Protein Balls

After training it is very important for swimmers to eat Protein and Carbohydrate within 20 minutes of finishing. This is to allow the body to replace the energy used and to replace the muscle that has been lost.

Protein Balls are an excellent way of doing this as they are high yielding in both these nutrients, they are easy to carry with you, easy to eat and they will keep for a long time in the fridge but they can also be frozen.

The following recipe was used to make the Protein Balls the swimmers tried last week. You can alter the recipe to suit your taste i.e. if you do not like cinnamon you can use coconut instead. If you do not like the figs you can use dates.

To cut down the cost you can grind ground almonds more to make your own almond flour. I added some honey.

There are also several websites where you can buy the whey protein at a good price.

Place the following ingredients into a food processor and grind well:

½ cup of Brazil nuts
½ cup of Cashew nuts
½ cup of pumpkin seeds
½ cup of sunflower seeds

Then add the following ingredients to the food processor:

1 cup dried figs
1 cup of almond flour
2 cups of whey protein
2 Tablespoons of cinnamon
1 large very ripe banana

Blend together and add honey if necessary to bring together. Roll into balls using almond flour. Makes about 40 balls. Enjoy!