There are times when you’re out and about and need a quick light and healthy shake to tie you over til your next meal. Uh Oh! You don’t have you’re handy dandy blender in your back pocket! 🙁 Don’t worry though because there are a few secret tips that will add flavour and variation to your shakes made for light packing and quick assembly. Shhh! Only tell your closest besties!
Play around with a few of the following ingredients and let me know which flavour combinations you love the most!
Extracts
(Vanilla, Orange, Strawberry, Rum, Licorice)
Be careful when adding extracts to your protein shake, as they generally pack a flavor punch. Start with just a quarter-teaspoon per eight ounces of protein shake and add more depending on your taste preferences.
- Vanilla – To enhance the overall vanilla taste, add a drop or two of vanilla extract to your shake. This will increase the aroma, taste, and drinkability of any vanilla flavor. Or, you could add it to a chocolate flavor and make it more of a chocolate-vanilla swirl.
- Peppermint – can be utilized as a very powerful flavor enhancer. Toss a couple drops in a vanilla shake to create a Christmas-like protein shake. If you have chocolate, you can create a mint chocolate chip protein shake, which is a lot better than plain chocolate.
Peppermint Candy
Don’t have extract? try a peppermint candy (10 calories) ! Put a single peppermint candy in the bottom of shake before I shake it up, and it will give a subtle minty-chocolate spin to change things up. (10 calories)Instant Coffee
Instant coffee
Adding a scoop of instant coffee to any protein shake can change the overall flavor drastically. Mixing it with vanilla can create a creamy coffee drink. If you do not want all of the extra caffeine tagged to your beverage, opt for a decaffeinated blend. This will give you the flavor without the extra jolt of energy.
Tea Powder
Green tea has become a popular beverage, both for the health conscious and for those looking for a tasty drink. For a unique flavor, consider stirring matcha tea powder, which provides the basis of green tea, into a vanilla protein for a green tea shake that you won’t be able to put down.
As with extract flavorings, use caution when adding this powder to the shake. Try a sample after each small addition to ensure that you haven’t over-embellished your drink.
Cocoa Powder
Continuing with the chocolate flavor, you can add some cocoa powder to intensify the chocolate sensation. The cocoa powder will not add all of the negative nutrients that chocolate syrup would add, so you just get a straight flavor and nothing else. Toss it in some vanilla protein for a less intense chocolate taste.
Sugar-Free Instant Pudding
As a final note, you could always purchase some sugar-free instant pudding to toss in a protein shake. This will only add around 15 calories to the drink, but you get a huge amount of flavor for those little calories.
Juice
Be careful with these and stick to natural fruit juices or even aloe vera drink!
