My Protein Smoothie Skills

I used to make delicious protein smoothies. Which I know is a stupid thing to be blathering about but hey, if it is something you are eating (or drinking) daily, you want it to taste good, and fulfill your nutritional needs…but mostly taste good lol

My preference was for unflavoured protein powder because then it wouldn’t interfere with the flavours of the other ingredients, or have that gross artificial taste that so many of the powders have. Also, the tubs are huge, and I didn’t want to be committed to a specific flavour for so long. What if I buy chocolate because when shopping I want chocolate but three days later I’m not in a chocolate mood anymore? I’d rather buy unflavoured and switch up the other ingredients to make the protein smoothie taste however I want it that day.

I got off the protein smoothie bandwagon a while ago, so haven’t made one in ages. I did however, in a half-hearted attempt to get back in shape, buy some protein powder maybe a month or so ago and started experimenting with smoothie bowls.

They were not good.

At all.

I thought I didn’t have ratios of ingredients in there correctly, I thought because I was making them thicker, more ice cream texture, vs a drink, I’d messed something up. Then I realized that it was the powder I bought.

When I was at Costco they had a powder on sale and I figured I’d give it a try. It is a smaller sized tub, wasn’t too expensive, and sure it came in vanilla flavour but vanilla goes well with so many fruits and I figured mixing it with water or milk for just a simple protein drink will make it suck less than when I did that with the unflavoured powder…though I did add some cinnamon to the unflavoured one to make it palatable, but that’s a whole other thing.

So! I bought the vanilla bean flavoured stuff and oh the regrets! It is not good. The flavour is that horrible fake flavour I was wanting to avoid and the powder does a crap job of dissolving when mixed, even when mixed in a blender. How is that even possible?

I’d heard I could take it back to Costco, even after it was opened and tested, but I didn’t have the receipt anymore, so I was stuck with it. Which meant I stuffed the container in the back of a cupboard and tried to justify buying a different type when I have a protein powder already. Oh the perils of being cheap and trying to avoid wasting food, sigh.

Out of nowhere I realized something that others would most likely have thought of way sooner, I could add some vanilla extract to the smoothie, force a truer vanilla flavour, and that might drown out the fake vanilla flavour.

Right?

Well, maybe, but worth a try!

So this evening I made a protein smoothie, there was the protein powder, milk (I used to use almond milk but didn’t have any so regular milk it is!) plain Greek yoghurt, one frozen banana, frozen peach slices (cause peaches and vanilla are two flavours that pair well), and a bit of vanilla extract.

After almost killing my blender, it apparently doesn’t care for frozen peach slices, I taste tested it and decided it was a bit bland, so I tossed in more frozen peach slices and hit puree. On the second taste test I figured it was ok enough to be palatable so poured it in to a cup and voila! Protein smoothie.

Peach Vanilla Protein Smoothie

Uh, yeah, so apparently my skills at making a delish protein smoothie are a tad rusty. It was not bad, but not good. Nothing I’d Instagram about, which is saying something considering how many food pictures I have on there!

I’m hoping my skills at making a tasty and nutritious protein smoothie will return, maybe they just need practice, it has been a while after all. If they have deserted me, well, I guess that is why Pinterest has so many protein smoothie recipes pinned on boards!

Proof I drank it!

Tags: costco, lean fit protein powder, protein smoothie, rusty skills