protein power
Jackie Hartlaub has made a name for herself online with her high protein dishes, and now she’s bringing her favorite recipes together in a new cookbook. The Powered by Protein Cookbook is based on Hartlaub’s health journey as she tried to find a diet that fit her lifestyle. She found that she had put on some pounds and was low energy, and she knew she wanted more to live her best life.
A friend tried a keto diet and had some success, so she tried it out as well. She found some success with it, but she found herself binging on carbs, so she knew the super-restrictive diet wouldn’t work for her. She started creating her own recipes that were packed with protein but balanced with carbs, and when she started posting videos of her recipes online, she found that others were excited about her ideas.
Now she’s collected over 80 of her best recipes, some new but some of her online favorites, and offers readers a chance to learn how to cook dishes that make protein the priority for each meal of the day. She offers recipes with eggs, poultry, beef, pork, and seafood. There are Breakfast Tostadas, Rosemary-Lemon Pepper Whole Roast Chicken, Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri, Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon Bites, Pork Chile Verde Stew, and sides like Garlic Cauliflower Mash.
She does have some recipes that her fans have questioned, like the Sweet & Spicy Breakfast Sandwiches, basically turkey bacon, breakfast sausages, eggs, and cheese on an English muffin, with grape jelly. Or the BBQ Pizza where she makes the crust from ground chicken, egg, cottage cheese, and seasonings. And all of her recipes are meat (or seafood) forward. Even her Zucchini Lasagna has ground beef, as the zucchini is a substitute for the noodles. She uses broccoli instead of pasta in her Sheet-Pan Chicken Alfredo with Roasted Broccoli and uses peppers instead of bread for her Bell Pepper Turkey and Bacon “Sandwiches.”
Many of the recipes are simple to put together and can make a weeknight meal or a quick lunch easy and fast. There are photos of every dish, and most recipes are only a page long. They all come with the protein count per serving, so adding lots of protein to your diet is made easy with these recipes. But she does focus on meats instead of less expensive proteins like beans, lentils, or tofu. And she also uses Greek yogurt and cottage cheese a lot throughout to add more protein to these dishes, so those who are lactose intolerant may struggle with many of these recipes.
I do like the idea of a high-protein cookbook, and many of these recipes would be good incorporated into the meal plan of someone who is trying to add more protein to their diet. But I am disappointed that she talks in her introduction about how she struggled with the way the keto diet was so restrictive with carbs and now she seeks balance. But this cookbook has almost no breads, no pasta, no potatoes, and no fruit. The recipes for rice and mash are both cauliflower based. If this is how Hartlaub wants to cook and eat, that’s fine, but for me, it doesn’t feel balanced.
Clarkson Potter provided me with a free copy of The Powered by Protein Cookbook, with many thanks, but the opinions are my own.
