Peanut Butter Beltsander Brownie

It’s the final weeks of my Bikini Prep and I’ve been gradually cutting carbs. This week, I had to start cutting out my beloved Quest Bars (sad face) so I was looking for a good #cleancheat replacement. I discovered the #beltsanderbrownie on Instagram through hashtags. I’ve had pretty good luck using the following recipe I’ve manipulated to incorporate Peanut Butter 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop Protein Powder (I used Optimum Nutrition Vanilla Ice Cream because this is what I have around the house, however, I’m sure it would be good with any chocolate/neutral flavor).
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tbsp Baking Cocoa
• 1/4 Cup Cashew Milk (or milk/water of choice.)
• 2 Tbsp Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 1 pack Stevia

Directions:

• Mix dry ingredients in a microwave safe bowl
• Add Cashew Milk and mix until smooth
• Microwave 30 seconds
• Stir in Peanut Butter (I also like to mix my Stevia in after cooking too – just seems better to me this way).
• Enjoy!!

For just the brownie: 2f / 6c / 25p. I think the brownie is great on its own, but for me, Peanut Butter makes EVERYTHING better! 🙂 I’m so excited to try different variations of this – maybe with banana or cinnamon. If you haven’t tried the #beltsanderbrownie already, you must!

Beefy Egg White Scramble

Two egg white recipes in one day?! Yes I went there… I’m always looking for ways to incorporate lean protein in my diet. At zero fat and minimal carbs, egg whites are the optimal lean protein, in my eyes. But eating egg whites regularly (twice daily for me) can get boring really quickly so I try to get creative with it. Here is another one of my easy favorites:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup 100% Liquid Egg Whites
• 3 oz Extra Lean Beef (96/4) (uncooked… yes the weight will change once cooked)
• 1/2 oz Spinach
• 2 tbsp Salsa
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Black Pepper
• 0 Calorie Cooking Spray

Directions:

1. Lightly spray skillet with cooking spray. Dump raw beef into skillet, sprinkling lightly with garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Use a flat edge spatula to break meat into ground pieces. Keep breaking the meat until no red meat appears (approximately 6-8 minutes) then set aside.
2. Lightly spray second skillet (or use the same one, wiping with a wet paper towel first) with cooking spray. Gently pour egg whites into skillet. When egg whites are about half cooked (1-2 minutes), add spinach and a light sprinkle of each spice.
3. Once eggs are fully cooked, remove from skillet, mix with ground beef, and top with salsa.
4. Enjoy 🙂

Nutrition: Calories: 168; 4g fat / 5g carbs / 28g protein

As usual, you can play with this recipe depending on your nutritional needs. When my fat intake is higher, I might substitute in a whole egg or use higher fat beef. Also note that I usually eat 5-6 times per day, so my caloric intake per meal is significantly smaller than those who eat less meals. So don’t feel guilty about adding extra beef, eggs, veggies, carbs, etc. to this recipe. I keep this one small because I usually eat at the end of the day, after my protein shake 🙂

Spinach & Feta Omelette

  

I’m currently obsessed with this breakfast… I eat it almost everyday! It’s super easy and quick to whip up. Only a few ingredients are needed:

• 3/4 Cup 100% Liquid Egg Whites
• 3/4 oz Spinach
• 2 tbsp Reduced Fat Feta Cheese
• 0 Calorie Cooking Spray

Optional:

• Black Pepper
• 2 tbsp salsa

Directions:

1. Lightly spray skillet with cooking spray. Pour egg whites evenly into skillet. Let egg whites cook 2 to 3 minutes until set.
2. Chop spinach into slightly smaller bits; set aside.
3. Slide spatula carefully underneath egg whites and flip.
4. Place spinach and feta cheese over 1/2 of egg whites. Fold the other half over the top. Let sit for about 20 seconds and flip one more time.
5. Let sit for about 20 seconds, remove from skillet and serve 🙂

Nutrition: Calories: 153; 6g fat / 3.8g carbs / 20.5 g protein

I like to top mine with a little salsa and serve with turkey sausage patties (gotta get my bro-tein!) You can substitute some of the egg whites for whole eggs depending on what your nutritional needs are. I sometimes use a slice of low-fat cheese instead of feta depending on what I have around the house. Whatever your preferences are, serve to your liking and enjoy! 🙂

Lemon Meringue Protein Shake

I love lemon flavored desserts! Lemon bars, lemon tart, lemon blueberry pie 🙂 (I’ve actually made this before, will come in a later post!) I’ve experimented a few different ways with this recipe and I think this recipe yields the best results (and actually uses the least amount of ingredients!) Check this out:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Fat Free Cottage Cheese
• 1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (I used Dymatize Elite Whey)
• 4g Sugar Free Lemon Pudding Mix
• 1 glass full of Ice
• 1/2 cup water
• Pinch of Stevia/other sweetener to your liking

Directions: Combine ingredients in a blender, adding powdered ingredients last to avoid clumps. Blend until smooth. Add ice and/or water until consistency is to your liking. Enjoy! 🙂

Nutrition: Calories: 212; Macros: 8g carbs / 2g fat / 37g protein

Dark Chocolate Protein Waffles

I recently added dark cocoa to my diet because I realized I was a little low on iron. I usually put it in shakes – but this week I decided to change it up. I’ve been making these protein waffles every Sunday and I thought the dark cocoa could add a richer flavor. I was right! Though these differ slightly in flavor and texture than regular waffles, you can’t beat the macros. For just the waffles: 11g carb/2g fat/41g protein. Check these out!:

Ingredients:

• 3 Egg Whites
• 1 Scoop Protein Powder (I used Optimum Nutrition Whey in Double Rich Chocolate)
• 2 tbsp Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa-Unsweetened
• Pinch of Stevia or other sweetener to your liking

Directions:

• Mix ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Pour batter into waffle maker.
• Take out of waffle maker. Insert Toppings.
• Eat!

I used Reddi-Wip whipped topping on these (in moderation, of course!) So good! I’ve also used cottage cheese and sliced strawberries in the past. Just keep in mind if you’re adding the dark cocoa for its iron content like myself – anything with too much calcium will inhibit the absorption of iron. That’s why I chose whip cream for these 🙂

You can also leave out the dark cocoa and make these plain, add cinnamon, switch up the protein flavor, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Chocolate Chip Quest Bar Cookies

I love Quest Bars. I try not to eat them everyday (they can get pricey!) but when I do eat them – I like to experiment. I’ve had many people recommend to heat the bars up in the Microwave which I’ve found amazingly good (Brownie flavor is the best!) Today I came across this hack from Andrea’s Protein Cakery, original link here: http://www.proteincakery.com/quest-bar-cookies/

So basically you will need one key ingredient for this clean treat: 1 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Quest Bar.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Cut your Quest Bar into 8 equal pieces… (or however many of your choosing.)  Bake for 3 minutes. Take out and flatten each cookie. Bake for an additional 3 minutes.

Remove from oven, let cool, and voila! I served mine with Almond Milk 🙂

(Notice in each progressive picture there is an additional cookie missing… tehe!) These taste so much like regular chocolate chip cookies! And not to mention – are super easy to bake! Now – I understand that cookie dough alone can be more delectable than baked cookies themselves – so I’m not suggesting you neglect the Cookie Dough Quest Bar in its pure form. This is just an awesome change up if you’re looking to experiment 🙂

Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Shake

  

I am always looking for new recipes to change up my post-workout protein shakes. A current favorite of mine is this Strawberry Cheesecake Protein Shake, which I incidentally threw together for the first time at the end of a week when I was low on groceries and didn’t have many ingredients to work with. I had seen a few pins about “cake batter protein shakes” and “raspberry cheesecake smoothies” and kind of threw those ideas together. Wow was I pleased with the result! Now I make this on a regular basis.

I love this recipe because it’s protein dense, relatively lean, and very versatile. I used Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein in Vanilla Ice Cream for this particular shake but I have used other brands of vanilla protein and even cake batter flavored protein and the shakes have all turned out good. The strawberries can be substituted for really any fruit of choice so long as it is an imaginable cheesecake flavor–raspberry, blueberry, pineapple–so the possibilities are endless. This recipe is very adaptable! 

 
Ingredients:

• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese
• 4 strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1-2 tsp sweetener of choice (to taste)
• 6-10 ice cubes
• 1/2 cup of water

Directions:

Blend all ingredients together in a blender until smooth. Garnish with sliced strawberry and/or straw if desired. Enjoy!

 

Mustang Juice

While it isn’t exactly sangria, this drink recipe has always satisfied on every occasion I’ve made it for, and is super-easy to make. I would like to give credit to the sample lady at H-E-B for passing this on to me, though I’m not sure if she created it herself or it was a corporate recipe. I do know she was using it to sample H-E-B’s Italian sodas and she called it “Mustang Juice.” I actually just checked the H-E-B website, and unless it’s under another name, it’s not listed. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

• H-E-B Prickly Pear Italian Soda
• Frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate
• Frozen Blueberries
• Extra Dry Champagne (the sample lady actually recommended dry wine–I used the dry champagne for the “wow” factor, but the point here is to mellow out the other super sweet ingredients).

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and serve. The drink will come out a pretty pink color and the decorative blueberries will float to the top. No worries if the pink lemonade concentrate and blueberries are no longer frozen, just be sure to serve over ice, because those are what “chill” the drink. Enjoy!

Fruity Sangria

Each weekend my mother and I whip up a different batch of sangria. This time I followed a fool-proof recipe with a few modifications, and ended with a pretty tasty result. Our recipe:

1 large bottle red wine (I think we actually used white zinfandel–simply because my mother picked it up by mistake, I would normally use cabernet)
4 cups lemon lime soda (a.k.a. sierra mist)
1 tall can sliced pineapple
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups frozen strawberries
1 orange
1 lemon
1 lime
splash of orange juice

Combine all ingredients in pitcher. For the orange, lemon, and lime: cut into wedges, squeeze, and then toss into pitcher. Stir and let chill over night to absorb flavors. Fill glass with ice, garnish with lime or orange wedge, and enjoy 🙂