Refugee Auction: Get Foodologie Treats and Help Someone Out!

November 15, 2013November 13, 20131 Comment

Hi All! What would you say if I told you I could send you some of these?

Well, not today… but let me explain. I’m in Peru but a few months ago, my awesome friend Liz asked if I could help her out with an organization she’s been involved with for a few years: Refugee Center Online (RCO)

RCO is an awesome organization that “provides educational opportunities and general information about American society, and connects refugees with services, programs, and organizations in their new communities.”

This year, they’re holding their first e-auction, with 100% of proceeds going directly to support refugees in the US! Awesome cause so I’m helping out by donating auction items!

Up for auction is an assortment of holiday cookies baked with lots of love by me! I’ll pick a few of my favorite cookies and send you a few dozen! If you’re a reader, I’ll even let you request your cookies of choice! You can also bid on lots of other awesome stuff. Head over to Ebay (HERE) to check out the auction items and get your hands on some cookies for a good cause!
The auction runs from today, November 15th until November 23rd. Don’t miss out! Check it out!Feel free to share this with anyone you think might appreciate the cause or the treats 🙂I’ll talk to you all when I get back from Peru! Happy Almost Thanksgiving!!!

Banana Protein Pancakes with Persimmon Topping

November 11, 2013February 21, 20149 Comments

I was totally going to start this post apologetically, but then I remembered this article in Huffington Post about the 23 things women should to stop doing. #sorrynotsorry

So instead I’m going to talk about how much I love pancakes, because all of a sudden I’m obsessed. Ok not really, I made them twice. Once pumpkin style and now these guys…

Really what I like about this is how full it keeps me. For someone who often thinks about eating lunch at 11am, these pancakes made me not even think about food until 1pm. Crazy, right? I’m totally pleased.

You should make these. Just saying…

Banana Protein Pancakes with Persimmon Topping

For Pancakes:
2 tbsp buckwheat flour
2 tbsp almond meal
3 tbsp protein powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of ginger
pinch of cinnamon1/2 banana, mashed (about 3 tbsp)
1 egg
4 tbsp milk (or almond milk)*

For Topping:
1 tsp butter
1 persimmon, diced
2 tbsp rum
pinch of ginger
pinch of cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and stir to combine. Heat a greased skillet over medium heat. Spoon 2 tbsp of batter to form each pancakes. Once the top starts to bubble, flip over and cook an additional minute. Plate and set aside.

Melt 1 tsp butter in a small skillet. Add persimmon and spices cook a few minutes, tossing occasionally. Add rum and stir. The liquid will steam and sizzle. Once it’s mostly evaporated, turn off and pour on top of pancakes. Serve with maple syrup (optional). This recipe makes 4-5 pancakes for 1 person.

*Note: the amount of milk necessary might vary depending on what type of protein powder you use. I used Spiru-tein which has a thickener in it. If you use a different protein powder, you might need less liquid.

Just to throw it out there, this persimmon topping would be totally awesome on the Pumpkin Protein Pancakes I made last week. Just saying… get your antioxidant on with pumpkins and persimmons.

Ok so enough about pancakes…

I go to Peru in two days and I’m totally not ready. So much work has to be done. I haven’t packed. I’m not feeling ready.

This always happens to me. I have mini anxiety attacks anytime I go anywhere. Weird right?

How do you prep for a trip? Also, what’s your favorite pancake combo because I’m always looking for new tasty ways to switch up breakfast!

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

November 6, 201310 Comments

Let me just tell you… these pancakes made my day magical.

I started the day by running with Ms. Allison from Sweet Potato Bites. That lady is faster than me (check out her running page!), so it’s awesome to keep up with her!

After the run, I wanted a good breakfast. For the past few months, I’ve had a smoothie for breakfast pretty much everyday, but today I wanted something warm and Fall-like. And we all know… Fall = Pumpkin.

All season, I’ve been avoiding pumpkin flavored foods, because honestly most of it just tastes fake. I’m probably the only person in the world that doesn’t love the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.

So this morning, in my quest for a warm Fall breakfast, I had a bright idea. Pumpkin pancakes with REAL pumpkin inside and on top.

Pumpkinpalooza in a pancake.

So I started with an amazing stack of pancakes and then topped them with a mixture of pumpkin puree, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon and mace (with some water to thin it out). Seriously delicious. Please try it. But first to make the pancakes…

Pumpkin Protein Pancakes

2 tbsp buckwheat flour (spelt or all purpose works too)
2 tbsp almond meal
3 tbsp protein powder (I used Spiru-tein Vanilla Protein)
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of ginger
pinch of mace
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tbsp pumpkin puree (plus extra for topping)
2-3 tbsp almond milk**

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl, stir to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix together.

Heat a large skillet and grease (with butter or non-stick spray). Scoop 2 tbsp of batter to form each pancake. Cook until it starts to bubble, then flip and cook an additional minute.

Serve with a mixture of pumpkin, maple syrup and spices or your favorite pancake topping. This recipe makes 4 pancakes.

**The amount of almond milk might vary. Spiru-tein protein powder has some sort of thickening agent in it that makes it thicken up, so if you use a different protein powder you might need less liquid. Try adding a tbsp of liquid first and if you need more to thin out the batter, add more. If your batter is too thin/runny, you’ll get flat pancakes so you want the batter to be a little thick.

I seriously loved these pancakes. The topping reminded me of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin butter. Amazing. But what I really love is that you get all the awesome health benefits of pumpkin, that you definitely don’t get from a Pumpkin Spice Latte (p.s. totally not trying to hate on the PSL! It’s just not for me).

I’m seriously considering making a few batches of these and having them the next few mornings, reheated. If they taste great reheated, I’ll let you know.

So tell me, what’s your favorite way to eat pumpkin this season?

Aside from this healthy version, I love love love this Creamy Pumpkin Pie, but also Pumpkin Pecan Bundt Cake and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. One day I won’t want to eat sugary things every.single.day…

P.S. 1 week til Peru!!!!

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta (with a poached egg)

October 22, 2013October 22, 201310 Comments

Today was the first day I cooked in about 2 weeks.

For me, that’s unheard of. Literally the last thing I made was these Mocha Protein Cupcakes. No a single thing has been made other than microwaving soup from a box and veggie patties.

I’ve been busy, but let’s not concentrate on that. Today, I knew I needed to cook. I needed comfort food. Usually for me, comfort food is a cookie, but lately, all I’ve wanted is lamb stew. Umm… random? Yes.

Lamb is a little out of my price range right now, so I went to the store and bought some beef. I started making beef stew with a bottle of cabernet a friend gave me not too long ago.

With half a bottle of wine and my stew on the first of many hours of stewing, I had a bright idea.

I enjoyed this with a glass of wine while listening to Boleros. Boleros is a genre of Spanish music, popular with people my grandmother’s age. I have the musical taste of an 80 year old hispanic woman. If we’re being honest, it’s probably my most listened to Pandora station. It makes me think of my grandmother, who loves to wake up and put on music to listen to with breakfast.

So tonight, with my boyfriend across the country, I listened to sad music, think of my grandma, drank wine and ate a tasty comfort meal.

I’ll stop sounding so melodramatic, because despite the obvious missing of the boyfriend, it was a pretty relaxing meal for me (which was much needed because I’ve felt like I’ve been on the go for the past three weeks).

In terms of benefits to you: This is a super easy meal. It’ll be ready in roughly 15 minutes and it’s pretty healthy and the egg is totally optional, meaning this can be totally vegan.

Mushrooms in Red Wine over Polenta

1/2 cup corn meal
2 cups chicken/vegetable broth
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 an onion, sliced
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1-2 tbsp fresh herbs (I used Rosemary and Sage)
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs (optional)

In a saucepan, mix together cornmeal and broth. Put on medium heat. While it comes to a boil, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat and add onions cook a few minutes. Add mushrooms and cook another few minutes (about 5), stirring occasionally.

If you’re not good at multi-tasking, you can do each one at a time, but I’m a fan of multi-tasking so while the mushrooms and onions cooked, I stirred the cornmeal/polenta. Once the polenta is thick and starts to come off the side of the pan when you stir, divide onto two plates, like so:

By now the mushrooms should be about ready. Add garlic, herbs, salt and pepper and cook for a minute. Add wine and stir. It’ll bubble, steam and reduce. Once the majority of the liquid is gone, turn the heat off. Try a mushroom to make sure you added enough salt, adjust accordingly. Then divide the mushroom mixture over the polenta. You can serve it just as it…

Or you can be a rockstar and add a poached egg, for extra protein and deliciousness. If you don’t know how to poach an egg… google it?

Just kidding. Check out this blog post from Smitten Kitchen.

Place your poached eggs on top of your mushroom-polenta creation. Sprinkle with paprika, cheese, pepper, whatever else you like and enjoy!

This recipe is perfect for two people, but it’s easy to make for one (which is what I did and just had leftover mushrooms for tomorrow).

This might be my new comfort dish of choice, because 1. easy, 2. delicious, 3. warm and 4. wine.

What’s your comfort food of choice?

For me, Ice cream is probably my ultimate comfort food, but if we’re talking about meals: thick fatty soups (think creamy tomato) with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Mocha Protein Cupcakes

October 13, 20133 Comments

Yesterday, I took Jesse to the airport. He’s off to New York for almost 3 weeks for a training course. I hate to be that girl, but I miss him already. So in the meantime, I plan on baking a lot. Because baking makes the world a little bit better.

After I did my search for the best protein powder, Garden of Life sent me some more of their flavors to try: Garden of Life RAW Protein Marley Coffee and Raw Fit.

I automatically fell in love with the Raw Fit, because it kept me so full for so long, but I had a hard time with the Marley Coffee flavor.

Given that I’m a coffee fiend, I thought I would love the coffee flavor, but I’m going to be honest, I didn’t love the flavor on its own. So instead of devouring the Marley Coffee flavor like I did the Raw Fit in my usual breakfast smoothies, I’ve been trying to find other delicious ways to use the Marley Coffee Protein and here’s my most recent creation.

It’s no secret I have a ridiculous sweet-tooth, it’s also no secret that I generally try to balance it out with healthy eats. So I decided to try to combine my love of sweets with a dose of healthiness. These cupcakes don’t contain any butter or refined sugar and each one has 7g of protein and only 125 calories. Drizzled with a bit of almond butter, they’re the perfect healthy-ish treat.

Mocha Protein Cupcakes

1 medium banana, mashed
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup Garden of Life Marley Coffee Raw Protein
1/2 cup almond meal1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Pre-heat over to 350F.

Mix together mashed banana, almond butter, maple syrup, egg and almond milk. Add cocoa powder, protein power, almond meal, baking soda, baking power and salt. Stir to combine. Pour batter into 11-12 lined cupcake pan. I got 11 cupcakes out of this. Bake 15-18 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

You can eat them plain, top them with whipped cream or drizzle them with almond butter. What I really loved about these cupcakes, other than the awesome nutrition stats:

Was the texture. They’re light and crumbly like a good cupcake should be. The coffee flavor isn’t ultra strong, honestly these taste more like great chocolate cupcakes. After all, it’s pretty common to add coffee to chocolate baked goods for flavor. This protein added that perfect hint of coffee flavor that makes chocolate baked good extra delicious.

So if you’re looking for a healthy cupcake, this is the one for you. Be sure to check back later this week, I have some great things planned for you all!

**Note: Garden of Life provided me with the Raw Fit and Marley Coffee RAW Protein, but the opinions are my own.

Farm Fresh to You: Get Produced Delivered, Eat More Vegetables

October 2, 20135 Comments

I’m going to be honest. This is not what I had in mind for dinner tonight.

I had a salad for lunch and because I’m all about balance, I’m generally of the belief that if I had a salad for lunch, I’m certainly not having one for dinner. But here I am. Having a salad for dinner after I had one for lunch. I don’t want to be one of those girls. I’m not one of those girls.

Let me tell you the story of this salad, because really it started a few weeks ago.

Several weeks ago, Living Social was running a deal for Farm Fresh to You. It’s like a CSA delivered to your house, but instead of buying in at the beginning of the season, you can just order whenever you want it and pay weekly. So I saw the deal: $15 for a delivery box of vegetables.

If you used to read my blog when I was in grad school, you’ll know that I had a CSA share in Ithaca, NY from the Early Morning Farm and I absolutely loved it. Every week I was so excited to pick up my share at the farmer’s market. I got to try new and exciting vegetables like rhubarb and kohlrabi. For a foodie writing her thesis on Sustainable Food Systems, you can probably imagine how amazing that was for me.

When I left Ithaca, I was sad that I wouldn’t have a CSA share to pick up weekly anymore. CSA shares in Southern California are basically twice as expensive as my share was in Ithaca (I paid about $20 per week back then). So I was bummed. I couldn’t afford to get one. Let’s be honest, healthy living can be expensive. (Remember how I got a second job to pay for Crossfit… omm yeah).

So when I saw this Living Social deal for Farm Fresh to You, I was all over it. Last week, I placed my order and my box arrived today. I had it delivered to my office because I was worried I wouldn’t be home when they delivered it and the heat wave here has been rough. Now let me tell you, during my drive home, I was thinking about all the possible things to have for dinner, completely forgetting the box was in the backseat.

By the time I got home I had pretty much decided I wanted polenta with a poached egg. But then I remembered the box full of vegetables. I unpacked them and saw everything that was inside:

1 head of lettuce
1 honeydew melon
2 delicata squash
1lb potatoes
3 apples
2 oranges
2 pears
1 pack of Berry Kiwi
1/2 lb green beans
1 bunch of carrots

That’s when I remembered: Oh yeah, I used to eat salads all the time because that shit goes bad real fast AND I hate to waste food. There’s no two ways around it, you have to be a voracious vegetable eater if the box is just for you (and that’s the case for me, since I live alone).

And you know what goes bad first? Lettuce. You can wrap it in a paper towel to keep it crisper longer, but let’s be honest, it’s not making it past 4 days. I wish the box included kale instead of lettuce… but alas not reality. So that’s when I knew salad was for dinner.

Instead of that polenta and poached egg dinner I had in mind, I threw together a salad of lettuce, carrot, edamame and a Moringstar Farms Veggie Patty. For dressing, I mixed together some natural peanut butter, hoisin sauce, sriracha and vegetable broth, for a little Asian inspiration (Note: that’s basically how you make the dipping sauce for Vietnamese Spring Rolls).

So you’re probably thinking… good for you! Pat on the back for having a salad! Who gives a crap!?!

Well really the whole point of all this was to tell you one of the top benefits of having one of these produce delivery services (or a CSA share) and why I’m considering getting it again: it forces you to eat more vegetables. And not just that… organic vegetables, even better!

Farm Fresh to You brought my count of vegetables for the day from 4 to 6 (plus 3 servings of fruit). While I probably would have added spinach to my polenta with poached eggs, the box diversified my vegetable intake, because I already had spinach in my smoothie this morning. Even better, different nutrients!

Overall: I was pleased with what was in the box. It had a little too much fruit for my liking, but I love the idea. I think in the future I’ll just choose the vegetable-only box. I’m all for eating more organic vegetables, because with a sweet tooth like mine, I can always use extra vegetables to balance it out (I’ll be completely honest, after the salad I had a spoonful of peanut butter mixed with sweetened condensed milk for dessert… I know… we won’t talk about it anymore).

Oh and just so you know, I was not compensated by Farm Fresh to You. I bought the Living Social deal on my own and these are just my opinions.

Have you tried a produce delivery service? Did you like it?

The Perks of Living Alone and a Plum-Almond Tart in a Buckwheat Spelt Crust

August 28, 20138 Comments

Living alone can be absolutely fantastic. Sometimes I think I’m borderline hermit, because there’s nothing I love more than crawling into my batcave and not talking to a single person. A lot of people ask me if I get lonely living alone. Honestly, some days… YES (especially when I hear a noise on my patio, even though I’m 99.9% sure it’s the fat black cat that likes to hang out).

But then other days, I cherish the fact that I’m independent. So in case you’re wondering, here are some of the perks of living alone:

1. Permanent No-Pants Party. Pants are over-rated. When you live alone, you can walk around with no pants. There’s no one to hide from or be judged by. It’s just you and your thighs, hanging out.

2. The peanut butter jar is yours and only yours.

You can dip your fingers in peanut butter, eat huge bowls of ice cream, have handfuls of chocolate chips, and pretend like calories don’t matter, because if no one saw you consume it, it didn’t happen. Ok so I’m kidding, but really you can have ridiculous eating habits and no one will judge you. Jesse saw me devour a banana with almond butter one day and was completely horrified. I keep it private now. (Note: the obvious exception to this is the awesome roommate who goes to the store to get half moon cookies and coconut popswith you at midnight… looking at you Christina!)

3. You’re the Queen of the Remote. This is pretty much self-explanatory. You decide what’s on TV… I’ve watched the same 2 episodes of Catfish like 5 times… When Jesse comes over and I turn it on, he comments on how we already saw that one… Oh yeah…

4. You can fart if you want to. Totally not lady-like, but let’s be honest, everyone farts. It just happens. When you live alone, you don’t have to worry about anyone else hearing you, because no one is around. You can keep up lady-like appearances in public when you know you can let loose at home.

5. You can hog the kitchen and bake whenever you want.

I’ve been lucky and have generally had roommates who are cool with me dominating the kitchen. Only one roommate was not ok with it (there’s a reason I live alone now…). But the best part of living alone, for me, is being able to spend hours with baking experiments, like this plum-almond tart.

I’m going to be totally up front and honest with you. I have mixed feelings with this recipe so I decided not to share my recipe. I’m going to try again until I get it to taste awesome. I wanted to love this tart, because it has all the makings an an awesome blog post: healthy alternatives, unique non-wheat flour, no added refined sugar (does maple syrup count? It’s still sugar).

The crust is made of buckwheat and spelt flours.

Honestly, this crust tastes a little too “healthy” for my liking, and the texture is a little too crumbly, not flakey. The filling on the other hand, I liked. Moist but nutty and slightly “healthy” tasting. It involves almond meal and maple syrup. And the plums. Divine.

Ok so at this point, I’ve told you why living alone is great and why it’s not so great. I’ve also told you why this tart was awesome and also not so awesome.

Do you live alone? Do you love it? Hate it? Do you have roommates/friends/partners you live with? What’s best?

Nectarine Tart with Pistachio Oat Crumble

August 11, 2013August 10, 20136 Comments

Pies vs Tarts?

What’s the difference? Great question. There’s probably an official answer but honestly to me they’re the same thing. The only difference is the type of pan you make it in. But honestly, you can make any tart recipe into a pie and any pie recipe in to a tart. So whether you want to call this a pie or a tart, I’m ok with either.

I took this to a potluck and I think I called it a pie. But now that I think about it, I made it in a tart pan so it should be called a tart. A tart sounds fancy, doesn’t it?

Pie sounds homey. Tart sounds regal. I’m ok with fancy business, but let’s be honest, I’m not a fan of expensive. My tart pan was $2.50 at the Good Will. I wanted to keep this dessert low budget too. I went to the store and looked for the cheapest fruit available. That’s my strategy because generally the cheapest fruit is in season.

Nectarines were $0.50/lb. So awesome. It took about $1.50 worth of fruit to make this tart. Beautiful and frugal. I’m into it.

Nectarine Tart with Pistachio Oat Crumble

For Crust:

175g All Purpose Flour (about 1 1/4 cup)
1 tbsp Sugar
pinch of Salt
1 stick of Butter, cold
2 tbsp (maybe more) Ice Water

For Filling:

8 Nectarines, diced
1 1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (optional)
2 tbsp Rum (Optional)

For Topping:

1/2 cup Flour
1/3 cup Oats
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tbsp White Sugar
1/4 Pistachios, chopped
pinch of Salt
4 tbsp Butter (plus extra for placing on top)
1 tbsp Rum (optional)

Prepare pie crust by combing flour, sugar and salt. Using your fingers, break the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles very coarse crumbs (even pea sized is fine). Add ice water and bring it all together into a ball using your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours. You can make this up to two days in advance (or much longer and freeze it).

Once the dough has rested enough (a few hours or days), roll out and place into a 9 inch fluted tart pan (this will also work in a pie dish). Place in freezer while you make the filling and topping.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Dice nectarines (leave the skin on) and combine with sugar, flour, cinnamon and rum. Set aside and make the topping. In a bowl, combine ingredients for filling. Using your fingers, work ingredients together (feel free to add more pistachios if you’d like) until the texture of coarse crumbs.

Now assemble tart. Place nectarine filling into prepared tart pan. Top with crumble topping. Lay a few thin pats of butter over the top. Bake for about an hour and a half, or until filling is bubbling and top is golden.

Allow to cool completely. Serve and enjoy!

This was a big hit. I was a fan. I loved the crumble topping with pistachios in it, and let’s be honest… nectarines > peaches, but we never see nectarines in a pie/tart. I’m not sure why, but I’m glad I changed that. Also, everyone should leave the skin on the fruit. Just saying…

For some reason I’m thinking plum pie needs to happen sometime soon, because I never see plums in a pie.

What’s your favorite fruit pie? If you have an awesome recipe, share it in the comments!

My Search for the Best Protein Powder

August 9, 2013August 9, 201323 Comments

I read a lot of health and fitness blogs. I’m definitely a fan, but one of the things that sometimes irks me is that their lives don’t seem real to me in the sense that many of my favorite blogs are run by full-time bloggers. They work from home, and have a schedule where they can work out at a variety of different times and can prepare their meals just before eating them since they’re at home. In that sense, I can’t really relate. My breakfasts don’t normally look like this:

Ok so they don’t have breakfasts like that everyday either, but doesn’t it seem like it sometimes?

During the week I don’t really have time to make elaborate breakfasts. Most days sleep and convincing myself to get my butt to the gym are more important. Consequently, most mornings are a little bit like this:

Rushing out the door with a smoothie in a jar, my purse and my lunch bag. A smoothie for breakfast is great, because I can drink it in the car or at my desk when I get to the office. Lately, I’ve been trying to add protein to my morning smoothies to help keep me fuller longer. I’ve had a container of protein powder sitting in my cupboard for over a year and honestly, I hated the taste.

I decided to go on a mission: to find the perfect protein powder.

My criteria are pretty limited: calories and taste. I don’t want something too high in calories or sugar, but I definitely want it to taste good and keep me full til lunch. So I went to the store and found as many single serving protein packets as possible. Let me tell you about some of the ones I tried.

As a control, I mixed all of these protein powders with: 1/2 banana, mango chunks, spinach, kale, water, ice. I figured that’s what I normally would want to have it with, so if it tastes good with that, I’d be pleased.

Just a note: I bought all of these protein powders on my own, I was not compensated for any of this. This is just my opinion based on my palate. I’m not a nutritionist or any type of expert on protein powder, I’m just a consumer sharing an opinion.

1. Garden of Life: Raw Protein

Flavor: Real Raw Vanilla (they also have a chocolate and vanilla chai, I believe)

Taste: Good. A little on the sweet side. It’s sweetened with stevia, which isn’t terrible. I guess if you just mixed this with water or almond milk it might be the perfect sweetness (since mango and banana I mixed it with are sweet also)

Texture: A tiny bit gritty, but not too bad.

Price: the small packet I got was $2.79, which is kind of expensive for a single serving. On Amazon, a 22oz (approx. 28 servings) container costs $25.83. That comes out to about $0.92/serving. Not too bad, price wise.

Calories: 90 Calories for 17g of protein. Keeps the smoothie pretty low cal, which for me is great.

Overall: I really like this one. The flavor is great. It was a little grittier than the others but I didn’t mind it. I definitely like that it’s vegan, raw and plant-based. I’m considering buying the large container of this one.

2. Vega One All-in-One Nutritional Shake

Flavor: French Vanilla

Taste: Super tasty! It reminded me of a milk shake, but that makes sense. This isn’t actually protein powder. It’s like an all-in-one nutrition shake, that said it had 15g of protein so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Texture: Super smooth. I was definitely a fan of this.

Price: Probably the most expensive one. Roughly 22 servings for $55.99 on Amazon. That comes out to about $2.55 per serving. Priceyyyyy…

Calories: 135 calories for 15g of protein. BONUS: 6g of fiber! 50% of your daily vitamins and minerals.

Overall: This was really good. Loved the flavor and the texture. It kept me full for a long time, but honestly, the deal breaker for me is the price. Woh woh.

3. 100% Whey Gold Standard

Image Source: http://www.vitacost.com

Flavor: Chocolate. I’m not really a fan of chocolate protein powder but I gave it a try anyway. My Co-worker gave me a serving of this to try.

Taste: Ok, not too chocolatey when mixed with the fruit and greens. My complaint is that it has that whey protein after taste that I’m not a big fan of, but that’s subjective and also sorta just the nature of the beast. I found myself guzzling this as quickly as possible just to get it over with… womp.

Texture: Very smooth! Not gritty at all. Definitely a bonus. If you like frothy (which I hate), this (like other whey powders) gets frothy in the blender (even just mixed with water).

Price: On Amazon, it costs $53.99 for 73 servings. That comes out to about $0.73 per serving. Can’t beat that.

Calories: 120 calories for 24g of protein, pretty darn good.

Overall: Not bad. Don’t think I’ll get it just because of the after taste but I’d be curious to try the other flavors like banana or vanilla.

4. Designer Whey

Flavor: French Vanilla

Taste: Ok so this is the protein powder that started the search. I bought this one at Trader Joe’s and at the risk of sound harsh. I hate the taste of this protein powder. I don’t like the after taste at all. It’s really hard for me to even finish a smoothie with it, and I am definitely not a picky eater. A lot of times I found myself adding scoops of unsweetened cocoa powder to my smoothies to cover up the taste. No bueno.

Texture: Smooth, frothy, not chalky.

Price: On Amazon, 4lbs for $45.19. Not bad in terms of price. Comes out to roughly $0.72 per serving.

Calories: 100 Calories for 18g of protein. Not bad. I think I’ll take Garden of Life over this one any day…

Overall: I just can’t stand this one. I’m pretty much convince I just don’t like the taste of any whey protein powder. If you mix it with water and chug it, it’s fine, but if you’re going to sip over the course of half an hour (like I do with my morning smoothies), it’s not pleasant. This one is a no-go for me.

5. Plant Fusion

Flavor: Vanilla Bean

Taste: The package says “Amazing Taste.” It’s good but I’m not sure I’d call it amazing. It was a little sweet for my taste (sweetened with stevia). To be honest, the taste was sorta “meh” for me. Maybe I’m raising my protein powder flavor standards?

Texture: Smooth, not chalky or gritty when blended up. I was a little concerned because there seemed to be a lot of powder in the packet, but it all smoothed out.

Price: On Amazon, it’s $30.31 for 2lbs, that’s about 30 servings. So about $1 per serving. Price isn’t terrible.

Calories: 120 calories for 21g of protein. That’s pretty good in my opinion. Up there with the 100% Gold Standard Whey, which probably had the best calorie to protein ratio, but I will say I much prefer the taste of this one.

Overall: This one is not bad. It’s probably my second choice in terms of protein and price. This one is a blend of pea protein, artichoke protein, amaranth powder and quinoa powder. I’m definitely a fan of the fact that it’s plant-based.

I think so far, Garden of Life Raw Protein is the winner for me. I love that it’s plant-based (we love the Earth, right?) and it tastes pretty darn good. The fact that it’s low calorie just sort of sweetens the deal.

I’m going to keep trying more to find what I like but this was a good set I tried so far. I’m really interested to try egg white protein powder. I think I just need to stay away from whey.

Do you use protein powder? If so, what’s your favorite kind? Suggest away because the search continues for me (maybe)!

Peanut Butter Honey “Bee’s Knees” Pie

August 4, 2013August 4, 20137 Comments

Can we talk about TV for a minute? For my birthday, Jesse got me a Kindle Fire.

I was super excited to have an ebook reader, but then I learned that it comes with a month of free Amazon Prime… That includes the free streaming…

Instead of voraciously reading the classics like I originally intended to, I’ve been watching Downton Abbey. I get it, I’m like 5 years too late. But I’m loving it. To further my recent TV obsession, on Friday night I made Jesse watch 3 episodes of “Orange is the New Black.” Awesome.

So since I like being late to the party, let me tell you about something I made for a party a while back. You remember the Peanut Butter Throwdown, right?

I made White Chocolate Wonderful Ice Cream…

But I also made pie, because pie is always a good idea.

Let me tell you about one of them because you know what else is a good idea? Pretzel crusts.

Along with being obsessed with multiple TV shows, I’m also really into pretzel crusts. I love the salty and sweet combination, so in pie form it takes it to a whole new level.

Peanut Butter Honey Pie

1 1/4 cup pretzel crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bee’s Knees peanut butter
4 oz cream cheese, softened
7 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
4 tbsp honey

First make your crust by mixing together pretzel crumbs, butter and sugar. Press into a 9” pie dish and place in the freezer until ready to use.

Next, beat together peanut butter, cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. Beat 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream until if holds firm peaks. Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture until combined. Set aside.

Beat remaining 1 cup of whipped cream. Once it start to form peaks, add in 4 tbsp honey.

Next assemble the pie. Spread peanut butter mixture into the pie crust. Top with honey whipped cream. Chill for a few hours. Serve cold.

Ok now you can forgive me while I go crawl into bed to watch more Downton Abbey.

Which shows are you into these days?

I also recently discovered Catfish. That’s totally amazing…

Foodologie

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Category: Recipes

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Peanut Butter Honey “Bee’s Knees” Pie

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