This is a snack that I decided to try the other night after seeing a few fitness gurus suggesting it on their social media sites. I was definitely skeptical because it is a really easy recipe, but sounds like it might not taste all that great. To my surprise, however, it was a lot better than I suspected. The best part about it is that it can really help curve your dessert cravings without actually having something that may be totally against your diet.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Pudding:

2 scoops of Chocolate Whey Protein. (I used Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey Protein)
2 Tbsp. of Organic Peanut Butter (I used Smuckers Organic Creamy Peanut Butter)
Add water as needed (I used about 3-4 tbsp.)

Directions:
Prep time: 2-3 minutes.
Cooling time: 30 minutes
1. Place 2 scoops of Whey Protein Powder in a bowl
2. Add 2 tbsp. of Organic Peanut Butter
3. Add 1 tbsp. of water
4. Stir
5. Continue toaAdd 1 tbsp. of water at a time and stir until desired consistency is reached.
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

That is it! It is very simple!

Tips:

1. Make sure to use Organic Peanut Butter. Organic Peanut Butter IS NOT the same as Natural Peanut Butter. Look at the list of ingredients. You want a Peanut Butter that consists only of Peanuts and maybe 1% or less of salt (no added oils of sugars).

2. When used with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Protein and Organic Peanut Butter, this snack has 450 calories, 18g of fat (3g of saturated fat), 60mg of Cholesterol, 365mg of Sodium, 12g of carbs, 2g of fiber, 3g of sugar, and 55g of protein. The best thing about this snack is the very high protein content of 55g and although it is high in fat, most of the fat is unsaturated and considered good fat coming from the peanut oil.

3. Due to the high amounts of fat, I would not suggest this snack to someone who is trying to seriously lose weight quickly, but rather to someone who is trying to maintain their weight or possibly gain more muscle mass. Don’t get me wrong, even when trying to lose weight you need good fats to feed your body; however people trying to gain muscle mass may benefit more from this than someone who is looking to loose inches off their waistline in a short amount of time.

4. There are other variations of this recipe that I have not tried, but if you are daring, I would love for you to let me know what you think of this recipe. One other variation of the recipe suggests microwaving the peanut butter for 20-30 seconds first, then stirring in a little water, then adding the protein. No cooling is involved for this one. This sounds pretty good too, so I hope to try this in the near future.

5. I also would be interested trying this recipe with different flavors of protein. If you do get adventurous and try some out, please let me know what you think!

6. One other thing to maybe consider if you would like a little less fat in your Protein Pudding would be possibly using one tbsp. of Organic Peanut Butter and more water, or possibly even skim milk. Or you could also try using 1 tbsp. of Organic Peanut Butter and 1-2 tbsp. of PB2 with water! Just a thought that may work. I have not tried either of these options, but if you are interested in getting a reduced fat Protein Pudding, this may be something to play around with and consider.

Hope the recipe helps you reach your fitness goals. Let me know what you think by emailing me at corestrengthalec@gmail.com!