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The Search for Protein: Product Review

18 Jul

Protein powder and I have long been at odds. In my many kitchen experiments, it’s been the one ingredient that I only add because it’s good for me. For the past week or so, I’d been using Wegman’s soy protein powder in vanilla flavor and a lot of my baked goods had been coming out dense. It was very frustrating. I consulted my friends on ObesityHelp.com to learn what their favorite powders were and then headed to my local nutrition store to see what was in stock.

And there it was, shining like a beacon before me in a huge black canister that said NITRO CORE 24 on the side. It was Optimum Nutrition’s new line of powders and I’d heard rumors of it’s tastiness. Skeptically, I looked at the giant tub. The flavor was vanilla ice cream. It also comes in strawberry milkshake, ultimate chocolate, and extreme cookies and cream. What is extreme or ultimate about those flavors, I don’t know. I will find out in the future.

What makes O.N.’s new product so interesting is that each 48g scoop contains 24 grams of a protein blend. Most powders on the market are either whey (isolated from cheese) or soy (isolated from soybeans). Not so with this particular product. The protein blend contains 3 different types of proteins which are balanced by the rate at which they are digested in the body. For instance, whey protein isolate is quickly digested, egg albumins and milk proteins are digested slightly slower, and at the end of the chain are casein proteins (accounting for 80% of the proteins in cheese and milk) which take a long time for the body to digest. This all translates into feeling fuller longer and a chance for better protein absorption (in the case of those who have malabsorption issues).

But really, none of this matters unless you can actually get the stuff down. Most of the complaints I have with protein powders are chalky or gritty texture, lack of flavor, and a particularly strong smell. Since GNC has a “return it if you hate it” policy, I ponied up the $34 for a canister containing about 30 scoops and brought it back to the lab (read: kitchen) for some tests.

Test #1: Apple Cinnamon Protein Cookie (derived from this delicious recipe)

My modifications included using only 1 heaping scoop (48g is a much larger scoop than many other brands) of protein powder, nixing the chocolate and nuts, adding chopped dried apples as the fruit, and replacing 1 tablespoon of the sugar free caramel syrup with 1 tablespoon of my homemade spiced apple preserves.

I knew that all I had to do was open that canister and I’d know whether I had something acceptable or not. Warily, I opened it and peeled back the quality seal. Oddly enough, I smelled…well, melted vanilla ice cream. Yes, there was a slight hint of that unflavored gelatin smell but all in all it was a pretty good smell. I added a heaping scoop to my batter, portioned out the cookies and waited by the oven. They came out smelling wonderfully, but I’d have to wait until the next day for a taste test.

Test #2: Cinnamon Cheesecake Ice Cream

I needed a test to determine whether this powder could deliver a smooth, creamy texture. Once again, borrowing my base recipe from my friend Shelly’s blog here, I came up with the following:

1 1/4 scoops of Nitro Core Vanilla Ice Cream Protein Powder
1 tbsp. SF cheesecake pudding mix
A few shakes of cinnamon
1 cup 2% milk (do NOT use skim)
1 tbsp SF vanilla syrup (Torani is the brand I had on hand)

I tossed it in the ice cream maker and waited 30 minutes. What came out was still in the soft serve phase and would need a good 2-3 hours in the fridge to harden up, but it was worth tasting. And then there was ice cream. It was creamy, smooth, and decadent. I made a mental note that the SF pudding mix had made the batch slightly too sweet for me but that the protein had certainly done it’s job.

Just The Facts, M’am: Assuming that a batch makes 3 servings, each serving has 107 calories, 4 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbohydrates, and a whopping 11 grams of protein. If you’re a post-op in the “pureed foods” stage looking for more of a meal, consider dividing it into only 2 servings with each one having 160 calories, 6 grams of fat, 8 grams of carbs, and 16 grams of protein. The above recipe is pretty basic. Add fruit, nut butters, or different flavor syrups for some variety.

The next day at 3:00pm, I retrieved my recently baked protein cookie from my bag and took it down to tea. They always serve cookies at tea, so this one would need to be a really good cookie to distract me from those temptations. I took a bite and finally found the texture that my recent batches had lacked so horribly. It was chewy, soft, and had a taste similar to mulled apples. The caramel syrup and vanilla protein blended wonderfully to make a lovely background for this morsel of autumn.

Just The Facts, M’am: A batch yielding 9 cookies has 97 calories, 7 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrates, and 7 grams of protein per cookie. A perfectly fine snack and while it clocks in under 100 calories, this is one that will stick with you.

So it seems that protein powder and I can finally be friends. With its mild, slightly sweetened vanilla flavor and creamy texture, Nitro Core 24 delivers quality protein that I actually want to eat. Many thanks to the folks at Obesity Help for their help in finding it!

Special Circumstances

10 Jul

Look what I came home to yesterday!

Joe bought me these lovely flowers yesterday and they look so beautiful. Really the pictures don’t do them justice at all. He has a wonderful way of surprising me with something great just when I need a little pick me up. It was so heartwarming to come into the house and see that after fighting the mobs of people being pushy on the Metro.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that people are using public transportation more since gas prices have skyrocketed. It’s just that the people who don’t regularly ride don’t really understand the etiquette. For instance, if you want to stand on the escalator, you’re supposed to stay to the right so that people can walk up the left side. There are signs and little announcements every so often indicating this. Yet people still stand there clueless and get annoyed when someone asks them to move. But what really bothers me is the sense of entitlement that’s becoming more prevalent. This morning, an extremely pregnant woman got on the packed train and not one person offered her a seat. One man looked up at her and she thought he was going to offer, but he just sighed and went back to reading his paper. I thought that was awful. I know that we’re all tired and want our moments of peace on the way to work, but really, not offering a very visibly pregnant woman a seat? She’s carrying a pretty important package and probably isn’t used to trying to balance it. I wanted to say something to the people around her, but it probably would have made her feel embarassed. At any rate, the train emptied a bit after a few stops and she got to sit down, at least for a little bit.

This little anecdote actually segues into what I actually wanted to post for all of you today. Special situations call for accomodation. I often worry about my vegan friends who have had weight loss surgery getting enough protein in their diets. That 50 gram minimum is hard to reach with animal products in my diet! So here’s a vegan-friendly protein bar that’s tasty and healthy for anyone. It’s one of my favorites so far because it tastes like a wonderful banana-nut muffin!

Bananut Flax Bars


Cast of characters:
1 1/4 cup mashed banana
Scant 1/4 cup of spiced apple preserves (I can my own, but if you buy, try to find an all-fruit preserve)
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cup puffed brown rice
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 cup Kashi Seven Grain Puffs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup vanilla protein powder
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Using these ingredients, follow the same procedure you would for my chocolate-peanut butter bars. The nutrition info is as follows: 153 calories, 4 grams of fat, 16 grams of carbs, and 14 grams of protein. I hope you enjoy them! I’m on a mission to create the perfect protein bar, so expect more bars (tested for deliciousness of course) in the future.

Tomorrow (my 23rd b-day!) Joe, Dioji and I are off to Chincoteague for a little weekend vacation. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures, and will hopefully come back refreshed and ready to write. Have a healthy and happy weekend everyone!

Patterns and Transformations

8 Jul

Origami tessellations are created by taking one piece of paper and using only two types of folds to create a repeating pattern. Often, the shapes need to be twisted into place in order to flatten them out. The method regularly used is to draw the pattern on a sheet of paper, crease all of the lines and then fold the paper into the finished design. Here’s one of my first attempts:

See how some of the edges don’t quite come together? There are some places where I didn’t crease quite right or attempted the fold too many times and weakened the paper. Lots of mistakes, but not bad for a first try. What I learned from it was to be more precise in my creases and more conscientious of the pattern I was trying to create. After a little practice, I tried another pattern:

Of course, it’s still not perfect, but much better! I was more conscious of the shapes I was forming and took the time to use a folding bone (a hard, flat utensil that creases paper better than a soft fingertip) on each of the creases. The point of all of this? Had I done the same thing with only the conscientiousness of my first attempt, it wouldn’t have come together as well. I’ve heard it said that to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is insanity. If we keep making the same mistakes and expecting a different result, we are destined to fail. This lesson can be applied to lots of life situations.

In high school, my friends and I often went out to eat after school on Fridays. We’d head over to any of the great places in the neighborhood where you could get a slice of gooey cheese pizza, a sandwich bigger than your mouth, or a juicy, greasy burger. I’d laugh, chat and rarely think about the kind of food I put into my body. I just knew it tasted good and I was having fun. As a result, I gained weight all throughout my high school years. There were times I’d try to eat better, but I’d inevitably end up back where I started, making the same mistakes.

After my surgery, I knew I’d have to be more conscientious about changing the pattern for good. The problem was that I still craved those fast foods, and while much of that has dissipated in four years, there are still times that a burger and fries sounds like the greatest thing ever.

So I have one.

Pictured is my dinner from last night. A bison sirloin burger cooked medium-rare and weighing a little less than 4 oz. (a total of 118 calories!) It’s topped with a slice of juicy summer tomato and about an ounce of shredded mozzarella. The “fries” are sliced parsnips tossed in olive oil, lemon thyme, green onion, salt, and pepper which I then spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about a half hour (and yes, they really do taste like french fries).

Now before anyone gets on my case about the medium-rare ground meat, let me note that I bought the bison sirloin steak whole and ground it at home. In my mind, it’s no different than cooking that whole steak medium rare. Had I used store bought ground meat, I’d probably go to medium-well.

In the end, it’s all about making the decision to pay attention to the patterns and being willing to change them if they don’t work out. It’s well worth it.

Have a happy Tuesday all!

A Lesson in Distraction (and a Recipe!)

4 Jul
 

I learned soon after surgery that I needed things to replace food. I’d used food when I was bored, needed comfort, wanted to celebrate…etc etc. Every emotion seemed to be a trigger to eat. Once I decided that I wanted more out of life, I realized that I needed activities to replace all of that emotional eating. Origami was something that I found could use as a distraction when I had those feelings to eat out of boredom or anxiety. It was complicated enough that it kept my brain occupied, but left me with a sense of well being when I finally figured out a particularly difficult pattern. The panther above was one that I tried multiple times before figuring out the way it all came together. Seeing the final product gave me a sense of satisfaction that no piece of fatty, sugary cake ever did.
That’s not to say I gave up loving to cook. Once again, “necessity is the mother of invention” and I needed to invent. When I really was hungry, I still wanted things from my old life from time to time. But much like origami distracted me from eating when I didn’t really need food, playing kitchen scientist brought me creations that distracted me from going for their less healthy counterparts. Case and point: Pancakes. I love pancakes. But when you think about what’s in the average pancake (flour, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, baking soda, butter…) there isn’t really much in the way of good nutrition. Add to that the fact that RNY patients are required to eat AT LEAST 50 grams of protein a day, and I couldn’t really afford to waste the little bit of food I could eat at each meal on something carbohydrate laden. It was when a fellow patient mentioned that she had made pancakes using cottage cheese that I got thinking. Thus, the ricotta-cake was born!

Light, fluffy, and a completely suitable meal for anyone. If I had never explored, I never would have known that a pancake with only 2 tbsp. flour could taste so wonderful.

Ricotta-Cakes
1/2 cup light ricotta cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour or almond flour (multi-grain pancake mix works too)
teaspoon or two of oatmeal if you want some more texture
1 tsp. vanilla
Flavorings/toppings of your choice: fresh fruit, cinnamon, other extracts, sugar-free flavored syrups, peanut butter, cocoa powder…etc.

Cook them as you’d cook regular pancakes. They’re a little more difficult to flip, so keep them small and you’ll have an easier time. The above recipe makes a serving of 3-4 small pancakes, but it is certainly filling and full of protein. I personally like a little bit of peanut butter and banana with mine.

The ricotta pancakes were one of my first experiments after surgery. Cooking it and variations on it made me realize that I didn’t have to give anything in my life up, I simply had to reinvent things and improve the nutrition. A lesson and a distraction all in one.

Mangia bene!

The Inevitable "Welcome" Post

2 Jul

Hello and welcome! I have finally decided that having all of my blogs in different places is far too confusing, so I decided to consolidate. While I love sports, cooking, and origami, there’s so much more I’d like to share with you, so stick around and enjoy.

So first, a little about me. My name is Neen and I live in Virginia with my boyfriend and our Sheltie, Dioji. I recently moved here from Boston after deciding that 1.) I couldn’t stand the gray and 2.) there were several occasions during the winter when I was tempted to call into work “cold.”
I work at a wonderful research library in Washington, DC where I get to read a lot of great (and some very crazy) scholarly essays. I have the pleasure of wonderful colleagues, and tea time every day at 3:00pm.
Outside of work I enjoy swimming, singing, writing, folding origami, arguing about sports with anyone who will listen, and turning my kitchen into a science lab. While I’ve always loved most of those things, recent years have brought me a greater appreciation for many things in life. The reason why is one that, until recently, I have rarely been up front about. Four years ago as of this past April, I had RNY gastric bypass surgery. I was 280lbs, unhappy, and clueless as to how to change my lifestyle. I’d tried every diet from slim fast to south beach to weight watchers. My problem was that as soon as I slipped, I’d believe it was all over and give up. It was a constant cycle of gaining and losing weight that I was desperate to break. I often wondered where the former competitive swimmer had gone. I’d never been very fast, but I could hold my own in an endurance race. There I was though, near the end of my freshman year, a complete mess. For one reason or another, I’d gotten completely out of control and wondered if there was anywhere to turn. There was.
April 28, 2004 Dr. Robert Quinlin performed RNY gastric bypass surgery on me. Following that, my life changed completely. I realized that I had to completely re-learn how to eat. That meant starting from scratch. For one week, I could only have clear liquids, then it was a week of full liquids, followed by a month of pureed foods, and then finally a stabilization phase which introduced solid foods very slowly. I had to focus on getting in as much protein as I could when I could only have about 4oz. of solid food before I felt full. But it worked. During that first year I often wondered if this would really be the thing that made me lose the weight for good. The reduced stomach capacity and bypassed intestine was just a tool. I had to make the decision to live the lifestyle permanently.
What really convinced me to stick with it in the long run were all the things I could do that I wouldn’t have been able to do at 280lbs. I climbed the tower of Pisa, I traveled all over England via train and my legs, I bought a dress from Banana Republic, I ran around Amsterdam with my boyfriend, I moved into three different apartments (without movers to do the lifting!), I danced at a foam party in Mexico, and so SO much more.
In four years, I’ve had my ups and downs, but what I really want to show you is what I’ve learned. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” so they say. The habits that I’ve cultivated since surgery have allowed me to stick to my new lifestyle in a truly healthy way. Hopefully, this blog will help me share those lessons, and I hope that my “inventions” will inspire your own.
 

 

 

 

 

 

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