Pumping Up the Protein

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Happy Thursday! ONE WEEK until Thanksgiving!!! Who’s excited??? Can you tell I am?!

I haven’t been home since early August (check out my really old blog posts – I started blogging just one week before I went home to Kansas City!) so I am DYING to get home and see my family! I’ve found the older I get, the more and more I like to be at home. I guess I learned to appreciate my parents more than I did as a teenager, and I like hanging out with them! Oh, and my little brother too. Haha.

  

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Also, start getting excited, because from Sunday through Tuesday, I will be taking care of a certain special someone. Can you guess who??

Yesterday morning I ran about 5 miles on the treadmill. I decided to do an easy run and try not to push it… although I kept upping my speed because I was so bored: I wanted to get out of there! I was still feeling sore from my 10 mile race on Saturday, so it wasn’t super pleasant. I ended up finishing in 44:49 for a pace of 8:57 min/mile.

When I got home, it was definitely time for breakfast. I was still thinking about those voluminous oats (with Chia seeds) I made for Monday’s breakfast, but wanted to try adding protein powder since I didn’t have any Greek yogurt to have on the side.

In the mix: 1/3 C oatmeal, 1/3 C almond milk, 1/3 cup water (another 1/3 cup added when protein powder is added), 1 T Chia seeds, 1/2 smashed banana and 1 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder. Topped with 1 T peanut butter!

It turned out good, but not absolutely amazing. The banana and peanut butter hit the spot, but I’m not sure if I like the chia seed and protein powder mixture… It was kind of an odd texture.

 

My doctor mentioned to me last week that he thought I needed to add some more protein into my diet. I’ve been doing so with my morning oatmeal (i.e. Blueberry Muffin Protein Oats, Pumpkin Bread Protein Oats, and the oatmeal on today’s post) but I realized that unless I eat out, I rarely get other forms of protein and protein powder is a supplement, NOT a substitute for complete proteins!

When I was in Trader Joe’s on Sunday, I decided that if I don’t’ BUY meats then I’m never going to cook them! So I bought some meat. Lean Ground Turkey to be exact. Normally if I buy ground turkey, I’ll break it up and sauté the meat with other things. Fore example, in my rendition of Chelsey’s Creamy Spaghetti Squash Primavera. But this time, I decided I felt like making patties!

I separated the meat into equal portions, and then made two patties: one for dinner Tuesday night and then one to bring as part of dinner Wednesday night. I took each portion and mixed in some oregano and garlic powder and then placed them on a hot skillet, cooking each side for about 5 minutes (they were pretty thick…).

For Tuesday night’s dinner, I quartered a few brussel sprouts and steamed them. Then I covered the whole thing some some marinara sauce and hummus, along with nutritional yeast! It was a great Italian-flavored dinner!

For Wednesday night, I mixed things up by putting the Turkey burger on top of a bed of brown rice and Kale. The kale I had steamed and mixed with some apple cider vinegar, Coconut Aminos and powdered ginger. (If you’re wondering about Coconut Aminos, it’s a soy sauce replacement that I found at Whole Foods, which is both gluten and soy free!).

All in all, they worked out pretty well, although I think I cooked the patties through a little too much because they were a bit dry. Maybe 4 minutes on each side next time?

 

After my dinner Tuesday, I started slicing bits off an apple, and then and idea struck me:

APPLE CINNAMON PROTEIN CUPCAKE!!!!

Am I a genius, or what? I’ve already provided you with the Chocolate Chip and Banana Protein cupcake, the Chocolate Mousse Protein Cupcake, and the Blueberry Protein Cupcake (all recipes found here). Now, you have another flavor to add to your list of things to try!

Apple Cinnamon Protein Cupcake

Ingredients

1 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder

1 T GF flour (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 packet stevia

approx 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 T applesauce

2 T almond milk (add more if necessary)

1/4 chopped apple

Directions

Start by chopping up part of an apple and microwaving those pieces for 30 seconds. Then add the other ingredients and mix. Put back in the microwave for about 30-40 seconds. I did find, compared to my other recipes, that this one cooked a little bit faster, which I think is due to the hot apple pieces already being in there.

It was SO GOOD! I was worried about the apples not baking in well, but it was completely delicious. I was out of Greek yogurt, but I think that would be a great topping! Or vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if you really want to get wild…

 

Have you ever made your own burger patties (beef, turkey, or vegetarian?)

Do you pay attention to how much protein you eat? What are your thoughts about getting in more protein?