Cooking With Whey - Feat. Bulk Powders*

A few weeks ago now I was given the opportunity to try some products from Bulk Powders and create a delicious recipe that’s pretty much guilt free. Bulk Powders is the UK leader in high quality protein supplements, powders and food products. Head over to their website to find a huge range of products to match any training goal or lifestyle you may have. They pride their selves on high grade protein products and are passionate about effective training and clean eating. I was challenged to create a recipe so I created these amazing lemon meringue protein muffins which taste so good you wouldn’t even realise they are relatively healthy.

In my pack I received a bag of Pure Whey Protein  which is low in fat and Carbohydrates and great value for money. A 500g bag is just £8.99 containing 16 servings at just 56p a serving. It provides a quality protein source and is essential for anyone trying to build muscle. It comes in 18 flavours and I also received some sample packs of the Lemon Meringue Whey which was absolutely delicious when mixed as a shake. What I love about Bulk Powders is that you can buy sample ‘one serving’ sizes of all of the flavours for just 99p a sachet so if you’re not 100% sure if you’ll like it this is a great way to try before you commit to buying a larger bag.

The lemon meringue samples inspired me to create this recipe incorporating the ingredients sent to me by Bulk Powders. I also received a bottle of Liquid Egg Whites  which I used to make healthy meringues with. I love that this saves so much time and effort separating the eggs and these can even be stored at room temperature saving valuable fridge space. The egg whites contain only 1% carbohydrates and 0.5% fat meaning they are virtually pure protein and great for you. These are great for people who want to increase their protein consumption and help to grow that muscle mass.

If you’d like to make your very own protein cupcakes then read on.

Ingredients (Makes 4)

1 scoop Bulk Powders Pure Whey Protein 

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

2 tablespoons Liquid Egg Whites 

2 tablespoons Fat Free Natural Yoghurt

1 teaspoon Coconut Oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius and grease a muffin tin with a little bit of coconut oil on a tissue. Alternatively you can use paper cases as I have below.

Mix the protein powder and baking powder then add the egg whites and yoghurt. Mix well until you get a smooth consistency.
 

Spoon the batter into your muffin tins and bake for around 15 minutes until golden.

Top with protein meringues (recipe below).

For the meringues I simply whisked a cup of the liquid egg whites  with an electric whisk until they formed stiff peaks. I then folded in half a packet of the lemon meringue protein powder sample.

The mixture smelt delicious, I then popped a dollop of this onto a baking tray and put in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for around half an hour until the mixture hardened into a meringue texture. I noticed that the meringues were tinted yellow, I think this is due to the protein powder. These were not like your conventional sugary meringue but tasted like a great alternative and went really well topped with the muffin and gave it that little bit of sweetness. You could even crumble the muffin and the meringue into a bowl of fat free yoghurt for a really tasty healthy treat.

If you’re interested in cooking with whey  and trying some recipes out yourself, head over to Bulk Powders – The Core  for many more recipes incorporating whey.

*I received these items from Bulk Powders free of charge in exchange for an honest review and to create a recipe. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way. Please see my disclaimer for more information. 

Blogging Tips for Newbies

Quite a few people I know have recently set up their own blogs and some of them have come to me for advice so I thought I would put together this post which contains some of the questions that I have been asked. We all have to start somewhere and asking questions is a great way to help develop your own blog. I have only been blogging for just over a year so there is still a lot that I need to learn myself. This post contains my honest opinions and advice which may not work for everyone, but hopefully it will help someone.

Comment on Other Blog Posts
A great way to increase traffic to your blog is to comment on other people’s blog posts. I like to find new blogs through Bloglovin’ which is a great website to sign up to as a newbie as it will enable other people to follow your blog and keep up to date with your posts. If you like someone’s post, leave a comment with your blog link at the bottom. This will enable them to visit your blog in return and other people will also see your link which could bring new readers your way.

Don’t Assume you Will Receive Freebies
A lot of people think blogging is easy money and that freebies will land at your feet the minute you set your blog up. This is not the case. Sometimes you will be lucky enough to receive items to review or sponsored posts but don’t expect them. Once your blog has been going for a while and you are consistent with your posts, this may lead to companies contacting you to review items. Also – remember that a ‘freebie’ for review can take up a lot of your time. You will need to try the item, review it, write your post, take photos and promote the post so it’s not all ‘easy money’.  If you’re only blogging to get free items then you won’t last very long. I love Blogger's Required, it's a website full of assignments where you can apply to review items.

Be Yourself
If you want to write about what coloured socks you wore, then you write about it! I would much rather read unique content that is fun and interesting rather than a carbon copy of what everyone else is doing. Your blog is for you, so you write about whatever you want and don’t be afraid if it doesn’t get the response you hoped for. Don’t change who you are to fit in with what others are doing, as you will stop enjoying it. Also if you create a blog just for beauty and brand it that way, try not to go off track posting about other things or you’ll lose your audience.

Don’t Worry About the Quality of Your Photos

A lot of new bloggers think they need to rush about and spend hundreds of pounds on the latest DSLR but in reality this is not the case. I follow some excellent blogs that use their mobile phones to take photos and edit them well. It’s all about the composition of the photo, you don’t need flashy gadgets to get a good blog post. Unless you’re earning money from your blog, it’s probably not worth the investment of a really expensive camera. I love PicMonkey for editing photos – it’s fun, fast and free. 

Be Consistent With Your Posts

It can be tempting when you first get a blog to write a post every day and this is absolutely fine, but can you keep up with it? Personally, I would much rather read a blog that spaces its posts out every few days than one who posts 5 days in a row and then nothing for 2 weeks. Put together a schedule in your calendar (I have an excel spreadsheet!) and arrange your posts so that they are consistent. 

Use Social Media

I cannot stress this point enough but social media is the place where you can promote your posts and bring in the views. I promote my blog posts across Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google + and Instagram. Make sure you use hashtags when promoting your post so that relevant people can find them. Use eye-catching photos to draw readers in. Take part in twitter chats too to meet like-minded bloggers and find great new blogging buddies!

I hope these tips come in handy, if I can help at least one person then I’ll be happy! Have you done a bloggers tip post? Let me know and I will link it in this post!