Laura: Fat to Fit: recipe

Recipe // Attempting High Protein Yule Log!

12/24/2015

Disclosure: I was provided with some ingredients and money to buy recipe ingredients from Discount Supplements in return for an honest review. I am not being paid to talk about or advertise their products. All opinions of the product are my own.

It has been an age since I last baked something. I was supposed to be making more of a conscious effort to bake this year and I just never got round to it! I sometimes find baking quite relaxing and almost therapeutic when things go right.. but when things go wrong it can be incredibly frustrating!

However, I think I'm a little out of practice with baking as I haven't done any in a while and when I attempted to follow a recipe to make a High Protein Yule Log - it went really wrong for me. I've never made a Yule Log before so I thought it would be a fun thing to bake! I did eventually create something edible but it took a few goes and some changing things around to get a final product.

I followed the recipe from Discount Supplements - The recipe has been tested many times before and has worked just fine for others, but the icing part of the recipe just wouldn't work out for me. You can find other Christmas recipes HERE

I've included the recipe for the Yule log below if anyone is interested in making it:

Click the images above to see a larger version!

The actual Yule Log sponge part of the recipe worked out really well when it was baked and it was very tasty, however, the icing just wasn't playing ball with me and I'm not sure if this was maybe because I didn't have a food processor in order to mix everything together. Like I mentioned above, the whole recipe has been put together by a baker and tested by others and they have been able to make the Yule Log Icing with no issues - it just didn't agree with me. If you try the recipe out and get the icing to work, do let me know! :)

Instead of the icing from the above recipe, I ended up using the icing part of a recipe from the lovely Cat at Cat Food Is Good For You. She has a Yule Log recipe over on her blog and had a chocolate icing that I used for mine.

The icing was made with coconut oil, dark chocolate, honey, cocoa powder, vanilla essence and a little salt(Cat's recipe HERE) - super simple ingredients and by god it was tasty! The Yule log base from Discount Supplements Recipe combined with the icing from Cat made a TOTALLY delicious Yule Log that tasted like a Bounty bar in cake form!

With the original recipe, there's around 17 grams of protein per slice, however, my finished product was only 6 grams of protein, so not exactly high protein, though I'm sure there would be a way to increase the protein like adding some protein powder to the icing recipe - I might have to experiment!

Baking the yule log has definitely made me want to start baking again and I'd like to try and turn some of my favourite desserts into healthier options or high protein options, so I'm definitely going to make more of an effort in the new year!

Discount Supplements is the UKs largest online sports supplements store and they stock everything from sports supplements, vitamins and minerals to bodycare and sports accessories.

Question: Do you like baking? What was the last thing that you baked?

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monkey nutrition

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:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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

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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.

****

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.

****

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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baking

Recipe // Oaty PPB & Raisin Muffins

1/26/2015

For full disclosure purposes, I received some products from Hale Naturals 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.

This recipe was supposed to go up a while back and it completely slipped my mind to post it until I was going through my photos the other day. I just knew I had to post them as they were delicious! So delicious infact that I kept them to myself to eat and only gave a few to Phillip instead of sharing them(is that bad? xD)

They're made with all healthy ingredients, they're not hard to make, it's just mixing all the ingredients together really and then putting it in the oven!

They're low in calories, filling and they have 7g of protein thanks to the PPB(Powdered Peanut Butter). I got sent some lovely PPB to try out by the lovely people over at Hale Naturals. I've never tried anything like this out before so I was quite intrigued.

PPB is pretty much exactly as it says, It's Powdered Peanut Butter, you mix the powder with water to make a peanut butter mixture(smooth obviously). PPB has 70% less fat than traditional peanut butter. The peanuts are slowly roasted and then pressed to remove most of the fat and oil, the result is peanut flour with less saturated fat but high in protein and fibre.

PPB can be used for all sorts, it can be used with water to make peanut butter that you would usually put on toast, bagels, etc or can be used in smoothies, baking or can be used as a flavouring in frostings or sauces.

I've used it for a couple of my baking project so far and they've turned out great. I've also tried the PPB on its own mixed with the water to the consistency of Peanut Butter and it tastes great considering it's not ACTUAL Peanut Butter.

I'm definitely going to be using it for many more recipes that might require a peanut butter flavouring and I'll make sure to share them when I do but for now, I'll leave you with the recipe for Oaty PPB & Raisin Muffins!

Oaty PPB & Raisin Muffins

by Laura Dryden

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 20

Keywords: bake snack sugar-free muffin

Ingredients (serves 18)

3 Cups(270g) of Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup(100g) of Natvia or Sugar
3 tbsp PPB
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Mixed Spice or Cinnamon
2 Eggs and 1 Egg White
300 ml of Almond Milk(or regular milk if you prefer)
2 Mashed Bananas(large)
1/2 Cup of Raisins

Instructions

1) Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees C or 155 degrees C for Fan Oven.

2) Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

3) In another bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients.

4) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until all combined and mixture is fairly smooth.

5) Stir in the raisins

6) Spoon the mixture into 18 cupcake cases or mini muffin cases(I greased cupcake cases as the oat mixture can stick to the paper cases).

7) Place into oven and bake for 20 minutes until tops are golden and a skewer comes out clean and muffins are cooked through.

8) After baking, transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

****

So there you have it! Delicious, healthy, lower calorie, high protein Oaty PPB & Raisin Muffins. You can also make them sugar free if you use a sugar substitute like Natvia and Gluten Free if you use Gluten Free Oats! And of course, if you don't like raisins then you could always sub them for chocolate chips or another type of extra that you think might go with Peanut Butter. The choice is entirely up to you.

These muffins are fantastic warm, straight out of the oven, or cold as a grab and go breakfast or even as a post workout snack. I'll definitely be making them again.

If you try them, do let me know! I'd love to know what you think! You can let me know on Twitter HERE, Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE! :)

Enjoy! I'm now off for my swimming lesson!

Have a great evening :)

Question: Do you like Peanut Butter? Whats your favourite way to eat it? :)

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baking

Recipe // Carrot Cake Muffins with Cinnamon Icing

11/29/2014

For full disclosure purposes, I received some products from Natvia 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.

Whilst we were sitting in Costa last weekend, Phillip had a slice of Carrot Cake, I always have a sneaky little bite of his rather than having a full slice of it. It's fantastic but at 500 calories for a fairly small slice, it's not something you can have all the time and it's not exactly the healthiest.

So when I was thinking of what I wanted to bake this week, Carrot Cake came to mind and I sprung into action. I knew I wanted to use healthy ingredients only and I said last week when I made my 3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake that I wanted to use the Icing Sugar that I got from Natvia so I put them both together!

These carrot cake muffins are perfect, delicious and most of all full of healthy ingredients! It might not trump the Costa Carrot Cake but it comes up pretty darn close!

So, gather your ingredients! we're making healthy carrot cake muffins with a cinnamon icing! Completely sugar free as we're using Natvia. The muffins are really moist and there's a sneaky coconut flavour in there too and the flavours balance out well!

Lets get to the recipe shall we!

Carrot Cake Muffins with Cinnamon Icing

by Laura Dryden

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 25 Minutes

Keywords: bake dessert snack sugar-free cake

Ingredients (12 Muffins)

For the Muffins:

2 Large Carrots, grated
3 Medium Eggs
200 g Ground Almonds(I used Whitworths)
60 g Walnut Pieces (I used Whitworths)
40 g Desiccated Coconut (I used Happiness is Homemade Organic)
75 g Natvia
60 g/60 ml Coconut Oil, Melted (I used Groovy Food Company)
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Generous Sprinkling of Cinnamon/Mixed Spice
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Splash of Almond Milk if mixture is hard to mix or clumpy

For the Icing:

80 g Extra Light Soft Cheese
30 g Natvia Icing Mix
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon

Instructions

For the Muffins:

1) Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C (or 160 for fan ovens), line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases, set aside for later

2) Place all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.

3) Add in all wet ingredients except for the grated carrot to the dry ingredients and combine. If mixture seems to be clumping together, add a splash of almond milk to moisten the mixture.

4) Add in the grated carrots and combine thoroughly.

5) Spoon the mixture evenly into the cake cases.

6) Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

7) Allow muffins to cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Icing:

1) Put soft cheese, vanilla extract, cinnamon and icing sugar into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk until combined and mixture is smooth.

2) Spoon icing onto muffins, you can have a small dollop in the middle of the muffin or all over the top, it's completely up to you!

*You can add more icing sugar or cinnamon depending on your taste, you may like it the way it is, or you might like your icing sweeter or to have more cinnamon, its completely up to you! It is always better to start with less, than add to much and not be able to take it away! :)

* Icing should be slightly runny, this is not frosting.

So, there you have it! :)

You don't have to make these carrot cake muffins with the icing, in fact.. I'm making another batch that I could also have as a breakfast option! I've a feeling they'll be amazing when eaten warm!

If you try and make these, let me know! I'd love to see your creations! Tag me on my Twitter or Instagram!

I hope you have a great rest of the weekend! and if you haven't already, go and check out my Christmas Gift Guide for Runners! :)

Question: Do you like Carrot Cake? Whats your favourite type of cake/muffin?

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dessert

Recipe // Jam Roly-Poly

11/09/2013

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So, remember last Sunday when I said that I'd be coming up with a new recipe? Well.. Here it is. For Dessert this Saturday, I made a childhood favourite dessert - Jam Roly Poly.

I've never TRIED to make anything like this before.. and therefore, I had a look at recipes online and then amended them as I needed. However, the dessert is not as healthy as I would have liked it to be.

I may try to recipe again at some point to substitute some of the ingredients for healthier ingredients such as Wholemeal instead of White Self-Raising flour. I had no idea they did a lighter version of the Suet.. so I would opt for that.

I used Semi-Skimmed Milk and Reduced Sugar Jam which lowered the calories and Fat and it still turned out alright. Pretty Yummy actually.

Without further ado..

Jam Roly-Poly

by Laura Dryden

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 1 hour

Keywords: dessert

Ingredients (Serves 6)

50g salted butter, cold and cut into chunks, plus extra for greasing
250g self-raising flour, plus extra for rolling
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out or 1 tsp of Vanilla Essence
50g shredded suet
150ml milk, plus a drop more if needed
100g jam of your choice
custard, to serve

Instructions

1. Put a deep roasting tin onto the bottom shelf of the oven, and make sure that there’s another shelf directly above it. Pull the roasting tin out on its shelf, fill two-thirds with boiling water from the kettle, then slide it back in.

2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.

3. Tear off a large sheet of foil and grease-proof paper (about 30 x 40cm). Sit the grease-proof on top of the foil and grease the paper well to prevent sticking.

4. Put butter, flour and vanilla seeds into a food processor; pulse until the butter has been mixed and there are no big lumps of butter left.

5. Stir through the suet granules, pour in the milk and work together (I used a cutlery knife) until you get a sticky dough. You may need a drop more milk, depending on your flour.

6. Transfer dough out onto a floured surface, quickly pat together to smooth, then roll out to a square roughly 25 x 25cm.

7. Spread the jam all over, leaving a gap along one edge, then roll up from the opposite edge. Pinch the jam-free edge into the dough where it meets.

8. Carefully lift onto the greased paper, join-side down, loosely bring up the paper and foil around it, then scrunch together along the edges and ends to seal. The roly-poly will puff quite a bit during cooking so don’t wrap it tightly.

9. Lift the parcel directly onto the rack above the tin and cook for 1 hr.

10. Let the pudding sit for 5 mins before unwrapping, then carefully open the foil and paper.

Thickly slice and serve (I used custard as this combination was loved as a child).

So, Let me know if you try it out.. and definitely let me know if you swapped out any of the ingredients for others!