It's Christmas...the season for tasty treats and familiar holiday flavors. Confections of chocolate and peppermint goodness just seem to dance their way through our heads—or is that sugar plums that dance in our heads?
What are sugar plums, anyway?
Interestingly enough, the original Sugar plums contained no plums at all, or any other fruit, for that matter. Sugar plums are hard candies made of spices and hardened sugar—shaped into round or oval shapes, like a plum.
Spices such as ginger, cinnamon, and anise were combined with seeds such as caraway, celery, fennel, coriander, and cardamom then mixed with nuts, such as almonds and walnuts. Sugar-coated with cinnamon bark or citrus peel, sugar plum came in an assortment of colors and flavors. One might even find a caraway seed in the centre, and they taste something like licorice.
The word plum, in the Victorian era, traditionally referred to raisins, and dried currants. These, and others small fruits, were readily available at local markets and referred to as "plums" and added to list of sugar plum ingredients.
We can do the same. We don't just have to dream about sugarplum confections—even after weight loss surgery, we can still enjoy the flavors of the holiday season. Taking our que from the list of sugar plum ingredients, we can spice up any of our favorite recipes by adding traditional flavors and spices to create new and exciting flavor combinations—including our protein shakes.
Sugarplum Good Protein Shake
Here's your chance to be creative. Start with the basic formula. Then you can play around with many different spice combination and flavors until you create the perfect taste of the Christmas holidays.
Basic recipe:
- Hood 2% Milk (sweetened with Splenda, has less carbs and sugar)
- plain Protein powder
- ice
Pick a few of your favorite flavors and give them a whirl
- almond, peppermint, butterrum or coconut extracts
- spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or allspice
- savory flavors such as dill, carroway, or cardamom
- lemon zest or orange peel
- almond or vanilla milk - even eggnog
- a little spoonful of preserves such as apricot, fig, or berry
Remember to keep your total sugar to around 10 grams, and you're good to go!
It's "sugar-plum" delicious.
The Basic Protein Shake Formula can be found in the "protein shake recipes" section under "basic information" on the left side bar.