What to Mix Protein Powder With

Protein powder is a great way to boost your daily protein intake without adding so much extra food to your diet.

High-quality proteins, like hydrolyzed whey protein, help to build muscles faster and increase overall muscle mass, but finding appetizing ways to add protein powder into your daily routine can be challenging.

We’ve put together a list of suggestions for every meal of the day to help you start mixing protein powder with dishes and drinks you already know and love.

Drinks

One of the most traditional ways to add protein powder to your diet is with drinks such as protein shakes and protein smoothies. Check out Effortless Espresso Protein Smoothie for a quick 5-minute recipe.

These shakes can be as simple as adding protein powder to water in a shaker bottle. Alternatively, you could also use any of a wealth of animal or plant-based milk types such as almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk.

A few beverages you may not have thought to add protein to before include juices like orange juice, apple juice, and even Gatorade.

Another option you may not have considered is hot beverages. One of the main difficulties with adding protein powder to hot drinks like coffee and tea is that the hot liquid causes the powder to clump and not fully dissolve which then gives a gritty texture that is undesirable, to say the least.

Luckily, there’s Allo protein powder for hot coffee. The individually packaged portions dissolve seamlessly in 8 oz. of any hot coffee, hot tea, hot matcha, or hot chocolate to add 10 grams of protein.

Allo comes in hazelnut, caramel, and vanilla flavored protein powder and protein creamers as well as a natural protein powder designed to leave the flavor of your favorite coffee or tea unchanged.

Try our Perfect Protein Coffee Recipe and check out Can You Put Protein Powder in Coffee? for more on how and why you should start adding protein to your coffee, tea, or favorite hot beverage.

Breakfast

Breakfast is one of the most crucial meals for protein intake, but it is also often felt to be the most difficult meal to add protein to.

The go-to for a high protein breakfast is generally eggs, and you can certainly beef up your morning scramble with a little dusting of protein powder, but there are probably more options than you think.

Vanilla protein powder blends especially well with yogurt, Greek yogurt, oatmeal, and hot cereals. You can even mix a bit in with the milk you add to your cold cereal.

One of the best ways to mix protein powder into your breakfast though is with batter. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, banana bread, or any other baked breakfast goodies that are not normally high in protein.

For more protein-packed breakfast ideas check out 5 High Protein Vegetarian Breakfasts.

Lunch and Dinner

While lunch and dinner are generally the easier meals to fit protein into, usually by adding more meat, it offers some of the greatest challenges for adding protein powder to already existing recipes.

One way to get a pump at mealtime is to add protein powder to ground meats. Hamburgers, meatballs, or shepherd’s pie, just sprinkle some protein powder into the raw meat along with your spices and mix it together. While cooking the protein powder will somewhat reduce the efficacy of the powder, it won’t cause any harm to you or the flavor of your dish.

Speaking of meatballs, another great place to incorporate protein powder is pasta sauce. You can add protein powder to any thick sauce like a marinara or alfredo. You can even add protein powder to your pizzas and lasagnas when you make them from scratch by adding the powder to your sauce.

Similar to adding protein powder to sauce, you can also add it to a number of soups. Creamier varieties work best, but clear beef and chicken broth-based soups also work well.

To avoid clumps of protein powder in your hot soup, make sure to mix the powder into a cool cup of water or milk before adding it in or use Allo protein powder specially formulated to be used in hot liquids.

Another somewhat obvious candidate is mashed potatoes. As with the soup, you’ll want to mix the protein powder in with the milk to make sure it is well dissolved before adding it to your boiled potatoes. This is a great opportunity to play with different flavors as potatoes make a good backdrop for bolder ingredients.

Finally and likely the most surprising place you can add protein powder is in salad dressings. Protein powder can be used in a wide range of dressings with the only not-so-great one being a simple oil and vinegar.

Desserts

Much like breakfast, desserts offer a number of options for adding some protein to your late-night sweet tooth fix.

Here again, batter is your friend. Cookies, cake, brownies, blondies, if it starts out as batter and ends up baked and delicious, you can probably add protein powder to it.

Another classic protein-friendly dessert is ice cream. You can try to add your own protein powder to your ice cream by sprinkling it on like powdered sugar or mixing it in once things get melty, but there are also a number of protein-enhanced ice creams that come ready-made from the store, so those might be a better bet for this one.

And last but not least, one of the most popular dessert snacks: pudding. Whether it’s an Instagram-ready chia seed pudding or just a bargain brand pull top pudding cup, pudding is a great option to mix protein powder with.