gateau: 253kcals, 17g protein, 12g carbos (2g sugars), 14g fat (5g sat), and 2g fiber!

Cajetalike Vanilla Protein Cake

2012-01-19T18:08:00.025Z

When I lived in Chile, cajeta (or rather 'manjar' as they call it) was an integral part of dessert-time. I remember in my school's playground there was a snack-stand where one could get Alfajores and automatically make everyone (who didn't) jealous ;-) In Mexico, cajeta is also very popular but they prefer to use it between 'obleas' (thin communion-type wafers) in this kind of style. Anyways, I'm telling you all this because this cake totally reminded me of cajeta! Something about the whole combination of ingredients was eerily cajeta-like and also kind of Milhoja-ish :-D

Ingredients: Baked in a round cake pan at 180 C (356 F) for ~40 minutes:

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 cup of egg whites

1/2 cup low fat buttermilk

1/2 cup vanilla brown rice protein

1/4 cup of oatflour

1/2 tbsp of toffee flavdrops

1/4 tbsp of baking powder

When the cake was done, I let it cool and cut it horizontally into four layers. I added 1/4 cup of almond butter between all layers and proceeded to chop the cake in half right down the middle. After this, I just stuck one half on top of the other so that the result was basically a half cake full of layers. Does this make sense?

Macros per 1/2 of the cake (this equals one big slice (the size of two of the slices pictured above)): 360kcals, 40g protein, 28.8g carb (7g sugars), 11g fat (1.3g sat), 10g fiber :-)

Chocolate Vanilla Protein Cake and some Protein Donuts

2012-01-18T19:04:00.020Z

This is my first day of post-PhD freedom. It's over. The whole race with its sea of bla bla bla ha terminado. Let the doctorhood begin ;-) To celebrate these twenty one years of schooling, all this time spent chained to books, this disavowal of money and adult-responsibilities; to pay tribute to the copious amounts of patience, dedication, and sleepless tap tap taps that had to go into the writing of my thesis, I've made a protein cake and what did it come with if not a bunch of donuts :-D

I began with the idea of just making a cake, I did. But I made the batter for it and, since there was quite a lot of it, I decided it was high time for a side of donuts. Allow me to dive straight into the recipe:

Ingredients - divided into a flat cookie tray and a donut tray and baked for 20 minutes at 160 C (320 F):

1 cup of egg whites

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree (could sub this with cooked sweet potatoes)

1/2 cup of low fat buttermilk

1 cup of vanilla whey

2 tbsp of oat flour

1 tbsp of coconut flour

1 tsp of vanilla essence

1 tsp of toffee flavdrops

1 tsp of baking powder

I divided half the batter into the donut tray and half into the flat cookie tray. For the cake, I grabbed a cake ring and cut three circles out of it. These, I then separated and frosted individually before frosting the whole thing up. The frosting I made by mixing 1 tub of quark (containing 250g) + 1 scoop of chocolate whey protein + 2 tsps of toffee flavdrops. If you don't have quark, you can use some cottage cheese or a thick greek yogurt (just be sure you blend it so you don't end up with any lumps). For the donuts (there were 18 mini ones), I just melted a couple of squares of 90% chocolate and divided that into all of them (I also stuffed one with a square of dark chocolate, for the love of it all; result? madness).

Now, for macros, I am just going to give you the macros for the batter above. You can bake it into a giant multilayered cake, into donuts, into muffins, into whatever you want! It's soft and fluffy and quite yummuluscious so give it a go!

Macros per ALL the batter (so, for both the cake and all the donuts):

605kcals
80.7g protein
44.2g carbos (17.5g sugars)
10.4g fat (6g sat)
16g fiber

Dark Chocolate Vanilla Malt More of Less Cylindrical Protein Bars

2012-01-16T21:28:00.009Z

I could lie and say that I tried to make them into bars and they ended up as cylinders but I simply just rolled them and let the whole thing be. Ready for the recipe? Get a big bowl out or just a cereal bowl and mix together the following

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of vanilla brown rice protein pow (if anyone's in the UK, you can get some of this stuff from here where it's on sale! if you want to substitute the brown rice protein though, I'd say to use some vanilla casein)

1 tsp of chicory powder (it's stuff they sell as coffee substitute, e.g. Kafix, Yannoh, Pero, etc; as a coffee substitute I think it is an abomination but as a sort of 'spice'? it's malty and delicious!)

1 tbsp of vanilla casein

2 tbsp of ground almonds

1 tbsp of orange flavored fish oils (trust me on it, this adds such an amazing added flavor to the bars)

1/2 tablespoon of coconut flour

1 tbsp of oat flour (or ground oats or just ground almonds)

Then, add enough water to this until it forms a paste that is shapeable (add a tbsp at a time or something - you just don't want the whole thing to be watery). Shape it into either 2 bars, 2 cylinders or 4 truffle sized balls (they're awesome to coat in chocolate too). When ready, melt 4 tbsp of dark chocolate (I used 90% Lindt) and dunk the bars/cylinders/balls in there. Stick it in the freezer for ~ 15 minutes. Take them out. Eat them, stick them in a tupperware, wrap them in foil - whatever. They're deliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiciiiiiiiiiious!!!! (I had half of one of them and packed the other one and a half to take with me on the train tomorrow on my way to the theoretical bloodshed that will be my Viva).

Macros per one cylinder bar (the above ingredients make two): 192.6kcals, 14g protein, 7g carbs (1.5g sugars), 12g of healthy fats (3.3g sat), and 3g fiber!

An Ultraprotein Cinnamon Wattleseed Vanilla Apple Protein Tower

2012-01-16T11:16:00.020Z

When I was a child, I used to make my dad build me towers of lego - GIANT towers of lego - just so I could happily destroy them. Here I am now, twenty-some years later, building my own towers (this time, of protein) and equally demolishing them with gusto. Long live childhood memories and their adult manifestations, ey? ;-)

I got a baggie of roasted Wattleseed sent over from Australia by my darling friend Viviane from Chocolate Chilli Mango (a blog that, if you haven't check out, you should; there live some wonderful protein recipes there, like, for example: this one!) All I can say is aaaaaa! Wattleseed is fantastic: It's nuttish, kind of chocolatey, somewhat coffeelike? oh, it's absolutely glorious! If you have access to it somehow, give it a shot. This recipe is my first shot at using it and disappointed, I am absolutely not :-D

I made the cakey bit of this tower last night by baking my ingredients in a round cake pan, before cutting off the edges (and eating them) and sticking the whole thing in a tupperware overnight (I cut off the edges because I wanted to end up with four little squares which to then stack and interlayer with protein frosting). My thinking was that, if this recipe made me want to sing, I'd plaster it on the back of a T-shirt (I wanted to make myself a T-shirt to walk around with and Represent and thought a recipe would be a good idea to stick on there). Did this protein tower deliver? Yessssss! and, to pay tribute to its success, my T shirt has now been ordered.

Ingredients - blended together and baked in a cake tin for ~30 minutes at 320 F (160 F):

1/2 of an apple (with skin)

1/2 cup of vanilla brown rice protein powder

1/2 cup of coconut water (straight from the coconut - oh YEAH!)

1/4 of Total 0% Greek yogurt

1/2 cup of oat flour

2 tsp of roasted wattleseed (if you don't have access to this, don't worry about it, just omit it or add something else)

2 tsp of cinnamon

2 tsp of toffee flavdrops

The frosting I made by mixing: 1/2 cup of Total 0% Greek yogurt + 1/4 cup of vanilla whey protein + 2 tbsp of vanilla casein and sticking that between floors of cake. Verdict? Magical. Stupendous. Phenomenal. Sensational. It was moist, appleish, cinnamon packed, gorgeously-inter-textured, mindblowingly superb and oh so ridiculously fun to bulldoze and devour :-))))))))))

Macros per one tower: 445kcals, 70g protein, 35g carbo (8g sugars), 3.5g fat (1.4g sat), and 5.2g fiber.

Dark Chocolate Protein Cubes

2012-01-14T16:32:00.026Z

Making these cubes is super easy (and fun!) Really. I mean, try it out and you'll see ;-) I think all my recipes are pretty easy (a case of mix- -> -bake -> freeze/cool/frost -> eat) mostly because I cook without much of a method and often just 'wing it.' I'm not into making super complicated food. All I care about is that it sweeps me off my feet - that it makes me levitate with delight. This cubes did exactly that and I'm JUST landing back on my feet ;-)

Ingredients - blended together and baked into 7 mini cakes (akin to this) for ~ half an hour at 320 F (160 C):

3/4 cups of liquid egg whites

1/4 cup of chocolate hemp protein powder (if you don't have any, use casein)

1/4 cup of cocoa (of the 100% powdered kind)

2 tbsp of plain brown rice protein powder (if you don't have any, sub this with more casein?)

1 pot of Total 0% Greek yogurt (this one, a 170g pot)

1 tbsp of coconut flour (could sub this with ground almonds/ground oats)

2 tbsp of ground almonds

1/2 cup of milk (I used this)

2 tbsp oat flour (or just more ground almonds)

Normally, I look at a recipe with this many ingredients and am turned off, thinking 'arrrrgh - too many ingredients.' If you're thinking this about THIS recipe though, stop right there and consider the all the substitutions mentioned above. You can totally do it even with basic powders; just round them up and boom: chuck them all in a bowl - that's as hard as it gets.

OK, so. I let them cool, went to the gym, got back and cut each of them in half (making 'cubes'). Then, with a knife, I cut out a cone into the center of each (for the stuffing) and filled it with:

Ingredients - just blended together with a spoon:

1/2 tub of Total 0% Greek yogurt

1/4 cup of milk (again, I used coconut but any will do)

1/4 cup of vanilla brown rice protein (I used this but you can also use whey or casein though)

Afterwards, I just melted 2 squares of 90% Lindt chocolate in a bain marie (i.e. a glass bowl over a pot with boiling water) and threw the cubes - 'head down' into the chocolate. I kind of just drowned the submerged the cube's head in the chocolate, in a way ;-) Let them cool and yeah, that is IT. Result? Well, fuf... incredible! The cakey bit is super soft and moist (it's the beauty of baking with hemp and/or brown rice protein but you can get a similar texture with casein (not whey though)) and the filling just explodes in your mouth with silky smoothness as you break through the chocolate layer on top. Ohhh: walalalaaaa! my mouth was doing cartwheels :-))))

Macros per cube (each is about 1.5 x 1.5 inches): 70.3kcals, 7.6g protein, 3.9g carbos (0.6g sugars), 2.6g fat (0.8g sat) and 1.4g fiber!

Protein Bounty Bars

2012-01-13T21:35:00.060Z

This coming Tuesday is my PhD defense, when I sit in a room full of opponents and try to battle my way through their questions like some kind of samurai. To prepare for this, one usually just reads one's already-submitted thesis, patches up self-made holes in one's research, and reads up on anything one feels the need to brush up on. There's nothing else one can do. The day just comes when, holding one's boom-boom-booming heart out on one's hand, one tries one's best to make it out in one piece with a serious smile and a P stuck on one's forehead - for Pass. I'm telling you this because, in an attempt to power-up myself for the grueling task of reading my own work and shinning the spotlight on its weaknesses, I made these bars (there just HAD to have something yumful, proteinlicious and packed-full of MAMA MIA!!! to bring out some sunshine into this theory-dense gray day).

Ingredients - mixed in a bowl using a blender and then shaped into four small rectangles:

1/4 cup of cottage cheese

1/2 cup of coconut flavored whey (if you don't have any of this delicious stuff, try vanilla casein or even an unflavored powder would do)

4 tsbp of grated coconut

3 tbsp of ground almonds

5 tbsp of coconut milk (from a carton; you could sub this with almond milk?)

2 tbsp of coconut flour (or just more ground almonds) *I forgot to sketch this ingredient!

When ready, melt 4 squares (10g each) of dark chocolate (I used 90% Lindt - mmmmmm) and dunk each bar in there, moving it around with a spoon until it's all more of less fully coated. Then, stick it in the freezer and, what is that you have 15-20 minutes later? Oh, HELL YEAH! It's a ludicrously delicious set of PROTEIN BOUNTY BARS! Verdict? they're totally like authentic Bounty Bars. I mean they ARE Bounty Bars ('in theory')... they're just a million times better ;-) Now, remember that the secret behind great tasting protein bars - bountyful or not - is to taste your filling as you make it (before you shape it into bars). Besides making sure it has the right texture (you want it malleable and not sticky, you want it to be thick and have a nice texture too), it must be delicious. So, consider adding extra essences and/or flavors to the mix as well (e.g. almond essence, coconut essence, vanilla essence, orange essence, etc.) You love dried figs? Chop some up and add them in. You have a weakness for hazelnuts? add some ground or chopped ones to your mix. You like to experiment with chili powder and/or pepper? Add some. You get the idea; the point is to make them disarm you because, once the chocolate sets and it's munch time? What you get is just a bunch of BAAAAMS of intense and absolute homeade deliciousness ;-)

Macros per 1 bar: 220kcals, 16g protein, 6.8g carbos (3g sugars), 13g fat (8g sat - from the coconut mostly), and 4.4g fiber.

Protein Pizza with a Pumpkin Base

2012-01-13T13:26:00.026Z

I... have a weak spot for games and this recipe was the result of one so I love it even more. Granted, it wasn't a game-game, I just asked a bunch of you guys on facebook to choose today's recipe and this a pizza with a pumpkin base the winner! My name is Anna and I love playing with food ;-) Welcome to this pizza, a close relation to my sweet potato pizza. Let me now say a few things about it. The crunchiness of the outer crust was outstaaaaanding (notice picture numero tres). Also, the topping! Ah, topping it with cheddar + cottage cheese was such a good call because it reduced the fat content of the pizza while maintaining taste and nommmmmmmmness of it all! Voici la recette:

Ingredients (for the pizza base) - blended together and baked on a nonstick cookie tray at 150 C (302 F) for ~ 35 minutes (basically, until golden and cooked throughout):

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1/2 cup of egg whites

1/8 cup of chickpea flour (you could sub this with oat flour or buckwheat)

1/8 cup of pea protein (I do think it's optional but it added a nice extra flavor dimension)

1 tbsp of ground almonds

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast (optional but, again, it added a great uhmph factor)

2 tsbp of oat flour (you could just ground some oats instead though)

1 tsp of sea salt

2 tsp of dried basil

2 tsp of dried oregano

That's it. Two individual-sized pizza bases came out of the above mix (~ 7 inches in diameter). I let them cool and proceeded to top each one with 2 tbsp of cheddar + 2 tbsp of tomato pure +2 tbsp of cottage cheese + 2 tsp of dried thyme + 2 tsp of dried basil + 2 tsp of olive oil (which I drizzled around the pizza, on the edges, so it'd crunch-crunch in style). Result? Yummmm!

Macros per pizza base, without toppings because, really, you can add whatever you want on top (e.g. like a whole bunch of low/er fat cheese, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, spinach, etc, etc, etc): 166.7kcals, 16g protein, 18g carb (4.5g sugars), 3.6g fat (0.3g sat) and 6g fiber!

The Great Bourbon Vanilla Protein Pancakes

2012-01-12T12:15:00.037Z

I don't know HOW to comment on these besides just saying AAAAAA! and giving you the recipe :-))))))))))))

Ingredients

1 cup of egg whites

1/2 cup of bourbon vanilla whey (I used Tera's organic deliciousness but if you don't have any, just use a regular vanilla whey and consider getting some nice bourbon vanilla to add to your batter)

1/4 pumpkin puree

1/4 cup of gluten-free oat flour

1/8 cup of ground almonds

1/2 tsp of sea salt

2 tsps of coconut oil

Directions: Blend everything together except for the coconut oil. Take out a nonstick pan. Add the coconut oil to the pan and turn on the heat to HIGH. When the heat is high enough to sizzle, spoon your pancakes. You can do like I did and make little ones or you can make two giant pan-sized pancakes - it's up to what makes you nommmmm the hardest. That. Is. IT. Result? Madness.

Macros per 14 small (aka 'dollar') pancakes which serve two people or one eating machine type person: 514kcals, 50g protein, 36g carbos (8g sugars), 19g fat (4g sat) and 8.6g fiber.

PS - There are MANY types of sugar-free "maple syrups" out there, particularly in the US. The one I used here on these pancakes was 'Vermont Sugar Free Maple Syrup' (i.e: this one). It was VERY liquidy and not at all treaclish like other maple syrups can be. While my favorite is still Joseph's, this Vermont one was rather tasty (thank God because I brought with me two bottles of the stuff). See, with sugar-free maple syrup, it's mostly trial and error. You can get a bottle, open it excitedly, only to find out that it tasted artificial and is consequently quite nasty. When this happens, you just end up with sadface until you gather enough momentum to finally throw it out of the fridge where it's been sitting for ages - unused. A lot of people frown at sugar-free "maple syrup", asking 'why not just have regular maple syrup?' To them I usually say "you're right," because they are. Thing is, I like my pancakes super wet so I always end up using a ridiculous amount of regular syrup which = a massiveload of sugar!

Protein Apple Cake on the Train

2012-01-11T20:02:00.029Z

Whenever I make cakes to take with me on my commute to the University, I like to make them with fruit and/or veg, just to up my daily quota and have some fun because, truth be told, the journey always feels E-T-E-R-N-A-L. For this reason, I find this a particularly great time to whip out the protein pow(d)er and get busy nom-nom-nomming as the scenery rolls by with its cows, bodies of water, private and public buildings, and the general grayness and occasional sunny 'spell' that pervades this part of the world. I'm actually one of those people that LOVES eating on the road: be it a car, the train, on board an airplane (as long as it's my own food or something outside the family of plane food). Don't know why. I just love it, and things like picnics, hikes, camping trips, road trips, i.e. places where I can take my own food, (prepared lovingly in advance) and munch it down with gusto? Oh la la, big smiles from me :-))))))

Ingredients - WHISKED together and baked at 160 C (320 F) for ~ 25 minutes (not blended; if you blend, you just release all the water from the apple and carrot and 'we' don't want that):

1/2 cup of liquid egg whites

1 whole egg

1 tbsp of coconut flour

1 tbsp of vanilla whey protein

1 tbsp of milk (I used coconut milk but any will do)

and 1/2 cup of vanilla brown rice protein powder

1 carrot (grated with a cheese grater)

1 apple (grated with a cheese grater)

1 tsp of cinnamon (on top and/or inside the batter)

I baked this in one little bread loaf mould (which you can see here) and then in two little ones so I guess, all in all, in makes two small loaves of cake or four even smaller ones. I unfoiled them this morning/afternoon as I was sitting on the train and had the two smaller ones alongside a wedge of Wensleydale cranberry cheese (what a cheese this is!) and then the big one with a casein filling/frosting. The cheese ones were all right (you know what 'they' say about cheese going great with apples? well, yeah... hmmmmm) but the ones with casein were superb! What a glorious combination. I think it's because of the general vanillaness that suffused the cake; it went really well with the vanilla casein :-) The only thing was that mixing the casein on board the train was kind of tricky because, instead of carrying a tupperware with me to do this, I ended up just mixing the casein et al inside a plastic bag so some of the powder 'kind o'f flew out (see here). I made it by mixing the following

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of vanilla casein

2 tsbp of a nut and seed mix

coconut milk (enough to bind, I'd imagine about 1/4 cup?)

However messy and eyebrow-raising it was though (to fellow passengers who were kind of looking on with a "what the... Moses... is... THAT' kind of expression), oooh am I glad I mixed this all right then and there!!! because, really, what other way to do make a casein filling/frosting if not right before you eat it? You CAN, I guess, pre-fill/pre-frost your cakes but when they may end up getting squished in your bag? wellllll....

Macros per 1 mini naked loaf (out of two): 217kcals, 32g protein, 16g carbos (8g sugars), 2.3g fat (1.5g sugars),and 7.25g fiber!

Chocolate Protein Cake with a Chocolate + Vanilla Frosting

2012-01-10T15:05:00.020Z

I made the cake this morning, filled my cup of coffee, did some reading to prepare for next week's D-day, went to the gym, got back, cut up the cake, made the frosting, frosted the cake, sat down with my fork, and devoured half of it. I decided to add the chocolate drizzle on top because, after it was done and frosted, I thought it looked a bit on the bland side. That's when the square of 90% chocolate came to the rescue (10g), giving the whole cake a kind of artsy volcanoness and an added dimension of chocolate goodness.

Ahhhh, this cake was so finger-licking delightful! AAAA! OK, OK. Let me describe it (forgive the overzelousness; sometimes I think I shouldn't write posts as soon as I get back from the gym because it so happens that the adrenaline rush and the superenergy gives rise to lots of overexcited bla bla bla... but then again, this cake would probably throw me over the edge of self-posession whether I write about it now or later so, hehe, apology retracted ;-))... The cake itself, as you can see from the pics (click on them) was supermoist. This is thanks to the ingredients I added to the whey without which it would have been dry and hum-hum textured. That's the secret of whey baking really: add lots of heavy wet ingredients.

Ingredients - for the cake; these were blended together and baked on a flat cookie tray for 20 minutes at 320 F (160 C):

1 cup of liquid egg whites

1/2 cup of canned pumpkin

2 tbsp of cocoa powder

1/2 cup of chocolate whey protein

1/2 cup of milk

1 tbsp of coconut flour

1 tbsp of ground almonds

I baked this on a cookie tray because I intended to then use my cake-cutted to slice out 3 circles out of it (see picture one and two). I bought this cake cutter for £2 pounds the other day at a kitchen shop (i.e. $3 bucks) and it is fantatic because it allows for perfectly round things like this to be made (it can also be used to make all sorts of other things like round potato dauphinoise or this... or this!)

The frosting itself was super easy really. It was just whey mixed with casein mixed with water, i.e:

Ingredients - just mixed together:

1/2 cup of vanilla casein

1/4 whey protein powder

water (enough to make the above pasty)

For an even better - thicker - frosting, it would have been far superior to use greek yogurt or even mascarpone as a binder (instead of water) but... I ran out of yogurt this morning so water it was for me (do consider using yogurt instead though - it makes it way creamier and subsequently more alluring).

So yeah... I just added the frosting to the two layers of cake, topped the whole thing with more frosting, and melted a square of 90% dark chocolate to "decorate" the whole thing. It ended up looking slightly ridiculous BUT it tasted: DIVINE. Got to love protein frosting, no? It's ridiculously good and hella easy and quick to make. The whole cake took me like 5 minutes to assemble so yeah -> very very easy the whole thing was and highly nommmmmmable!

Macros (per 1/4 of the cake):

166kcals

6.8g carbos (3g sugars)

20.8g protein

5.6g fat (2g sat)

3g fiber!

Savory Pumpkin Coconut Protein Bread

2012-01-09T21:58:00.016Z

Vegans and Vegetarians, be warned: this post contains pigeon in breast form. I thought to just include the protein bread recipe, sans the pigeon, but then I thought this would be a GREAT opportunity for me to rave about the greatness of pigeon breast. Moment of truth: I'd never had pigeon before. See, I went to the weekly market last weekend and the butcher, a lovely round man with scores and scores of meat-related chat, started talking about pigeon being so rich in iron, so deep in flavor, so over-the-moon delicious. All the meats he sells are organic and local so, with that adding to the allure of the gorgeous-looking pigeon breast, I was sold. Or, rather, the pigeon was ;-) I made this protein bread to compliment it. The result was a plate of carnivorous protein amazingness that is hard to fully describe as it kind of transcends the realm of words. Ah, pigeon, a new-found love? Its meat is like a cross between venison and sirloin (not at all poultryish like I expected! quite odd, no? being a bird and all). The bread too, ou la la! It turned out splendid - very soft and cocopumkinful - and went really well with the extra virgin olive oil et al, mmm :-)))

Ingredients - blended together and baked at 320 F (160 C) for ~ 30 minutes:

3/4 cup of liquid egg whites

1/2 cup of pea protein

1/4 cup of coconut flour

2 tbsp of nutritional yeast

5 tbsp of low salt soy sauce

1/2 cup of milk

1/4 cup of canned pumpkin

1 tsp of baking powder

I should mention that I baked this in a round silicone cake mould. What I did afterwards was chop the sides off to make rectangular bread pieces and then sliced the middle in half (horizontally) and attempted to shape it into traditional-looking bread slices. I did this because I could not, for the life of me, figure out what I did with my bread loaf tin...

Macros per 1/4 loaf: 102kcals, 10g protein, 6g carbos (2.8g sugars), 2.6g fat (2g sat) and a whooping 5.6g fiber!

A Dark Chocolate Mousse-Type Protein Ice Cream Pudding

2012-01-08T20:04:00.005Z

The beauty of cooking this way is that it allows one to draw outside the lines, giving rise to great things like... frozen mousse type ice cream puddings ;-) See, I'm calling it this because it came out more mousselike - less creamy - than regular ice cream. I think this is because I used Mass Blitz instead of just regular whey. And I'm not complaining, trust me, because I ended up licking the plate until :-( there was no more left :-(((

Ingredients (blended together):

1/2 cup of low fat cottage cheese

2 tbsp of 100% cocoa powder

1/2 cup of chocolate mass blitz

I just blended the above together, added 2 tbsp of chocolate covered coconuts and stuck it in a tupperware in the freezer. Half an hour later, I took it out, stirred it, and put it back in. I did this a couple more times and then headed over to the gym. Then, when I got back, I just took it out and BOOM -> ate it. Now, you can certainly use regular chocolate whey. In fact, if you do, I bet yours will end up creamier - more like ice cream instead of a mousse-type protein ice cream pudding ;-) Ah though, with the crunchiness of the dark chocolate filled coconuts in there? Well, la la laaaa :-)))) I think the idea of adding chocolate covered stuff to protein ice cream (AFTER, of course, blending the ice cream ingredients together) is fantastic (!) because you arrive at *crunch, crunch, crunch* as you *nom nom nom* the creamy goodness of the ice cream. If you don't have dark chocolate covered coconuts (I got these when I was in Mexico), I'm thinking dark chocolate covered almonds would be grand, as would dark chocolate covered espresso beans -> mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Macros per batch (sans the chococonuts): 406kcals, 47.6g protein, 28.3g carbos (4.5g sugars), and 11g fat (3g fat).

Whey Protein Banana/Pumpkin Bread Muffins

2012-01-08T12:43:00.017Z

Out of all the protein powders, whey is probably the most popular. Its tasty, useful, easy to find, convenient (especially for protein shakes) and a great power food. A lot of people are scared to bake with whey though, mobilizing the idea of 'denaturing' to argue against even trying. Your body absorbs the protein anyway though so, please, if you have whey protein: bake it, pancake it, muffin it. If you still, however, think the idea of cooking whey unacceptable, make some protein bars with it, ice cream, make truffles. In other words, don't stay stuck in the shake! Have fun with your whey ;-)

I was going to frost these muffins (thereby enhancing their aesthetic by transforming them into cupcakes) but decided that, in their present form, they're hella good. They're sort like of a cross breed between banana bread and pumpkin bread (thus their name) and mm, mmm, mmm! Also, as a product of their ingredients, they're super moist and super baraboom! Here goes (the recipe):

Ingredients - Blended together and baked at ~ 340 F (170 C) into 8 muffin cases for 20 minutes (pay attention to NOT OVERCOOK THEM because, if you do, the whey can turn against you and dry up the whole bunch (leaving you with a plate full of sadface - we do not want this). To avoid overcooking them, keep stabbing them with a knife and, at soon as it comes out clean, take them out):

1/2 cup of whey (I used ON - vanilla)

1/4 cup of pumpkin pure (or cooked sweet potato)

3/4 cup of liquid egg whites

1/4 cup of low fat cottage cheese

1/2 cup of rolled oats (or quinoa flakes or ground almonds)

1/4 cup of coconut flour (or ground oats or oat flour)

1 medium sized banana

C'est tout. Blend it all together, taste the batter to see what you think (i.e. if you want it sweeter, add some dates, stevia, or honey?), and bake it. Feel free to bake it into cake form too, if you want. You could even slice it in half afterwards - fill it, frost it, boom ;-)

Macros per muffin: 80kcals, 8.5g protein, 7.4g carbos (3g sugar), 1.4g fat (0.8g sat) and 2.7g fiber!

Banana Protein Cake with an Almond Butter filling and a Vanilla Protein Frosting

2012-01-06T12:38:00.018Z

There they are, your bananas, looking inviting and yellow. You go to them, grab the rectangular hard top, twist it and hmmm.... it doesn't give. You try pinching it so it opens up and: no dice. Instead, you've now squished the hell out of the top of the banana (*sigh*). So, insignificantly annoyed, you get a knife out and cut a bit off the top, just enough to create an opening for the peel to come off. With that, the peel begins to unpeel so, hooray, right? Well no, because HORROR OF HORRORS! some of the peel is hard and sticking to the banana meat! Could it be totally unripe? You know it is but you take a bite anyways, hoping that it's JUST made it past the ripe/unripe divide. Answer? It hasn't. It tastes gross and you've now wasted a banana. If you're naive enough to not know better, you go through this process a second time, with another banana off the bunch, only to realize, by the time you find out that its also unripe, that you're a moron for now wasting TWO bananas...

Welcome to the beginning of this cake ;-)

Cake Ingredients - blended together and baked for ~30 minutes in a 160-C (320 F)-ed oven:

1/2 cup of banana whey protein (I used this one, my favorite banana-flavored whey so far)

1.5 pot of Total 0% Greek Yogurt (the 170g pots so, basically, 255g)

1/2 cup of liquid egg whites

1/2 cup of rolled oats (I used GF rolled oats but regular ones, or quinoa flakes, would work great too)

3 tbsp of coconut flour

1 tsp of liquid stevia

1 tsp of cinnamon (swirled in after mixing the above or just blended with the above)

Filling Ingredients - spread between the two layers of cake:

3 tbsp of almond butter (this is optional; you could sub it with more protein frosting, with yogurt, jam... with anything you want, really)

Topping Ingredients - just mixed together and added on the top/sides of the cake:

1/2 cup of vanilla casein

1/4 cup of milk

Some water (enough to make it pasty and frostinglike; adding yogurt to it helps, I just used it all up in the cake so...)

1/8 cup of freeze-dried bananas (they add a nice cruch but you could always just used sliced almonds instead or simply sprinkle the cake with more cinnamon)

So, yeah! All you need to do is: blend the cake ingredients and bake them as a cake. Allow cake to cool. Slice it in half. Spread one half with almond butter. Close it up. Have a cup of coffee. Go to the gym. Have an awesome shooting-for-personal-records-workout. Return home. Make your protein frosting. Spread it on the sides of the cake and on top. Slice it. Eat a slice. Flip out, nomming like crazy. Eat another slice. Flip out again. Boom, boom, bam, Life is good :-)))

I've got to just say THANK YOU bananas! For being too ripe and inspiring this cake! Had you been ripe and ready, I would have used you with vanilla instead, further banishing my banana whey to the back of the cupboard where I always forget its deliciousness. All in all, this cake ended up being absolutely yummy. The vanilla frosting combined with the malty banananess of the whey and the almond butter? This, with the underflavor of coconut running through it? Well ahhh, it's a flavor combination made above the clouds :-))))))) Something to remember though, when making the cake, is to not let it overcook, i.e. to take it out as soon as your knife comes out clean. See, it's very easy to overcook it and then to end up with a kind of dry hum-hum-textured cake (we don't want that) so keep an eye on it and la la laaaaaaaa, you 'll end up with slices of bananaliciousness!

Macros per slice (with each slice = 1/8 of the cake):

163kcals

18g protein

9g carbs (2g sugars)

5.4g fat (2g sat)

3g fiber!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

2012-01-04T03:26:00.015Z

Wahoo!!!!!!!! My protein bars just keep getting better! This recipe was really a complete and total improvisation and I'm over the moooooon with how delish they turned out :-)))))) Let's just say I'll be nommmmmmming on the plane while finishing Eugenides' new book (which, by the way, I think is just OK; by no means as good as Middlesex though, not even close) en route to the UK. These bars turned out stupendous - really soft, with pockets of crunchiness, perfectly chocolatey and absolutely warawuuuu!!!!! Thank you first of all to Jeffers for helping me shape them (and eat the leftover batter). I often disregard their rectangularness but, to be honest, it does make a difference having them nice and more or less even, nah? Anyways, here's the recipe!

Ingredients (mixed together with a spoon/fork) Makes six:

1.5 cups of chocolate brown rice protein powder (you can sub this with casein if you want or whey or a combo of casein and whey)
3/4 cup of oat flour (or coconut flour or ground almonds)
1/4 cup of smooth organic peanut butter (or almond butter or sunflower butter or coconut oil)
1/8 cup of chopped pecans (or seeds or chocolate pieces)
1/8 cup of flaked coconut (optional)
1/2 cup of milk (basically enough to bind the above mix together; you can use but milk, cow's milk, rice milk, hemp milk - anything you like)

As you can tell, I added a lot of substitutions on the list of ingredients above. This is because I'm under the firm conviction that protein bars can be done with anything and everything you want AS LONG as you follow a basic protein bar rule: make a pasty, thick, nonsticky batter that you can eat raw and nommmmm at length for. This is where the oat flour/coconut flour/ground almonds come in handy - they dry up the mix, making it 'bitable'. What you DON'T want, is to end up with a hard or really sticky batter because then your protein bar will be annoying you chew threw and all the yumminess will be thrown out the window next to a hum-hum texture (you don't want this). So yeah. You mix all the above ingredients together and then, in a bain marie (a pot inside a pot), you melt some chocolate (I used 87% dark). After your bars are nicely shaped (note: you do NOT need to bake them), you just either coat them in chocolate by throwing them inside the melted chocolate, or you spoon the melted chocolate on top. When coated, just throw them in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and READY!!!!! Wrap them in tin foil and take them with you on the plane, the bus, the train, your car, a walk, a jog, a ride; take them to the table, a park, your hand, a plate, bla bla bla bla bla. They're easy to make, fun and, did I mention they were incredibly delicious and oh so full of goodness (and devoid of all the random XYZ one sees in commercially available protein bars)? I'd say "make them and weep!" but that doesn't sound like an appropriate expression (unless good food makes you cry ? errrr...)

Macros per bar: 225kcals, 15g protein, 12g carb (2.5g sugars), 16g fat and 5g fiber. Remember, to tweak your macros, just tweak your filling! You can, for instance, up the protein and lower the carbos by using almond flour, you can reduce the fat by using less nut butter, you can up the carbos by, say, throwing in a date or two, etc etc etc ;-)

Dark Chocolate Protein Muffins with a Hella Yummy Filling

2012-01-02T20:10:00.017Z

This, I think, will be the last recipe I upload from this side of the pond (I'm leaving the US and going back home to England in a couple of days). This also means that it's the last recipe that I upload without macros, wahoo, right? I've missed including them as I know many of you have too (again, apologies for that). Here's what I did for/with these muffins. I got to say, they turned out superb!

Ingredients:

1 cup of plain fat-free Greek yogurt
1 cup of brown rice protein (chocolate flavored, I used Growing Naturals)
2 tbsp of cocoa (I used Hershey's unsweetened pow)
1 tbsp of ground espresso (oh yeah)
1 and 3/4 cup of liquid egg whites
1 cup of oat flour
3/4 cup of milk (I used unsweetened coconut but any will do)

I mixed the muffin ingredients together and baked the batter in muffin cases for half an hour at 350 degrees F. When they came out, they were moist inside, soft and yummy but I felt they needed some sweetness. That's when the filling came in = 1 cup of more Greek yogurt + 4 tbsp of pecans + 3 medjool dates; all of these were blended/mixed together and scooped inside each muffin (I just dug a hole in the muffins and stuffed them with filling). End product? Celestial!!!!! The muffin chocolateness went beautifully with the yogurt/date/pecan filling. In addition to adding sweetness to the muffin, the pecans added that crunch factor and, with yogurtness of it all? well, uffffffffffff la la la :-))))))