Tater’s Protein Shake

September 9th, 2010 by Potato

I have just invented a new concoction which I don’t think will catch on with anyone else in the world, but I thought I’d share anyway.

The background is that I am, like many, trying to eat healthier. So, I went to the grocery store and picked up a pack of roasted yellow chickpeas and a pack of roasted salted soybeans. They’re both good sources of protein for a vegetarian: the chickpeas aren’t exactly jam-packed with protein, but they’re high in fibre and low in fat; the soybeans have a ton of protein, but it comes with a lot of fat as well. Both are full of lysiney goodness.

I’ve been getting loose soybeans like this for a little while now, and know that I can just pop a few handfuls at a time and eat them straight like that. I tried doing that with the chickpeas, and my reaction was “well, I guess if the zombies come, this’ll keep us alive.” They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t particularly good, either. They just had no flavour of their own. However, they did have a decent enough crunch. Realizing both could use a bit of flavour, I came up with this mixture:

2 tbsp nutella
1/2 c roasted yellow chick peas
1/4 c roasted salted soybeans

Just mix to evenly coat everything.

In total, the concoction has 440 calories, 17 g of protein, 21 g of fat (5 g of it saturated), plus 10 g of fibre. Though it’s not very big in the bowl, it’s pretty calorie-dense, I find it’s a good breakfast-sized portion (but keep in mind I’ve only had it twice now).

So there’s obviously way too much fat in this concoction to be really healthy, but it’s just so hard some days getting vegetarian protein. Most of that fat comes from the nutella, so I’ll see if I can tweak the recipe to find another way to bind everything together and give it some modicum of flavour.

2 Responses to “Tater’s Protein Shake”

  1. Netbug Says:

    That sounds more like Potato’s Protein Paste…

    Good work on trying new things. Be careful with that mix though; as you said, it’s VERY calorie dense. If you want to lose weight, you want to be at a calorie deficit (obviously), if you’re not lifting weights (and even if you are at the beginning). Eating something like that… you’d only be able to have like 4 of them a day… and nothing else (based upon your BMR and other fun calculable things).

    Try throwing some protein powder in it. If you won’t eat Whey because it’s animal based (it’s the staple protein source of my diet) then look for PEA, HEMP, SOY and/or BROWN RICE protein. All of which are affordable and available online (www.trueprotein.com for example, but you’d probably want to find something in Canada).

    One thing to know about protein powder, most people have a lot of trouble with it at first. Especially if they try eating it only mixed with milk (I actually have it with water if I’m really trying to cut calories, and that just tastes nasty). Mix it with other stuff and it will GREATLY help with increasing protein intake.

    Here’s the few ways I take it, and I actually look forward to these meals:

    Option 1
    1 scoop protein
    1 cup no-fat or low-fat yogurt
    1 tbsp NATURAL peanut butter
    1 tbsp apple butter OR 1 tbsp jam

    Option 2
    1 cup dry oats (cooked with water in microwave)
    1 scoop protein
    1 tbsp apple butter OR 1 tbsp jam
    1 cup 1% milk or soy milk

    Option 3 (Post-workout Simple Carby goodness)
    1 scoop protein
    1 cup natural fruit juice (I like the PC brand stuff in the cartons)
    1/2 banana (frozen)
    Mix in blender. It’s a smoothie. I get a brain freeze every time because I enjoy it to much.

    Not gonna get into to much other stuff in this comment (I’ll probably do some blogging on what works/worked for me on my own site at some point) but the only other things to be cognoscente of for basic healthy weight loss:

    1. Get more exercise.
    2. TRY to get a ratio of around 50/30/20 for Protein/Carbs/Fats to start. I sit at 40/40/20 for maintaining or 30/50/20 if I’m trying to gain.

    (Think I’ll put this on Facebook as well when the post aggregates there…)

  2. Potato Says:

    When you talk ratios, are you talking calories, or grams? (Really only matters for the fats).

    That seems like a lot of protein… right now I’m just shooting for the WHO/CFG range of 15+% calories from protein, which would be a minimum of ~90 g of protein/day. Then I’ll work up to the mid-20’s/low-30’s range.

    I mean, 50% protein is just speaking a different language to me. It’s like if someone asks how an MRI works and I started with “you know how protons are spin-one-half particles, right?”. I did a quick check of my kitchen, and there is only one food in the entire lacto-ovo-vegetarian repertoire that has more than 50% protein, and that’s egg whites. Even whole eggs aren’t that high. Tofu is close (and it looks like the PC blue menu low-fat tofu gets well over 50% by calories), but roasted soybeans aren’t either. So if even single foods can’t come that high, I think it’s unrealistic to expect to get a balanced diet anywhere close. There are the supplements to bring it up, but I don’t have much interest in making powder a big portion of my diet. I’m just trying to get healthy, not ripped.

    I know this stuff has worked like gangbusters for you, but I just can’t get that extreme with it, it’s just so far from where I am now. Although I like to eat “real food”, my love of candy means I don’t have much of a leg to stand on to reject protein powders for being “artificial”.

    Right now I’m at about 70 g of protein per day, so I’m working on getting more in. I thought this concoction was a good way, with 17 g of protein, but the 2xPB&J it’s replacing had that much or more. It’s a better complimentary protein for me (mmm, lysine), but I think I need to rethink this whole thing. Over half the fat comes from the nutella, so I’ve got to find a better way to bind it all together and give it flavour than that.

    A big part of the problem I think is when I became lactarded I stopped drinking milk to the same extent. I used to get 20-30 g of protein just from milk, and now that’s maybe 10 g per day (and some days I don’t have any!). So one easy thing I’m going to do is just start drinking milk more (though I’ll have it mainly at night after I’m safely at home, rather than with breakfast).

    But yeah, I’m just trying to get to a healthy amount of protein in my diet, and then from there can look at a “high” protein diet. I’m just so far below that point now that talk of 50% protein doesn’t even seem real.

    I’m sure it’s the same for typical people to process being a vegetarian. “You don’t eat meat?” “No.” “Not even bacon?” “No.” “…Whoa.”

    “You should aim for 50% protein.” “Pffft, you’re taking the piss. That’s unpossible.” “No, you just use this powder…” “Ok, yeah, maybe that works for you, but I didn’t go to astronaut camp.”

    Of course, there are always life choices some find incomprehensible:

    “So we’re going to stay up for 36 hours straight to work on this project, then play video games for 5 hours to destress, and then go to bed for 14 hours straight to catch up.” “That’s not physically possible.” “Sure, and it’s fun!” < walks away slowly >