MIMM #5: PB&J Protein Shake (vegan)

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a marvelous Monday like I am! Thank you to Katie for hosting this awesomely positive and uplifting link up 🙂 First things first, I felt absolutely marvelous after yesterday’s arm workout because I think my biceps are finally starting to come into shape.

The picture doesn’t show much but let me tell you, this is a huge improvement for me. I have never had any muscle. I might have been skinnier, but strong and muscular – never. So this is a big deal for me. I am very excited and can’t wait what the future will bring. I cannot wait to look like Crystal from Spoonful of Fit. Okay, a girl can dream, alright…… *daydreaming*

Also, make sure you enter into my marvelous giveaway to win 12 flavors of Arctic Zero protein ice cream! The pints have only 150 calories per pint and the bars have 85 calories. They are delicious and great as a post-workout recovery snack or dessert 🙂 The giveaway ends on Wednesday!

A marvelous recipe: Protein shakes have been replacing my regular egg breakfast. I can’t get enough. They are just SO good!

It baffles me how people can just go and get a milkshake with all those calories, fat, and sugar when you can have an even better alternative, guilt-free, with a similar (if not better) flavor? It’s such a marvelous way to fuel your exhausted muscles after a good workout.

Here comes a PB&J protein shake. Ekhem, it’s peanut butter jelly time…

Chunky Monkey Protein Shake (vegan)

I am all for protein shakes, I love ’em! I might sometimes even drink them as dessert. Tehe.

If you are a peanut butter fan, you will love this shake. It has a very predominant peanut butter flavor with subtle hints of banana. I didn’t taste very much chocolate, even though I used dutch chocolate whey protein powder (not vegan) , but you can always add cocoa powder in there if you so desire, for a more complex flavor.

Truth be told, I don’t think I’m PB fanatic enough to make this my daily protein shake, especially if I was to add 2 Tbsp of peanut flour. I prefer a more delicate peanut flavor, so I opt for using only 1 or 1 and a half Tbsp of peanut flour. But a larger amount is nice once in a while when I’m intensely craving peanut butter. Normally though, I prefer my chocolate flavors 😉 I know a lot of you PB fans will love this though!

Mocha Banana Protein Shake

I can hardly believe how beautiful this past week has been. March in Chicago is never this gorgeous. We’ve been having 80s temperatures all week and it’s perfect. We skipped right over spring and straight into summer. I realize that next week is going to drop to 50s and 60s but still! No complaining here. I heard Arizona got 20″ of snow though, which makes me wonder what the hell is going on with the weather on this world lately. I know there have been always variations of weather over the centuries but it’s kind of weird. I just hope the world isn’t really going to end anytime soon, I’m no where near done living! I have way too much to accomplish and I’m too young. Anyways, since it’s been so beautiful outside, my honors sustainability class yesterday decided to spend the last half of the class in Millennium Park. Gotta love having class outside, right? Of course, except when a bird singles you out and poops on you while you’re sitting in a circle with your classmates talking about nature and sustainability. My professor goes “I wish it was me that got pooped on instead of you, but this just proves that nature shouldn’t be sugarcoated and it is not always beautiful.” We were talking about agriculture and this accident made a good segway to talking about the bad things farmers have to deal with. Lovely.

Today for breakfast I took a break from the regular omelette and decided to make a protein shake since I haven’t had these in a while. Today is my rest day but I was just craving a shake. So here’s the recipe for this delicious banana mocha protein shake which has NO added sugar but still tastes great from the banana’s sweetness: