Gagging on Protein

The director of the fitness center where I work got me hooked on morning smoothies...or, I should say, gritties, because we put all kinds of stuff in 'em: oatmeal, nuts, berries, wheat germ, twigs...

He also suggested getting some protein powder, so I bought some whey protein isolate, and it seemed to work well...except for making me feel kind of sick all morning. Hmmm. Maybe I was drinking the shakes too fast. Or I could cut back on the amount. Or stir it in instead of whipping it up with so much air in the blender. Nothing I tried worked, so I got the bright idea to try making protein bars. Maybe if I didn't drink the stuff, I could tolerate it better. I found several recipes on the Internet and gave four different bars a try. I can safely report that they were all completely disgusting.



Here's the worst one (why did I even try this?)

Protein Bars

1 lb of no fat cottage cheese
4 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
2 cups of whole oats
3 scoops of chocolate pure whey protein power (except I used vanilla)

Mix it all together, put it back in the cottage cheese tub (+half of another tub) or shape into 6 bars and refrigerate. Serve to your girlfriend and enjoy the face she makes.

This was probably the most palatable (and easiest) -- I liked it OK, but it still gave me a belly ache.

Single Protein Bar
2 scoops oats
Few nuts
1 scoop protein powder
Tbs. or less peanut butter
Water

Chop oats and nuts into powder in the blender and pour into small mixing container. Add protein powder, mix in peanut butter and a little water at a time until somewhat crumbly moist consistency. Dump out onto foil or waxed paper, fold into bar shape. Eat or refrigerate.

I'm just one of those people who can't tolerate whey protein. Swell. Fortunately, I ordered the stuff from a healthfood place that has a money back guarantee, so I sent it back (they even pay return postage!) and ordered some brown rice protein instead. I'm told it's much easier on the gut. Live and learn. Last night I took the muffins pictured above down to the river and fed them to the ducks. They wouldn't eat them. The geese, however, snarfed them down, paper and all, so if you see any muscular looking (or maybe dead) geese around Dundee, you'll know why.