Review: Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides

For the past few weeks I've been putting two scoops of Vital Proteins' Collagen Peptides into my morning coffee. I know I don't get enough protein in my diet, and I want to jump start my metabolism first thing. However, I don't want to use protein loaded with crap like artificial sweeteners. Vital Proteins seemed to fit the bill with their collagen peptides, and I like the way they raise their cattle (the source of the collagen). According to their website:

Our cattle graze on lush grasslands in Brazil and are not given hormones, steroids, or antibiotics. They eat their natural diet – grass, and receive plenty of open space and sunshine. We believe in providing our animals with an environment that nature intended, and the result is a high quality protein that is natural and pure.

Just two scoops gives me 18g of extra protein. My coffee gets a sort of malty-quality to it from the peptides, but otherwise doesn't taste or "feel" much different! There are about 28 servings per container, so one container lasts about a month for me.

Not long into starting this peptide habit, not even two weeks, I noticed a few benefits:

1. My normally brittle, flaky nails stopped flaking and breaking. I'm not used to having to cut my nails to keep them from getting too long! I have one particular problem nail: my thumbnail on my right hand. For the past ten years or so the tip would have a tendency to fracture in the same spot, requiring me to cut off everything that grew past the tip of the finger -- and sometimes more! I guess I have an unconscious tendency to press one of my other nails into that spot until it just fractures. This hasn't happened in weeks! In fact, that spot on the nail is a little more opaque than the rest of the nail, leading me to believe it's been fortified against future stress.
2. My skin is a little more dewy or glowy looking without changing my skincare regimen.

Some other changes I've noticed may coincide with the protein and/or other habits I started (exercising more, incorporating yoga into my exercise routine, and nightly recounting "good things that happened" during the day). I figure I'll list these changes even though I can't prove correlation to any one thing.

1. I don't freak out or overreact as easily as I used to. For instance, when something unplanned and unfortunate would happen, like spilling or breaking something, I used to fume about it, stomp my feet, and be generally miserable for a protracted period of time. Now I just shrug it off, deal with the cleanup without a second thought or fuss, and go on with my day. Whoa!
2. I seem to sleep better. I have fewer instances of insomnia and tend to wake up less frequently in the night. That said, I have yet to have a night where I didn't wake up at least twice before morning! Vital Proteins does indicate this as one of the benefits of their peptides -- "Natural glycine improves sleep quality."

A final thing I've noticed: I get hungrier during the morning after having my coffee with the added protein. I like to think this means I'm being successful at jump starting my metabolism in the morning. Eating more has not led to weight gain, although I wouldn't be surprised if my lean mass has increased! Mind you, eating more for me is a granola bar or a Greek yogurt I otherwise wouldn't have eaten, not a whole extra feast.

I really like the containers. They are sturdy and substantial. I'll probably repurpose them.

I do own their gelatin as well but haven't had the opportunity to use it, besides a bulletproof coffee fail. Gelatin gels or solidifies when it cools, and I don't drink coffee quickly. I had a coffee gelatin mold as a result! Luckily, the peptides don't gel...

There are so many things you could use the gelatin for. I have some puddings, gummy snacks, and marshmallows in mind. For inspiration you can check out the company's recipe archive, which includes recipes for their peptides and their gelatin.

Please note: If you follow any of the links in this post and end up buying something from Vital Proteins, I actually get an incentive, which will go toward future replenishments of my protein supply. If you do intend to buy, please help a friend out and use one of my affiliate links, like the one for the image below. I figured I'd been talking the company up so much, I might as well get myself affiliate status with them!

Overnight Crème Brûlée French Toast

I need to share this recipe with y’all. I modified it from a recipe on Allrecipes.com. (I needed to use up the cream I had left over from the Pi Day sweet potato pie and white chocolate crème brûlée I made earlier.)

I found this easier and tastier than my stuffed French toast. I could easily prepare this every Thursday night to make my Friday teleworking day that much sweeter!

Overnight Crème Brûlée French Toast

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 35-40 Minutes Ready In: 9 Hours Servings: 4

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter ¾ cup coconut palm sugar (original recipe called for 1 cup packed brown sugar) 12 slices Pepperidge Farm swirl bread of your choice (or similar from a different brand) 3 eggs 1 cup heavy/whipping cream (you could get away with half & half if that's what you have on hand, but I can't promise it will be as decadent)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 teaspoons brandy-based orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier® - I used Grand Marnier® Signature Collection N° 2 - Raspberry Peach) ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.	Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in sugar, stirring until dissolved. Pour this caramel sauce into an 8x8 inch baking dish – the disposable foil type works well for this!
2.	Arrange four (4) stacks of bread, three (3) slices per stack, on top of the caramel sauce. In a small or medium bowl, whisk together eggs, cream, vanilla extract, orange brandy, and salt. Pour over the bread. Cover, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight. (If the cream and egg mixture comes precariously close to the top of the pan, don’t worry! The bread absorbs much of the tasty goodness while chilling.)
3.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). If using a glass baking dish, check the manufacturer’s instructions/warnings before putting the dish directly into the oven from the fridge. Bringing the dish to near-room-temperature before baking won’t hurt the recipe!
4.	Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned.
5.	Serve by inverting each stack onto a plate. The caramel sauce makes a nice, dark brown topping. Yum! If you have leftovers, they chill and reheat well!

π - Sweet Potato Pie (Using Coconut Sugar) with Marshmallow Meringue Topping in A "Sugar Cookie" Crust

Last night, my husband asked me, "What are you baking tomorrow?"
I was like:

(image found at: http://galleryhip.com/huh?-cat.html)

First I thought he was referring to my nephew's birthday, since he turned one year old today. But then I realized it: Pi Day. I figured it was a good excuse to make the sweet potato pie I didn't get around to making over the holidays.

The pie (Sweet Potato Pie with Marshmallow Meringue Topping) called for a graham cracker crust, but I hate graham cracker crust. I decided to make something like this sugar-cookie-esque crust instead.

In true Sarha fashion, I changed up the recipes.

Sweet Potato Pie (Using Coconut Sugar) with Marshmallow Meringue Topping in A "Sugar Cookie" Crust

Ingredients:

Crust: 3 large eggs 3 tablespoons white sugar 1 pinch salt 1 cup all-purpose flour ½ cup organic coconut flour ½ cup butter, cut into pieces

Sweet Potato Pie Filling: 3 cups canned sweet potatoes, drained and mashed 1 cup coconut palm sugar 1 cup whipping cream 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt

Meringue Topping: 2 cups miniature marshmallows 1 tablespoon milk 2 egg whites 1/4 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon salt

Homemade Greek Yogurt Using Just Milk and Probiotic Capsules

I bought the Instant Pot IP-DUO60 a while ago because it has a bunch of features I didn't have in any other appliances, like pressure cooking, steaming, rice cooking, and YOGURT MAKING. (If you're considering one, it's usually cheapest to buy it from the Instant Pot site and there's usually a coupon code. Also... they now have one with bluetooth so you can monitor it and change settings remotely. Why don't I have this in my life? Chances are I'd use this predominantly from the next room, but hey! I'm sure I'd find it helpful for non-lazy reasons as well.)

After some prolonged research about how to make your own Greek yogurt, I discovered it's actually pretty damn simple. For the yogurt, you just need milk (pasteurized whole milk is fine), live active cultures, and a way to keep the stuff consistently warm for about 8 hours. To make it Greek style, you need a method of straining the whey from the yogurt so it becomes thicker.

The hardest part for me to figure out was the amount of live active cultures to use. Instead of a dedicated yogurt starter or pre-made commercial yogurt, I wanted to use Bio-Kult probiotic capsules because they have a good diversity of live active cultures (14 strains!) and don't need to be refrigerated. I discovered they are packaged in blister pack sheets, which makes them extra convenient for the investment. I came across them because Wellness Mama recommended them for her probiotic marshmallows, which I hope to make one day.

After all of my research, I found no consistent recommendation for a ratio of probiotic to milk for yogurt. I found plenty of generalities varying from 2-4 capsules per quart of milk, but they didn't account for the amount of probiotic contained in each capsule, either mg or microorganisms per capsule. I decided to wing it and try 3 capsules, which is 432mg of Bio-Kult and a minimum of 6 billion microorganisms, with 4 cups regular whole milk. I think next time I use capsules I will only use 2 Bio-Kult because I had some digestive issues after eating the yogurt, so it may have been a little too strong, even though the dose as a daily supplement is two capsules. (I haven't taken them as a supplement.)

Making the Yogurt

I followed the instructions essentially made for my yogurt maker. For the sanitation and milk steaming step, I put one cup water in the pot, placed a Pyrex bowl filled with one quart milk on top of the steam tray, covered the pot, sealed it, and set the Steam function to 1 minute. When that function was done, I turned off the pot and eventually removed the lid. Once it cooled to 115 degrees F, it was time to add the probiotic. I took the Pyrex bowl out of the pot, removed the steam tray, and dumped the water.

If you go this route, learn from my naivety. There is probably going to be a slight milk skin on top of the container. You should remove this before you add the probiotic. I didn't, and I was afraid some of the probiotic was wasted and stuck in the skin that had gotten wrapped around my whisk.

For fear of being a klutz, I emptied three probiotic capsules into a small glass dish, and then added that to the steamed milk. If you're daring you can skip that middle step. I whisked it well, put it back in the Instant Pot (which had been emptied of water), covered the pot, sealed it, and activated the Yogurt function for eight hours.

I saw a few recommendations online not to disturb the yogurt by moving it, etc., because it could stop the bacterial fermentation process early.

Eight hours later, I opened the pot to find, well, yogurt! 

It seemed pretty thick already but I still strained it. To strain it, I put a plastic colander on top of a deep glass bowl. I then put this nut milk bag inside the colander and dumped the yogurt into the bag to drain. I did this on the counter, instead of the fridge, because I read that it drains faster at warmer temperatures. About an hour later I had drained plenty of whey. I scraped the yogurt into another Pyrex dish for storage, reserved a few teaspoons in a separate jar for inoculating a later batch of yogurt, poured the whey into a large jar, and put it all in the fridge.

The end product tasted phenomenal. I figured it would require sweetener since store bought plain yogurt is way too sour for me; however, it didn't require any sweetener! It was sweet enough on its own, and almost tasted like whipped cream. I'll never buy Chobani, Dannon, or Yoplait again! For just a few bucks I made yogurt with just two ingredients that tasted better than name brand. I will reduce the probiotic capsules to two next time to see if that is less troublesome for my stomach.

I have a new batch of yogurt in the yogurt maker right now, in which I used 4 teaspoons of the previous batch to inoculate the yogurt. I hope it comes out just as nicely. You can apparently use a prior batch a few times before needing to start with new probiotic, as long as the yogurt is fairly fresh, i.e. less than a week old. This Greatist.com post recommends "it’s best to create only six to eight batches from the original batch."

Additional Links!

Here are some additional sites I reviewed when researching how to make yogurt. Some of these sites also offer suggestions for non-dairy yogurt and alternate methods of making yogurt without a yogurt maker. If you don't find what you need here, make use of your Google-fu.

Salad in a Jar: Reader Question: How Much Starter Do You Really Need To Make Yogurt?

Salad in a Jar: Answers To Your Questions About Making Homemade Yogurt

Salad in a Jar: How To Strain Yogurt the Easy Way

Greatist.com: How To Make Your Own Yogurt

Graceful Fitness: Homemade Yogurt Instructions

The Prairie Homestead: 16 Uses for Whey

For the love of pineapple upside down cheesecake...

In this post, you will get:

• A review of Baked Lava's Spumoni Cookies.
• A link to Nom Nom Paleo's Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs, as well as the Nom Nom Paleo Cookbook, and some mustards. (Please note that none of the recipes in this post are Paleo. However, Nom Nom Paleo is pure gold whether you're Paleo or not!) 
• A Sarha-original Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake recipe.
• Some narrative!

Wow, it's been almost a year since I posted. It's been a busy year, but don't worry, I'm still gainfully employed far, far away, still regularly going to the gym, etc. I just haven't had any time to cook or bake or post (see being gainfully employed far, far away). My dinners, if I make them, come from a freezer or a slow cooker paired with Campbell's Slow Cooker Sauces, and desserts come from the ice cream place or the bakery. (Don't judge. Cannoli doughnuts are fantastic.)

I took the day off from work on December 24 to make goodies for my family's annual "Appetizers and Desserts" Christmas Eve dinner, and especially to fulfill my husband's request for a pineapple upside down cheesecake for his Christmas Day birthday.

For "Appetizers and Desserts" I planned to make Baked Lava's Spumoni Cookies because my mom loves spumoni and I wanted to surprise her. I also planned to make deviled eggs (some spicy and some not) like I do every year.

You're not allowed to read cookbooks in my house. It's even more forbidden than using a laptop!

The Spumoni Cookies required a little effort, as in chopping up cherries and breaking up pistachios (I crushed them a handful at a time between two glass cutting boards) and making sure every cookie had some of each yummy mix-in. My main issue was having to go to the grocery store a second time on Christmas Eve (at noon!) because I didn't think to check the first time that I had enough butter. Who doesn't have a stock pile of butter? Me! It took me fifteen minutes to find a parking spot and aggressive, reckless drivers were trying to take me out every two feet. Next time I will make sure I have enough butter and the cookies will be no effort at all. (I'll also buy more parchment paper because I ran out on my first baking sheet and had to line the other two with wax paper that got super greasy.)

The Spumoni Cookies were a hit. Absolutely delicious and a great mix of textures and flavors. Plus they were festive!

To satisfy the "Appetizer" portion of the night, I made two types of deviled eggs: One with Jim Beam Bacon Mustard for those who can't eat spicy stuff, and the other with Hit & Run Brown Horseradish Mustard. Both were tasty! Last year the spicy eggs were made with Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) Mustard and they were fantastic. I have my Nom Nom Paleo Cookbook bookmarked to the page on Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs for all my eggy needs. (I am not sure if these mustards are Paleo friendly, but I'm obviously not Paleo -- hence the cookies and cheesecake, oh my!)

 

All right, so... The moment the internet has been waiting for (judging by the great lack of pineapple upside down cheesecake recipes):

First ever real Zumba class

Okay, so today I did my first ever non-virtual Zumba class that wasn't a demo. Is it normal to want to puke for hours after a class?

That makes 6 out of 8 required visits for January. It's January 13. I will knock out all of my required attendances by the second full week of the month. Not bad!

That's all, folks— Do something good for you today! ...Maybe even try something new.

Biometrics assessed January 9, 2014

My job opened a new, ginormous gym with fitness classes, personal trainers, three salt water filtered pools (lap pool, therapy pool, and spa pool/hot tub), etc... My membership is $50 a month BUT I get $20 back per month on my pay check (quarterly) if I attend the gym 8+ times a month. I've gone 5 times in January. If I didn't live 60 miles away, I probably would have already attended over 8 times because I would have gone on weekend days.

As part of my membership, I meet with a personal trainer twice every 6-8 weeks, and with a nurse every 10-12 weeks for a biometric screening. 

I had my nurse assessment January 9th, and here were my stats:

Biometrics
Girth Extremities Calf L (in.): 13.5	Girth Extremities Calf R (in.): 14
Girth Extremities Thigh L (in.): 17.5	Girth Extremities Thigh R (in.): 16.5
Girth Extremities Forearm L (in.): 8.5	Girth Extremities Forearm R (in.): 8.2
Girth Extremities Biceps L (in.): 9.5	Girth Extremities Biceps R (in.): 10
Girth Hips (in.): 37.5
Girth Waist (in.): 27.5
Girth Abdomen (in.): 29
Girth Chest (in.): 33.5
Hip to Waist Ratio: 0.73
BMI: 20.8
Height (in.): 66
Weight (lbs – clothes on, evening): 128.7
Systolic BP: 120
Diastolic BP: 60
Heart Rate: 60 bpm
Body Composition
Direct Value Body Fat Percentage: 20.7%	Ideal Body Fat Percentage: 16-24%
Lean Body Mass: 102.3 lbs
Fat Body Mass: 26.6 lbs
Excess Body Fat: 0.0 lbs
Hydration: 60.3%	Ideal Hydration: 55-60%
Frame Size = Small (wrist 5.5”)

I'll post an update in 10-12 weeks!

I usually do cardio as a warm up — seated elliptical or stationary bike — then do resistance/strength training. Check my Fitocracy feed for workout details, and friend me!

I don't track calories. Calories are dangerous with my slightly obsessive/addictive personality. I try to eat healthy and in moderation. I generally don't drink soda or eat fast food, but sweets are my downfall!

My goals are to get stronger, be healthier, and have more energy. I also want to look awesome at my sister's wedding at the end of May.

I hope you have a healthy and happy 2014!