Laura: Fat to Fit: protein powder

Review // Monkey Nutrition // Primal26 Whey Protein Isolate

3/28/2015

For full disclosure purposes, I received a bag of Primal26 from Monkey Nutrition for free in return for an honest review. I am not being paid to talk or advertise their products. All opinions of the product are my own.

A few weeks back, I got contacted by Monkey Nutrition, an award winning company providing sports nutrition products. Monkey Nutrition provide everything from protein powders, sports supplements, health supplements and Paleo foods.

As I've mentioned many times on the blog here recently, as I up my training schedule for Half Marathon training and have started to increase my home workouts, I figured it would be as good a time as any to try and up my protein intake to not only help with building and repairing muscles after a workout but also to try and help me stay fuller for longer and reduce my snacking during the day.

With this in mind, I took to the Monkey Nutrition wesbite to have a gander at the products. I ideally, having never tried protein powder before, I wanted to pick out a protein powder to use.

There are many different types such as protein concentrate & protein isolate and I had no clue! Luckily enough, MN did a blog post about the different types of protein powders available and the benefits of using each one. You can find that HERE if you're interested.

I went for the Primal 26 - Whey Protein IsolatePrimal26 and it is their best selling product. It has undergone a bit more processing than Concentrate, however it is sugar free(sweetened with Stevia instead), lactose free, gluten free, fat free and cholesterol free.and There's only 1g carbs per serving but will give you 26g protein.

This protein powder is great for muscle growth and repair, fat loss, and general well-being. Ideal for a variety of different lifestyles and goals.

Primal26 whey protein isolate comes in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. I got Primal26 in French Vanilla, just because it's a versatile flavour and therefore could try it in different ways, like in smoothies, baking and ofc just as a shake.

The smell of this is freaking amazing! It smells just like Vanilla Ice Cream. I was still apprehensive and curious about the taste. I've had products before that smell nice but taste awful, I've also heard of many protein powders that have a chalky taste to them. This was definitely not the case! This protein powder tastes as good as it smells and I can only describe it as an Ice Cream Milkshake. It was delicious.

I also used this protein powder in a recipe to make Protein Banana Bread. It turned out really well! I have a recipe video for my Protein Banana Bread that you can see below:

I've a blog post HERE with all the recipe instructions and ingredients if you don't want to watch the video. If you decide to make this, please let me know! Obviously, you can use whatever protein powder you want but Primal26 works really well with this and the Banana Bread tastes delicious!

I'd definitely recommend this protein powder solely based on it's taste! You can check out the other products sold by Monkey Nutrition over on their website HERE. They also have a blog where they feature posts on topics such as workouts, nutrition and recipes.

Thanks again to Monkey Nutrition for allowing me to try out Primal26!

Monkey Nutrition Links:

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Question: Do you use protein powder? What's your favourite? What do you look for when choosing a protein powder?

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myprotein

Review // MyProtein - Pancake Mix, Impact Whey Protein & Protein Bars!

3/23/2015

For full disclosure purposes, I received some products from MyProtein for free in return for an honest review. I am not being paid to talk or advertise their products. All opinions of the product are my own.

So, I've been saying for a while that I wanted to try and increase my protein intake. As most of us will all know, having a high protein intake, especially when working out is imperative for building and repairing muscle after a workout. You can get protein in many forms such as fish, meat, nuts and seeds, Greek Yoghurt, eggs and many more!

For others, they need a quick and more convenient way to have protein after a workout and this can be through protein powders and protein bars.

I got some products kindly sent to me by MyProtein to try out and I was pretty excited for all of them.

I received some Impact Whey Protein in Cinnamon Danish and it is pretty delicious! I tried it with water and with milk, milk is definitely a better option but this flavour tastes exactly like a cinnamon pastry that you might get from the bakers. I was definitely impressed. I also tried the protein powder with some plain porridge and it was delicious!

I'd never actually tried any protein powder or had a protein shake prior to trying this so I was really impressed with the flavour. I've heard many people talk about protein powders tasting quite chalky but this definitely wasn't the case here.

There are also FIFTY flavours of protein powder to choose from on the website which is ridiculous! I'm pretty sure there's something for everyone. I did request a Cherry Bakewell flavour.. so maybe they'll do that at some point ;)

I also received a Protein Pancake Mix in Chocolate and I REALLY enjoyed these. You just take 50g of the powder with 150-200ml of milk, mix it together and then start making your pancakes!

The pancakes were really good! and quite thick and fluffy when I made them too which was a surprise. I'm usually used to thin flat pancakes but these were a treat. I actually halved the mixture as I found that I was really full after just a few pancakes, especially if you decide to put any toppings on your pancakes like Greek yogurt, honey, fruit, PB etc.

I also received a selection of their some of their protein bars/cookies. I tried the Oats & Whey Flapjack in Chocolate & PB, Dbl Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie, Protein Chox in Cookies and Cream, HighPro Bar in Vanilla & Honeycomb and the Virtue Bar in Double Chocolate.

I actually really liked the taste, flavour and texture of all of the bars, my favourite was definitely the cookie. I'm a massive fan of soft and chewy cookies over crunchy ones so this was RIGHT up my alley. I might have to get my hands on the other flavours. The Protein Chox was second favourite as it tasted like fudge in chocolate and was delicious!

All of the bars I tried were packed with flavour and I really enjoyed them, they also pack a decent amount of protein per bar, ranging from 20 grams upwards on most of the bars. I actually halved some of these bars and had half after a run in the morning and half after a workout in the evening as a whole bar sometimes was too much for me. They kept me full for quite a long time after a workout which was perfect since that's exactly what I wanted to help reduce snacking.

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MyProtein has a range of everything on their website like bread, pasta, protein bars, they also do Nut Butter! They also do a range of supplements, clothing and energy bars too and there are so many flavour choices to choose from, which can be a bad or a good thing, you could spend hours debating which flavour to get! ;)

Their website also has recipes and training plans which is a nice addition. I also really like the fact that they have a review section for their products so you can see from others what they thought of the different flavours if you aren't too sure.

They're definitely worth taking a look if you need more ways to get protein into your diet after a workout/exercise and there's a whole range of things to try out.

As I know there's a lot of ladies that read my blog, there's a section of the MyProtein website specifically designed with women in mind that contains products that are better suited for women, including supplements, clothing, training plans and articles! You can check that section out HERE.

Thanks again to MyProtein for the opportunity to try out some of their products!

MyProtein Links:

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Question: How do you get enough protein in your diet? Have you ever tried MyProtein?

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baking

Recipe // Protein Banana Bread

3/09/2015

For full disclosure purposes, I received some protein powder from Monkey Nutrition for free in return for an honest review. I am not being paid to talk or advertise their products. All opinions of the product are my own.

So, last weekend on Mine and Phillips weekly shopping trip/Costa trip, we usually have a cake/sandwich of some sort and a drink. It was quite early on in the morning and I decided to try out their Mini Banana Loafs. It was fab, I won't lie. However, the nutritional value on the loafs for what you actually get was pretty poor.

So, I recently received some protein powder from Monkey Nutrition and I didn't want to only take the protein powder in shake form. I wanted other ways to incorporate protein into my diet and therefore decided that baking would be a good option.

So, that is where my Protein Banana Bread was born! I had a look online for what sort of ingredients I might need for the banana bread and subbed in some healthier ingredients.

Granted, this isn't going to taste as moist and fluffy as a banana bread that is full of butter and sugar, but I think it tastes really great. The banana flavour is there, the outer crust of the bread has an almost crunchy exterior and then the inside of the bread is soft and chewy.

So, lets get onto the Ingredients and Recipe for my Protein Banana Bread! I did a video for this recipe too if you would prefer to watch the process rather than read it! :) You can find the video at the bottom of this post or click HERE.

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Protein Banana Bread

by Laura Dryden

Prep Time: 10-15 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients (10-12 slices)

1 and a Half Scoops of Protein Powder(I used Monkey Nutrition Whey Protein Isolate)
1/2 cup of Wholemeal Flour
1/3 cup of Rolled Oats
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp of Cinnamon or Mixed Spice
2 Large Bananas - Mashed
Egg Whites from 2 Large Eggs
3 Tbsp Greek Yoghurt

Instructions

1) Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 180 degrees Celsius for electric ovens or 160 degrees Celsius for fan assisted ovens.

2) Pre-line a baking loaf tin with grease proof paper and/or non-stick spray.

3) Combine all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. All the wet ingredients into a second, smaller bowl.

4) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, makes sure there is no flour/dry ingredients seen on the mixture.

5) Empty the mixture into the pre-lined loaf tin and place into the pre-heated oven for around 30 minutes or until the mixture is golden brown in colour and a skewer comes out clean.

6) Allow the Banana Bread to cool for at least 10-15 minutes before attempting to remove from the loaf tin

7) Remove Banana Bread from the loaf tin and transfer to a wire rack so it can cool further.

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So, that's it!

The protein bread is perfect with a cup of tea.. in fact.. It's what I'm enjoying it with now as I write this post and it's also enjoyable when topped with some PB!

The video for this recipe is below:

If you try out my protein banana bread, then pleeeease tag me on social media and let me know what you think! All my social media links are at the bottom of this post :)

Question: Whats your favourite type of cake/bread?

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