Today’s post is short (on time) and sweet (to your taste buds)! Lot’s of quick-to-make breakfast, dessert and sweet snack ideas made with my most favorite EVER, protein powder – Clean Lean Protein from Nuzest.
I’m I big stickler on getting enough protein throughout the day. For my activity level and healthy aging, I personally aim for 1 gram protein per pound bodyweight – that’s about 120g protein per day for me. An easy way to help me meet the goal is using a quality protein powder, and Clean Lean Protein from Nuzest has been a favorite I’ve used for years. And, YES, I do have a 15% discount code to share: FITFORK
Clean Lean Protein from Nuzest is plant-based and suitable for vegan, vegetarian, Paleo and many other dietary eating patterns. I eat all the foods, including meat, but I find that a plant-based protein powder is easier on my digestive system than other powders. Nuzest protein powder is the best of the best in terms of quality, macros, taste and texture (IMO) – and it comes in many flavors to suit your preference – or even unflavored.
It’s easy to use protein powder in smoothies or a shaker bottle with almond milk. But baking with protein powder is also very easy and smart – in fact, I use it in almost all my protein powder dessert and breakfast creations like protein waffles and pancakes; protein cakes, cupcakes and muffins; post-workout protein bites, bars and snacks; and more. Here are some of my favorite easy protein powder recipes from thefitfork.com
This post is sponsored by Kevin’s Natural Foods as part of a blogger recipe challenge.
Hmmm, how to save dinner on the craziest of pre-holiday prep days?! I had so much shopping, wrapping, decorating, and last-minute elf-ing around that “what’s for dinner” was the last thing on my mind. Plus, I was just plain tuckered out.
But the quick and easy meal pouches from Kevin’s Natural Foods were the fit foundation for some last-minute refueling and feasting! I used the Korean Beef BBQ to make a holiday-inspired meal — 10-MinutePomegranate Korean Beef BBQ.
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This 10-MinutePomegranate Korean Beef BBQ recipe is made with a Kevin’s Natural Foods meal pouch that includes sous vide cooked beef and Bulgogi-style sauce. I put my own spin on the already delicious meal by adding a little pomegranate juice and ginger to the sauce and adding pomegranate arils, spinach, and pistachios. SO DARN EASY and it makes an easy-peasy, beautiful, flavorful and festive holiday meal (which also makes dinner any day of the year). I served this pomegranate bulgogi inspiration on rice (use a frozen rice pouch to keep it quick – I actually batch cook my rice and grains and freeze in the portions I need to save time and $$). But, if you’re not into rice, this festive bulgogi recipe is also yummy on cauliflower rice, smashed sweet potatoes, or with veggie noodles of your choice.
Beef is 100-percent pasture-raised, grass-fed, and grass-finished and cook in sous-vide method, so it stays super tender and juicy.
Real talk: I have been eating and enjoying the chicken meals from Kevin’s for a while but have shied away from trying a beef meal kit. Why? Because I’m definitely a beef snob and was worried that the beef steak tips would be stringy and chewy, as the beef cuts in these types of convenience meals usually are. But, color me IMPRESSED! The beef steak tips remain super tender thanks to the sous-vide cooking method that is used to prep them. Just a couple minutes in the skillet to warm up and they are still juicy and tender. The beef that Kevin’s natural foods recipes source 100-percent pasture-raised, grass-fed, and grass-finished.
In the past, I’ve picked up my meals from Kevin’s Natural Foods at my local grocery store. But now the meals can be ordered in bundled assortments from the comfort and convenience of your home online. And, actually you can order from whatever vacay adventure you may be crushing so that they are delivered straight to your door, frozen in a cooler, when you roll back from the airport or road trip. No worrying about getting to the grocery store STAT or caving into fast take-out food because you’re starving.
For convenience, use prepped pomegranate arils from a tub!
Today’s recipe used the Korean BBQ-style Beef meal pouch, but there are SO MANY varieties like and Creamy Coconut Chicken and Cilantro Lime Chicken. It’s never boring and ALWAYS easy and delicious. Plus, all meal pouches from Kevin’s are nutritionally built to be compliant with keto, paleo and gluten free diets too!
Check out the Creamy Chicken Coconut Soup (like Tom Kha Gai) recipe I came up with using their Thai-style Coconut Chicken meal kit.
Find additional details about Kevin’s Natural Foods their backstory, and their amazing clean-eating focused products (entrees, sides, sauces, stir-frys and more!) which can find a place in your diet – whether Keto, Paleo, Gluten-free . . or Mediterranean, like me! Order online or find in a store near you.
Also check them out on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest! AND – give my 10 minute recipe for Pomegranate Korean Barbeque a try, it’s so delicious and festive!
Succulent beef tips with spinach in a slightly sweet, slightly spicy sauce that is bejeweled with pomegranate arils and pistachios! It's festive, flavorful and a fit for your clean eating meal.
Servings: 3servings
Ingredients
1pouch Korean Beef BBQ from Kevin’s Natural Foods
2teaspoonsolive oil
1teaspoonfinely minced or grated ginger
2tablespoons100% pomegranate juice*hack: if using a ready-to-eat tub of arils, just drain off the juice for this use.
3cupschopped fresh baby spinach
1/3cuppomegranate arils
3scallionsboth white bulbs and greens finely sliced
This post is sponsored by Kevin’s Natural Foods as part of a blogger recipe challenge.
Winter weather in Texas always keeps me guessing! Today I’m in shorts, but I’m still have a hankering for soup – and whipped up an amazing 10-MiuteThai-Style Creamy Coconut Chicken Soup starting with an entrée kit from Kevin’s Natural Foods.
Did I mention this soup only takes 10 minutes to make start to finish? Yup, it’s so perfect for crazy busy days (like today where I was squeezing in a run, workout, holiday shopping and working on a book deadline)! Kevin’s Natural Foods also comes to the rescue on those days when I have warm fuzzy feelings about cooking something awesome from scratch, but in the end — just can’t pull my life together!
I think of these keto, paleo and gluten-free friendly products from Kevin’s Natural Foods as “meal starters” for lack of a better term. The packets come refrigerated (you can store in freezer) and include a pre-cooked protein and delicious sauce. The proteins are cooked sou-vide style and simply need heating up in a skillet or microwave (or in my soup recipe, just chopping up cold and tossing in the pot). They you can choose exactly how to serve it – on rice, on a sweet potato, in a wrap, or in a recipe creation – like my soup!
Check out this 30-sec video to see how easy & tasty life is with Kevin’s Natural Foods!
So, back to the soup! 10-MiuteThai-Style Creamy Coconut Chicken Soup is made with a pouch of Thai-style Coconut Chicken. It reminds me of Tom Kha Gai soup – so delicious. As you can see from the quick video, the steps are easy-peasy.
Just sauté mushrooms and cauliflower rice with garlic in soup pot (add other veggies if you like), chop up sous-vid chicken packet, toss chicken, broth, coconut milk and lime juice in pot, warm up, and garnish with scallions and cilantro!!!
These meals can be ordered online and shipped straight to your door and I’ve seen in many flavors in my local market too. I love the Korean Beef Barbeque and Cilantro Lime Chicken too – but there are so many varieties to suit any mood or taste preference. Everything from Kevin’s can work with keto, paleo and gluten free diets too!
Learn more about Kevin’s Natural Foods, get Kevin’s Natural Foods recipes, and their amazing clean-eating focused products (entrees, sides, sauces, stir-frys and more!) which can find a place in your diet – whether Keto, Paleo, Gluten-free . . or Mediterranean, like me! Order online or find in a store near you.
Also check them out on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest! AND – make the 10 minute Thai soup, you won’t regret it!
Enjoy a rich, creamy, amazingly flavorful Thai-inspired Creamy Coconut Chicken Soup in just 10 minutes thanks to entree kits from Kevin's Natural Foods! Paleo, So satisfying . . plus Keto, and gluten-free!
Add olive oil to soup pot and bring to heat over medium-high. Add mushrooms and cauliflower rice, sauté, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes until softened; add minced garlic and sauté for 1 additional minute.
Open cold sous vide bag of chicken; chop into bite sized pieces. Add to soup pot.
Pour chicken broth and coconut cream into pot and bring just to a boil, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add contents of sauce pack into soup. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minutes longer.
Remove from heat; squeeze in lime juice. Stir in chopped scallions and cilantro.
A great way to keep your hand mindless out of the cookie jar is to bake up a single serve cookie — when it’s gone, it’s gone! My Giant Peanut Butter Protein Cookie for One tastes nostalgically amazing, yet is packed with protein so that it fills you up and you CAN be satisfied with just one.
Actually, you may even be happy and your sweet tooth satisfied with just half a cookie — it’s HUGE! I typically eat half and save the other half for later in the day, for double the yum time!
In order to avoid heating up a big oven to bake just one cookie, I made this protein peanut butter cookie in the toaster oven — I use the Instant Oven™ 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven which is an air fryer and multi-purpose toaster oven. Only a few minutes to put the batter together and about 9 to 10 minutes to bake. In less than 15 minutes you’ll be enjoying a fresh-from-the-oven protein dessert.
Giant Peanut Butter Protein Cookie for One is HUGE, big enough to share (or not)!
In terms of the best plant-based protein powder, I like the Clean Lean Protein Powderfrom Nuzest –it has a great nutrient profile and works for vegan, vegetarian and paleo diets. I love it for this protein powder cookie recipe and smoothies and other uses too! You can save `15% with my discount code: FITFORK .
Before baking the cookie, you want to press the dough ball out into an approximate 5″ diameter circle, and then make the fork marks which as SO nut butter cookie important. Because this protein cookie is bigger that an standard old fashioned peanut butter cookie, you can’t really to the criss-cross hatch marks. Instead, I used the tins of the for to go around the edges of the cookie with points of for going up almost to center of cookie, but not quite — this made a “center” that I then used the tips of the fork to make a bunch of little pock marks. It all looked like a flower to me in the end and didn’t puff out the design during baking either!
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A delicious, low-carb peanut butter that will make you feel nostalgic for the treats of your childhood, but offers 20g of protein and only 7g net carb. Bake it in a toaster oven! Big enough to share, but you may not want too!
Course:
Dessert, Snack, treat
Keyword:
cookie, cooking for one, peanut butter, protein powder
Servings: 1serving
Calories: 343kcal
Ingredients
2tbsp.buttersoftened
2tbspnatural-style peanut butter
2tbspgranulated stevia blend baking sweetener
1tbspliquid egg white
1/8tspbaking soda
1scoop Nuzest Lean Clean Protein Powder (chocolate or vanilla)or 2tbsp other protein powder
1tbspcoconut flour
Instructions
Mix together butter, peanut butter, stevia and egg white.
Stir in baking soda, protein powder and coconut flour. Shape into big dough ball. Press out into thick circle with clean hands.
Use tins of fork to press out remainder of way to about 1/3” thickness and approx. 5” diameter.
Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. Let cook for 5 minutes on baking sheet
Spicy-Sweet Orange Beef Stir Fry with Sugar Snap Peas is proof you can make an amazing, delicious, nutritious beef dinner in 15 minutes. I used a strip steak, but sirloin or even flank steak would be amazing too!
Portioned to serve two generously, this steak stir fry recipe can easily be doubled for a family of four. Also, it’s not very spicy, so the kids should love it. If you crave spicy heat, just add extra dried red pepper and Sriracha to the sauce step.
Slice the steak thinly, between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick!
Another reason why I love this beef and vegetable stir fry is that the macros are just so great to fuel my active lifestyle. One very generous sized portion fills me up and has 336 calories, 15g fat, 23g net carb, 30g protein. This 15-minute beef dinner isn’t including the macros (or time) for the rice/quinoa blend I usually serve it on. However, I love to meal prep that and have these cooked whole grains on hand in the freezer. Restaurant preparation of a similar orange beef recipe would come in at typically 3x the calories, fat and sugar – they usually coat the beef in cornstarch and use more oil (basically frying.
Check out the 15-second video tutorial!
PRO TIPS FOR ORANGE BEEF STIR FRY:
Have all ingredients before starting. Once you turn on the heat, the cooking process happens very fast
Slice beef across grain thinly, into 1/8-inch to ¼-inch slices are best.
For easier slicing, use a sharp knife and set meat in freezer for 10 minutes beforehand to firm up.
If following recipe as written for 2, use a 10-inch skillet. If doubling, use a 12-inch or larger skillet OR a 14-inch wok. If halving the recipe to just serve one, use an 8″ skillet.
Cook meat first and remove from skillet to rest while cooking vegetables.
Cook meat quickly in a single layer, flipping strips once until pink is JUST gone (because will continue to cook while resting on the plate).
Substituting similar vegetables is allowed! If you don’t have sugar snap peas, use something similar like green beans or snow peas. Broccoli would be amazing too!
If you MUST, you can use orange juice from a carton and skip the zesting step, but the fresh juice and zest really adds a huge splash of flavor.
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Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission on sales, however price to you remains the same. Proceeds offset operating costs for The Fit Fork. Thank you!
Spicy-Sweet Beef Stir Fry with Sugar Snap Peas (for Two)
Prep Time
5mins
Cook Time
8mins
Total Time
13mins
Vibrant and citrus-y, this lightly spicy-sweet beef stir-fry made with steak is sure to please on busy nights! It comes together in just 15 minutes and 100% beats going for takeout!
8ozstrip or sirloin steaksliced across grain to 1/8” thickness
4tspsesame oil
2green onionbulb + stalk sliced thinly
8ozsugar snap peas (1 1/2 to 2 cups(
Instructions
Wash and dry orange; use zesting tool or microplaner to remove 1 to 2 teaspoons of zest from peel. Set aside. Slice orange in half; squeeze out 1/3 cup of juice into small bowl. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic and ½ of orange zest. Stir to combine and set aside.
Add oil to a 10 to 12” skillet and bring to medium-high heat. Add steak strips and sear for 2 minutes without turning. Use tongs to flip strips and cook on opposite side for about 2 more minutes until “just” cooked. Transfer to plate to rest.
Reduce heat to low and add sugar snap peas and sauce mixture to skillet. Stir to combine and let simmer for approximately 3 to 4 minutes until thickened and snap peas crisp-tender. Toss back in cooked beef and stir for another 1 minute until warmed. Sprinkle sliced green onion and remaining orange zest over beef, serve with rice if desired.
