Almond Roca Protein Shake

I know it sounds weird but it really is good. This started when I found a recipe for an Almond Joy Shake. I didn't have all of the ingredients necessary for that one, although I do now and I'll be making it soon. I started substituting for the missing ingredients and this was the resulting recipe.

It is coconuty (is that a word?), slightly chocolatey, and oh so almondy. You can make it thick like I did and eat it with a spoon, or thin it out and drink it. Either way it makes a great after work-out shake or even a dessert!

Almond Roca Protein Shake

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Lite Coconut Milk
1/4 Cup Water
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
1 Tablespoon Almond Extract
1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (this is baking powder not hot chocolate mix)
4-5 Ice Cubes
Sweeten to taste (I used 4 packets of Splenda)

Directions

Put it all in the blender and let it go!
If you want a thinner shake, just add more water.

This may taste like dessert but it is actually pretty low calorie, really high in fiber due to the coconut flour, and high in protein.

Pepino Melon-Banana Protein Smoothie

I recently found Pepino melons at the grocery store. I had no idea what they were or what they tasted like but I was curious. So I bought a few.

These are Pepino melons:

They are about the size of a lemon. The skin is very thin and smooth, almost like the skin of a plum. They have a very sweet banana-like fragrance.

After I got them home, I had to look them up on the interwebz to figure out how to eat them.

It turns out that the whole thing is edible, just like a plum. Just wash it and take a bite! The flavor is pretty sweet. It tastes like a cross between a cantaloupe and a banana. They are very juicy so be prepared with napkins. You can tell they are ripe by the purple stripes along the side, those don't show up until the fruit is completely ripe.

Since I had this fabulous fruit sitting in my fridge and I also happened to have a couple of almost-too-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl, I made a smoothie. It was thick and creamy. Sweet with a unique taste of banana and melon.

Pepino Melon-Banana Protein Smoothie

Ingredients

1 Pepino Melon
1 Ripe Small/Medium Banana
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Soy Milk
1/2 Cup Water
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
1/8 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum (optional)
5 Ice Cubes

Directions

Cut the fruit into large cubes and add to the blender along with all of the other ingredients. Blend until smooth.

This packs a punch calorie and carb-wise but if you are using it as a meal replacement, go ahead and put in a full cup of milk instead of doing half water/half milk. You could also add in another banana for more carbs if you are drinking it right after an extremely vigorous work-out.

Blackberries & Cream Protein Smoothie

Today has been a good day diet-wise. After all of the house cleaning and organizing was done. I had time to fit in a 30 minute elliptical session. Since it was only 30 minutes long, I decided to make it a little more difficult by doing hills. I was only on level 5 (so the hill goes up to level 5 and then back down) but it was an excellent work-out.

After a nice long shower I decided to make myself a protein smoothie. It turned out really yummy. You could make this with any variety of fruit, but I had blackberries so that's what I made. The possibilities are enormous. Play around with it and come up with something yummy!

Blackberries & Cream Protein Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Lite Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Water
144 Grams (~1 Cup) Blackberries
1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
2 Tablespoons Plain Yogurt (I use soy)
4 Packets of Splenda
6-8 Ice Cubes

Directions

Put everything into the blender and blend it until thick and smooth.

You may want to add about 1/8 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum to thicken it up and keep it from separating.