FYI: You Can Make Protein Fudge With Just Five Ingredients (2024)

Made with the right ingredients, protein smoothies can be a meal in a glass. They offer high-quality liquid nutrition that gives you everything you need in a convenient, portable, delicious package, says the pros at Precision Nutrition.

Try our formula to keep things simple (and endlessly riff-able): 1 cup frozen fruit, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 tablespoon of healthy fats, and 3/4 cups water. That's it!

Get the Chocolate-Berry Protein Smoothie recipe.

Healthy snacks are clutch to have on hand whenever your hunger—or sweet tooth—strikes. Bonus points for making your own, like a batch of these five-ingredient bars featuring collagen peptides. This type of protein, made from broken-down collagen molecules from animal or fish sources, may be good for hair, skin, and joint health in addition to delivering a hefty dose of protein.

Get the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Protein Fudge recipe.

Adding a scoop of protein powder to your morning cuppa (aka "proffee") can have many benefits: It'll help curb hunger pangs 'til breakfast, make your coffee tastier if you opt for flavored powders, and deliver an extra-creamy texture, especially if you use whey protein powder and blend it in with a frother. Gains before breakfast, anyone?

RELATED: All Your Questions About Protein Coffee, Answered

You can buy protein pancake mix (WH likes the Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes) or you can DIY them.

This recipe from the WH Test Kitchen uses eggs, oat flour, cottage cheese, bananas, and protein powder to give you a power-packed plate of 17 grams of protein per serving (which is a stack of 3 pancakes!).

Get the Ultimate Protein Pancake recipe.

“Lately I’ve been loving making frozen or cold treats with protein powder, like my Protein Cookie Dough,” says Christine McMichael of Jar Of Lemons. These bad boys, made with cottage cheese and vanilla protein powder, have seven grams of protein per serving. Having a healthy snack like this in the freezer is also a great way to edge out less healthy sweet alternatives.

Get the Protein Cookie Dough recipe from Jar of Lemons.

News flash: You can eat this ice cream for breakfast, per Brittany Mullins, holistic nutritionist and founder of Eating Bird Food. You simply blend five-ish ingredients—including protein powder—in a food processor or blender, and voilà. Since one of the ingredients is frozen bananas, you don’t even need to freeze it to get that ice cream-y texture.

Get the Protein Ice Cream recipe from Eating Bird Food.

“These Blueberry Banana Protein Muffins are at the top of my list for baked goods with protein powder,” says McMichael. "You can swap 1/4 cup of protein powder for 1/4 cup of flour in pretty much any muffin recipe."

Get the Blueberry Banana Protein Muffins recipe from Jar of Lemons.

“If you're baking with gluten-free flours, whey protein powder helps to provide some of the structure and texture to the flour that gluten would normally provide,” Kimball says. “If you switch to almond flour from all-purpose flour, you could have a crumbly mess unless you use something—like whey—that's going to mimic gluten.”

Try it in this recipe from Carolyn Ketchum, founder of All Day I Dream About Food and author of The Ultimate Guide to Keto Baking.

Get the Keto Almond Ricotta Cake recipe from All Day I Dream About Food.

“Soft and airy keto focaccia bread that tastes just like the real thing,” anyone? In this recipe from Ketchum, the whey protein powder helps replace the gluten, so this keto bread will rise properly and hold together better. Magic!

Get the Keto Focaccia Bread recipe from All Day I Dream About Food.

Another way Kimball uses protein powder is by mixing it into go-to snacks and meals that otherwise would be a little lower in protein. For example, add a couple tablespoons of protein powder to Greek yogurt to take it from 18 grams of protein to 25+. Or mix a scoop into a bowl of hot oatmeal for a quick breakfast.

Mullins offers five ways to make protein oatmeal at the link below.

Get the Protein Oatmeal recipe from Eating Bird Food.

It depends on your health and fitness goals. For example, if you're looking to build or preserve muscle you may want to consume protein immediately before or after a workout (though more studies are needed to fine-tune this rec) or even before bed. If you're looking to lose weight it may be best to snack on protein between meals to curb your appetite.

In general, focus on spacing your intake throughout meals to meet your daily protein goals.

And as always, it's best to speak to your healthcare provider before incorporating protein powder into your diet.

While the RDA for protein is 0.36 grams per pound of total body weight, or 0.8 grams per kilogram, researchers say regular exercisers need more like 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram to support tissue growth. For a 170-pound woman, that works out to 92 grams of protein per day, or roughly 30 grams of protein at every meal.

You may need more or less protein depending on your age, activity level, and health goals, so it's smart to speak to a registered dietician to determine the appropriate amount of protein for you.