I've recently rediscovered Budget Bytes. I'd perused a few vegetarian recipes on the blog before, but I hadn't really given it a thorough examination. After going through it in some detail, I now have dozens of recipes bookmarked! I'm pretty excited to try them.

If I'm being completely honest, this recipe didn't excite me all that much. But I had coconut milk that needed to be used up and I had a bunch of bananas in the fridge, so it was something that I knew I could throw together quickly and easily. The resulting oatmeal is tasty. The coconut comes through well and the banana gives it a mellow sweetness without being cloying. The main problem TF and I both had with it is that it's not actually very filling. I'd be tempted to add an extra egg and a scoop of protein powder next time to see if bumping up the protein helps a bit. Serving it topped with yogurt, skyr, Nutella, and/or nut butter would probably also help.

Banana-Coconut Baked Oatmeal

Adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/3 c. unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 c. protein powder (chocolate, vanilla, or unflavoured)
• 1 (400mL) can lite coconut milk
• 3 c. rolled oats

Directions

1. Whisk eggs into bananas.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, baking powder, and sea salt and mix well.
3. Whisk in coconut, protein powder, and coconut milk.
4. Stir in oats with a spatula.
5. Pour mixture into a greased 23x33cm (9x13") baking dish.
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.

A while back, I found a recipe for "gingersnap sippers" that involved chai concentrate, milk, bananas, and spices. I liked the idea, but didn't have any chai concentrate easily to hand and, while I could make some, wasn't sure I wanted the tea in there anyway. So I decided to do my own version of a gingerbread-flavour protein shake. I started out with a full teaspoon of ginger, but I think that may have been a bit too much. The recipe below reflects this. (Although I haven't had a chance to test the reduced ginger version yet.)

Gingerbread Protein Shake

Ingredients

• 1 c. milk
• 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 Tbsp. molasses
• 1/2 tsp. ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2-4 ice cubes

Directions

1. Combine everything in a blender, mix thoroughly, and enjoy.

Peanut Butter Cup Protein Shake

I can't claim that this shake is as good as the magical Chocolate-Hazelnut-Caramel Protein Shake, but it's still pretty darn good! The egg white gives it an almost airy texture as well as a few extra grams of protein. And, of course, you can't go wrong with a shot of hazelnut creamer. All-in-all it's a nice combo.

Peanut Butter Cup Shake

Slightly adapted from Bodybuilding.com

Ingredients

• 1 c. skim milk
• 2-3 scoops chocolate protein powder
• 2 Tbsp. peanut flour
• 1 egg white
• 2 Tbsp. fat free hazelnut creamer

Directions

1. Blend and enjoy!

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Caramel Protein Shake

I know it probably seems boring (and possibly excessive) to be posting yet another protein shake recipe, but I really like this one! And besides, I want the recipe to be easily accessible so that I can ask TF to make it for me sometimes. ;P

I didn't have great expectations for this one, but I think it's actually my favourite yet! Sadly, it's also got quite a bit of sugar in it, but you could cut at least some of that out by using a "fat free"/"no sugar added" pudding mix. Or you could experiment with using caramel extract/flavouring instead of pudding mix.

Chocolate-Hazelnut-Caramel Protein Shake

Adapted from BodyBuilding.com

1 c. skim milk

2 scoops chocolate protein powder

1 Tbsp. butterscotch pudding mix

2 Tbsp. fat free hazelnut coffee creamer

3-4 ice cubes

1. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

Chocolate-Mint Protein Shake

I've actually been having a lot of fun experimenting with flavours. Historically (besides the obvious milk and protein powder) I've only put things like fruit and yogurt into my protein shakes. Things like pudding mix and baking extracts never would've occurred to me. But now that someone's put the idea in my head... oh the possibilities!

Chocolate-Mint Protein Shake
1 c. skim milk
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1 Tbsp. instant chocolate pudding mix
1/4 tsp. mint extract
3-6 ice cubes

1. You know the drill. Dump everything in the blender and give it a whirl.

The Hulk Protein Shake

I tend to have a lot of trouble getting enough protein. Taking meat out of my diet doesn't really seem to have made this issue much worse, but it certainly hasn't made it better either!

Sometimes I will have a protein shake after dinner to try to balance out my macros a bit and give those all-important amino acid chains a bit of a boost. Historically this would be a sort of strawberry milkshake with skim milk, vanilla protein powder, and a bunch of frozen strawberries. The problem with this is that a shake like that now contains more carbs than protein! I guess I could just cut back on the strawberries, but I decided I'd poke around and see what other folks like to do for their protein shakes.

I actually found some really great ideas! Most of which I don't have the ingredients on hand for at the moment, but that's okay. Given that I do have a packet of instant pudding mix kicking around, I figured I'd try one of the recipes that'd put that to use. Great success!

The Hulk Pistachio Protein Shake
From Bodybuilding.com
1 c. skim milk
2 scoops vanilla protein powder
1 Tbsp. pistacho instant pudding mix
4-6 ice cubes
1-3 drops green food colouring

1. Blend.
2. Drink.
3. Hulk out!

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a gourmet milkshake. But it's tolerably tasty and contains nearly 50g of protein (along with 24g of carbs and 4g of fat). You could probably trim down the carbs a lot by using a "no sugar added" pudding mix, but I was using what I had on hand. Still... not too shabby!