OMG. Have you ever had the forces of nature conspiring against you? No? Well don’t ever. It’s no fun.
There are many, many reasons I haven’t posted since last Friday but none are thrilling enough to detail here so I’ll just say two things. I’m sorry! And…I missed you guys!
Moving on…
Have you guys checked out my homegirl Michelle’s (aka “Eggface”) blog? Most of you have, I suspect and if you have you’ve seen she makes this wonderful “fluff stuff.”
Well about two weeks ago I finally broke down and made some and yowsa, is that stuff good! But being the food freakonomist I am, I wanted to play around with it. As I thought about it, I realized our dear Eggface had shown me the way to no bake protein cooking. And so this experiment began.
Nik’s No-bake Protein Key Lime Pie
Three disclaimers on this one:
#1 – I really do recommend doing a crumb crust of some sort with this. If you do it crustless, do it in ramekins at least.
#2 – The forces of nature that conspired against me are also the reason I don’t have a picture of the third, and final, test of this recipe wherein I DID make a crumb crust. I will add as soon as I am able!
#3 – YES, I know the “key” in key lime means something…but I’m from Maryland…work with me here…
Ingredients:
12 oz. unflavored Greek yogurt (whatever fat percentage you use)
8 oz. Neufchatel Cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese)
1 box sugar-free lime Jell-O
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp Splenda
3 scoops unfavored protein (I like BiPro USA)
1 c. boiling water
1/2 c. cold water
For Crust: click here
Directions:
Follow instructions on making the crust and allow it to cool.
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, Greek yogurt, protein powder. lime juice and Splenda until smooth. Yes, it can be achieved, lookit:
Prepare Jell-O according to package directions in another bowl. TIP: If you ever misplace your half cup measure (as I often do even though I own several of them), you can also use 4 ice cubes. 1 ice cube = 1 oz. water.
Pour Jell-O into yogurt, cream cheese mixture and gently fold in (in the example above I used a hand mixer which created WAY too much air. Not much difference from a flavor perspective but I’m kind of anal about my food looking perfect) until completely mixed.
Pour that mixture into the crust and refrigerate about an hour, or until fully set.
The results…
I really like this pie. It only took a few minutes to put together and the kids LOVED it. I wish I had the picture I took of the crusted pie. Hmph. Damn camera!
And because I am becoming the MOST eggregious violator of my own “no stats” rule, I will tell you that MY pie, without the crust came out to (per slice) 105 calories, 12.62g of protein. Don’t ask me for the rest of the stats…I am seriously recovering from “kick Nik while she’s down-itis…”
Until tomorrow my lovelies…(hopefully)
Looks delicious! I'll definitely be giving that one (and many other flavors!) a try. Hope your week gets better!
Heather
I made this as a dessert at my first post-op Easter. I thought it'd be great to be able to eat dessert with everyone else and have the rest of the pie for during the week….well I was wrong because everyone at Easter dinner decided they had to try it and they all loved it! Thanks for the great recipe.
Nik I was wondering if you could post recipe for crust for keylime pie
Yikes! It used to be linked. It's just 2 cups whatever high fiber cereal you like (crushed) and three tbsp light butter spread (I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, etc.). SMoosh together then press into a pie plate and bake on 350 for 10 minutes.
Hi Nik, I just made this pie again… but with a twist!!! I used SF Lemon Jell-O & Liquid Vanilla Crème Stevia, lots of Lemon Zest & Vanilla extract & I used Vanilla UNJURY Protein powder…. It is AWESOME!!! (If you Lemon!!!) I was missing my Mom's Lemon Bars & thought this might be a close healthy option… I did pour it into a Low fat Crust & had some left over so I poured that into a dish to set up in fridge… I wish I could send you some!!! 😉