FAT BUSTERS: Nutrition – Orange Smoothie Protein Shake

Today is Saturday, a weekend day. As I mentioned in my first Fat Busters post, I take weekends off, as far as diet is concerned.

I also mentioned that I still drink three protein shakes through out my days off. This gives me the ability to take the whole weekend off , instead of just one day. Plus, I'm getting nutrition into me, despite all the junk food I eat on these days.

INGREDIENTS:

2-4 tablespoons frozen concentrated orange juice (this is my carbohydrate)

1 1/2 cups low-fat milk (this is for flavor and a little protein)

1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (this is my protein – hence the name protein powder, duh!)

This is one of my favorite protein shakes. First, add 2 -4 tablespoons orange juice concentrate. This is my carbohydrate.

Next, add 1 1/2 cups low-fat milk.

Finally, add one scoop of your favorite protein powder (for protein) and...

Blend on high for 15 - 20 seconds.

You could be fancy and serve it with a slice of orange wedged onto the rim of the glass, but I didn't have any oranges this morning to do this with.

My two youngest don't like any of my protein shakes, so I only make them normal smoothies. Maybe you can't stomach protein shakes either. Here are a few tips. Maybe they will help, maybe they won't.

I can't stand skim milk (in most cases. Tastes like watered down milk.), so I use 1% milk. You could go up to 2% milk if you want. This may help. I would stay away from whole milk, though.

Make sure you are using a good tasting protein powder. I use Muscle Milk, which I purchase at Costco (It comes in a million pound bag. It's cheap that way.)

I used EAS for a very, very long time. I switched to Muscle Milk, because I can buy it cheap at Costco (if you can call it cheap to buy a bag as big as myself).

Adding vanilla can help spice-up your shake a lot. Especially if you use real vanilla (and even more if you use a good brand. My favorite brand is Nielson-Massey. I get it from Williams-Sonoma).

If you really want to do it right, I would use vanilla bean paste. It's used just like vanilla, but comes with a real punch. Quite expensive ($11 for this 4 oz. bottle), but worth every cent.

A last resort would be to add a little sugar. Just a little. I would recommend a teaspoon at the most - two if you are dying and your body can handle the extra sugar.

One last thing, I always have my afternoon and evening shake with a vegetable snack - carrot or celery sticks, a bowl of peas, etc. I do that or I use a meal replacement powder vs. a protein powder. My favorite brand of meal replacement powder is no longer sold, so I don't have any recommendations for that.