My Kind of Protein and Some Protein-Packed Recipes

As I showed you earlier this week, one of my goals for this year is to increase the amount of protein in my diet and to keep my diet ultra clean.

As a vegetarian who limits my gluten and dairy consumption, it can be tough for me to get all of my nutrients and although my diet is healthy, the starch-to-protein ratio is a bit off.

Protein powders are one of my best friends. Traditionally I’ve used Kaizen’s vanilla ice cream flavoured natural whey protein because it’s the first one I tried that really tasted good, but now that I’m trying to avoid dairy I’ve been looking into some other options.

I was at Whole Foods one day when they were sampling this – a protein powder made from pumpkin seeds. I was intrigued, so I sampled it and was really impressed with the taste. When I saw it on sale in my local supermarket a few days ago – a few months after that original sample – I decided to dive in, seeing as my whey protein was nearly dunzo anyway.

I did know that when I sampled it, the testers had made protein smoothies with banana in and – having consumed many a green smoothie myself – I know how good banana is at masking flavours. So I wasn’t 100% sure what the powder’s real flavour was like.

But yesterday morning I stirred a scoop into my breakfast oatmeal and it was fine. It had a bit of a grainy texture and it made the oats really thicken up more than usual, so I would increase the amount of liquid you usually use in your oats if you’re going to add it to them. I would highly recommend using it for Gina’s protein fluff, green smoothies, oats, protein pancakes, muffins, stirring into yogurt … however you like (see the bottom of this post for links to recipes this would work well in!). I really think just adding it to random snacks throughout the day is the best idea as it’s the best way to sneak protein into your diet throughout the day.

This tub was on sale for $16.99 (Canadian) in my local supermarket. It says it provides 50 servings. The stats are FANTASTIC on pumpkin protein. It is a complete protein with all 18 amino acids, including the 10 essential ones which are so hard for us vegetarians to get! I find them in quinoa, nutritional yeast, etc but I had no idea pumpkin seeds were complete protein sources. One serving is 15 grams and gives 55 calories and 10g protein. That’s pretty impressive considering that my whey protein is 30g per serving and gives 110 calories and 25g protein. This has just a 5g deficit of protein for the same serving size.

In short, I highly recommend this powder. It doesn’t have a strong flavour that would impact any dishes you add it to, and its texture is fine – it’s not as smooth as some whey proteins, it does have some grittiness to it, but it’s not so gritty that you’d notice it in a bad way. And no, I don’t know the owners and haven’t been contacted by the company – this is just something I found on the supermarket shelves, tried and wanted to share with you!

Looking at the label on the bottle it appears it’s made in Vancouver, BC, so it may only be available at my local Whole Foods because it is a local company. However, check your WF out – it may have it and if not you can always ask!

Or you can buy it on their website for $17.95 here.

Let me know what you think!

And, as promised above, here are some links to recipes you could use this protein powder in:

• Stir into Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Quinoa

• In Pumpkin Protein Pancakes (sub 1/4 cup of the flour for protein powder) and use in the protein frosting:

• Stir into Packed Pumpkin Porridge (or just regular oats!) – just increase liquid by about 1/4 cup

• Replace the oats in my Date Dough Balls with the powder

• Protein muffin in a mug – might want to add some sweetener as the powder is not as sweet as most flavoured proteins

• Because the powder is not too sweet though, you can use it in savoury recipes too! Try replacing the cornmeal in my sweet potato black bean burgers with this pumpkin protein powder!

QUESTIONS:

• Have you heard of pumpkin seed protein powder before?
• What is your favourite way to sneak protein into your diet?