Peanut Butter Protein Bites: No Bake

WARNING! The following recipe contains an absurd amount of peanut butter. So much so that you are risking your life if you choose to eat these without a liquid beverage in arms length to wash it down. Eat at your own risk.

Okay, with all the liabilities out of the way lets get to it. If you know anything about me, you know that I am very passionate about what I eat, and with that you also know my favorite ingredient is definitely peanut butter. This is also my favorite non-shake recipe made with protein powder as well, which says a lot. It's so tasty in fact, I don't make it that often because the bites disappear too fast. What can I say, when it comes to peanut butter I have no self control.

Peanut Butter Bites: No Bake

Ingredients:

5 Scoops of Vanilla Protein Powder (A little over 1 cup, roughly 100g of protein)
1 TBSP - Agave Nectar
1 tsp - Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp - Cinnamon
1/4 C - Water
1/4 C - Oat Flour
1/2 C - Low Fat Plain Yogurt
1 C - Natural Creamy Peanut Butter
Optional: Ground Flax Seed or Almond Meal


Instructions:

Blend the Agave, Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon, Yogurt and Water until smooth. Put that mixture into a mixing bowl with the peanut butter and add in the protein powder one scoop at a time. The mixture will appear to be extremely dry but keep mixing, you'll get there. Once that is done mix in the oat flour.

Use your hands to form the mixture into little bites (slightly larger diameter than a half dollar). Makes roughly 25 bites depending on size.

NOTE: Don't make them too big or else you'll need to break out a jug of milk. Some might choose to do that anyway.

If you haven't eaten the bites at this point, feel free to sprinkle some flax or almond meal over the bites. Chill the peanut butter bites for a couple hours in the fridge. Now be careful, 4 or 5 of these bites will really fill you up.

Variations

• Elvis' Balls - The original recipe was dubbed Elvis' Balls by one of my friends, because I made it with banana flavored protein powder, and honey (instead of agave as I hadn't discovered it yet) and had rolled the mixture into balls.
  

• Reese's Peanut Butter Bites - Drop the Vanilla extract and Vanilla protein powder in favor of Chocolate protein powder for a treat that will remind you there's no wrong way...

I've been working on these peanut butter bites for a couple years and they finally were elevated to masterpiece status with some inspiration from a peanut butter recipe found in Gourmet Nutrition. Without seeing their peanut butter bar recipe I would have never thought to add the vanilla extract or cinnamon to this gem. If you like this recipe be sure to check the cookbook here.

This recipe is a contest entry for The 4th Great Peanut Butter Expedition. Be sure to check it out if you like peanut butter as much as I do.

Fear of Protein

Well, we've gone through fear of carbs and fat, so it was only a matter of time right? Some might be scratching their head at this point. You might be thinking, there are low carb diets and low fat diets, but I've never heard of a low protein diet. Though I'm not familiar with any mainstream low protein diets(maybe it's because the aren't effective) it's worth noting that many people believe consumption of excess protein will lead to kidney failure. To learn where that claim comes from lets go to the research.

Protein? I shower in that!

If you scour pub med or any other research database you'll find many studies showing that high protein diets lead to kidney failure. Not so fast! Let me qualify that. This is certainly misleading because all of these studies that show these ill effects of protein are all conducted on people with preexisting kidney conditions. As of today you will find no study/research/evidence that a high or moderately high protein diet will have any adverse affects on healthy kidneys. So if your kidneys are in good repair, go ahead and go for the steak.

Eat up!

The Monica 'Jet' Carlson Workout & Diet

I previously wrote about American Gladiators season 1 victor, Jet.

So I did a little homework on the 'Monica Carlson Diet and Exercise' program and I managed to find this video where she tips us off to how she achieved her dream physique.

The second I knew I won, I was in the gym, eating protein, cutting out sugar and carbs, it was a huge transformation.

Notice how she didn't say she popped a magic pill, or did thousands of crunches. Sounds like this 32 year old mother has it all figured out. You know what to do. Intensity in the gym and at the dinner table. So check out these tips on how you can be like Monica Carlson and cut 'out sugar and carbs' from your diet.

• Replace your breakfast cereal with an egg omelete (feel free to add in copious amounts of vegetables)
  
• Replace the sandwich at lunch with a salad. Even a wrap will typically have less carbs than a full blown sandwich.
  
• When ordering a meal at a restaurant substitute the starchy carb (typically pasta or potatoes) with vegetables (broccoli, seasonal mixed veggies, or even a house salad) . You do not need to feel obliged to order what is listed on the menu. Any reasonable restaurant will make whatever you order and many allow substitutions. Don't rationalize eating empty carbs because the restaurant won't budge.
  
• Skip the bread bowl as well. If you can't restrain yourself tell them not to even put the bread on the table.
• Drink only non-calorie containing beverages. One can of Pepsi contains 41 grams of sugar. Skip the soda, fruit juice and empty calories by only drinking water and green tea. Get your calories from food!(Gold star for those that get their calories from food that actually contains nutrients)
  
• Earn your carbs through exercise. The best times to have carbs are post workout. A workout classifies as any intense physical activity. If you are looking to shed a few pounds, save the carbs until after you've listed some weight.
• Look for lower-carb alternatives. Replace hamburger buns with portobello mushroom caps. Use spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti. Be creative!

And for those of you that are going to yell at me for not mentioning the 'eating protein' part of her comment, this is for you. Eat lean cuts of your favorite animals (chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, buffalo, ostrich, other wild game etc.). Also feel free to supplement with a protein powder, eat eggs/egg whites and cottage cheese. For those vegetarians and vegans there is always soy, and rice protein powder.

EAT YOUR PROTEIN!

Incorporating some of these tips will surely spark your progress towards the American Gladiator Dream Body. Monica Carlson, 'er I mean Jet said so!

If you want to speed up the process I'd suggest picking up a copy of Precision Nutrition to guide you through your eating and when you are ready to get ripped fast hop on the Get Shredded Diet, which is posted in the forums. Suddenly losing 2lbs a week is not only realistic, but also disappointing.

Peanut Butter Cookies

So I put on my thinking cap to make a healthy alternative to one of my favorite sweets, the peanut butter cookie. The typical cookie is too high in processed sugars and trans fats, so I had to replace some of the ingredients with "healthy" alternatives. Here is what I came up with:

PPB (Protein Peanut Butter) Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup 100% Dark Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Organic Natural Peanut Butter
5 Scoops of Vanilla Protein Powder (a whey, or milk protein blend works here)
3 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Whole Omega-3 Eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the peanut butter and eggs until you have a soupy mixture. Add the chocolate chips. Then little by little add the protein powder and when the mixture dries out add in the olive oil. The mixture will be pretty dry at the end so forming them into cookies will be difficult. I combated that by putting the mixture into muffin cups and pressing the mixture into each. I formed them into 6 large cookies. Cook 'em for 18 minutes, let them cool and sink your teeth into a crumbly peanut buttery piece of heaven.



Lets talk a bit about the ingredients:

Chocolate is usually off limits for anyone eating healthy. I say it's pretty ridiculous to eliminate chocolate, because frankly it isn't the chocolates fault that we've dressed it up with trans fats and sugar and designed this thing called milk chocolate. Dark Chocolate in its pure form has great properties for the body including a host of antioxidant polphenols.

Peanut butter while in the typical store bought variety is loaded with added sugars and trans fats. Thats why I used a natural peanut butter which contains a whopping one ingredient...peanuts. There is nothing wrong with peanuts, it's a healthy fat, the only issue is that you can eat too many of them and it's high in calories...so as long as you are watching your portions peanuts are great.

Olive Oil has a host of benefits that you should probably be aware of at this point unless you live under a rock.

Omega-3 eggs are from chickens fed a diet high in flax seed which allows for the fat content of the egg to contain higher amounts of omega-3s. Omega 3's are linked to weight loss, heart health, anti-cancer, better skin, and the list goes on. Eggs are also a good source of protein.

The milk protein blend gives this cookie a blast of protein and a bit of sweetness from the vanilla flavoring.

I've decided to enter my cookie into a contest. We'll see how it goes.