As you may or may not know, I love this website called SparkPeople. They have trackers for all sorts of things: water drank, workouts, foods, weight, recipes, etc. It's a great community and only getting bigger. People are really supportive, and there are so many inspiring weight loss stories! All for free. Anyway, a lot of my recipe inspirations come from there, and when I saw this Strawberry Cheesecake Shake appear in my inbox the other day, I knew I had to try it.
See, I ordered some Whey Protein Powder on Amazon, and love it. BulkSupplements has some great, clean supplements, and the best price-per-ounce out there. (I have their anhydrous caffeine powder too, for really slow mornings!) As with all supplements, you need to be safe, and use your best judgment. Ask your doctor if you aren't sure what or how much to take. Anyways, I like this protein powder because it is just powdered whey (like from milk) so there is no added sugars or calories or flavors. I can put it in anything. And this shake calls for protein powder, so I think perfect breakfast!
The claim is that this tastes like strawberry cheesecake. Really? Does anything "healthy" taste like the unhealthy food it claims to mimic? I've had way too many promising sounding yogurts turn out to be chalky and awful. But stick with me...
this one's a winner.
With only 3 ingredients (if you don't add the extras) and about a minute to make, this one qualifies for my "Less than 5" too I think.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk (I used vanilla soymilk)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen)
*2 tsp almond flavoring (optional, or vanilla)
*2 squirts liquid stevia -- use the sweetener of your choice. Honey, splenda, sugar, naked...
*1 tbsp whey protein
* = all optional, add to taste or don't add, your choice
Step 1: Blend the milk and the cottage cheese together until smooth. This is the important part, make sure there are no cheese chunks left. Pulse in the blender for 30-60 seconds, then dip in a spoon. If you pour it off and no chunks are left, you're good, continue.
Step 2: Add the sweetener, flavoring, protein powder, and strawberries. You could use any fruit here really, peaches would be good, or raspberries. Strawberry-banana is always a solid bet.
Blend for 1-2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
Step 3: Pour into a container and enjoy! I took this for breakfast, and I swear to you it really does taste like a liquid strawberry cheesecake. The protein from the cottage cheese and the whey powder made it extra filling, so I wasn't the least bit hungry until lunchtime. This would be a good post-workout snack if you cut it in half too. Enjoy!
Nutritional Info
- Servings Per Recipe: 1
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories: 236.3
- Total Fat: 2.7 g
- Cholesterol: 10.5 mg
- Sodium: 518.6 mg
- Total Carbs: 36.4 g
- Dietary Fiber: 6.2 g
- Protein: 19.4 g
(Note: Adding protein powder will increase the protein level and likely calorie count)
What's your favorite pre- or post-workout snack?
Labels: breakfast, breakfast shake, protein, protein powder recipe, protein shake, quick breakfast, sparkpeople, strawberries, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake shake, strawberry shake
