Categories: Quest Bar

8 Feb 2015, Comments (8)

Quest Nutrition Red Velvet Cake Pops

Author: Healthnuttxo

So Quest Nutrition asked if I would try one of their Valentine’s Day Recipes and post about it on my blog, and I happily obliged. I decided to do the Red Velvet Cake Pops using their Vanilla Protein Powder and Dark Chocolate Chunk Quest Bars. This will be my outline/review of the recipe (the real recipe is at the bottom), and my thoughts on the product.

Here we go!

First, I microwaved the  Double Chocolate Chunk Quest bar in the…well, microwave. Then I flattened it out

baked it, and grinded it up so it got to be a fine powder. I then combined the Quest bar with a slew of other ingredients, such as almond meal, red food dye, almond milk, and the Quest Vanilla Protein powder in a medium bowl and mixed well.

Then…into the oven it went!

In the meantime, I made the “frosting”. I used the Quest protein powder again, alongside cream cheese, sweetener, and sour cream, and mixed well. *tip- soften your cream cheese before you try this recipe… I did not and it was awfully hard to mix! I tasted the frosting though, reminded me of a vanilla buttercream.

After about 20 minutes I took the quest bar mixture out of the oven.

Then I crumpled up the cake, and added the frosting to it.

Next up, made the cake into little balls, and off to the freezer! (I did this step backwards…oops)

The last step was melting and coating them in chocolate. I decided to use regular chocolate versus sugar free, mostly since it was easier for me to find in stores and cheaper.

Overall…how did it taste?

really damn good!!! The chocolate was a savior, and it went just perfectly with the cake. I loved the fact I was eating something that wasn’t going to derail my diet. The cake was moist, had a cream cheesy, vanilla flavor, and tasted like a normal cake pop you would find at Starbucks. These were definitely time intensive…but worth it! 4 1/2 stars.

The recipe was a bit labor intensive, but cake pops (at least from my experience) are not an easy thing to make. So this recipe might be difficult for a beginner, but it was still easy to follow. If I made this again, I would probably do a half sugar/ half 0 cal sweetener, since I can sometimes detect that sugar free taste (I am used to it as a diabetic!), but I think half sugar would provide a little less bitterness and better flavor. However, since this is a “cheat clean”, I can see why 0 calorie sweetener was used.

Recipe & nutritional info below!

Here is the recipe they gave me. I do NOT own this recipe, it was provided to me by Quest Nutrition, as well as getting a free tub of their Protein Powder and quest bars to make the recipe. Any  modifications I personally made are provided in parenthesis.

Red Velvet Cake Pops:

Yields: 18 servings

Serving size: 1 cake pop

Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: 24 min

Ingredients:

Cake

1⁄ 2 cup Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder

1 Double Chocolate Chunk Quest Bar

1⁄ 2 cup almond meal

1 1⁄ 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tablespoons zero-calorie sweetener

1⁄ 2 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄ 4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (I used unsweetened vanilla coconut milk)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1⁄ 2 tablespoon red food coloring

Coconut cooking spray

Frosting

1 scoop Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder

3 1⁄ 2 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese (I used full fat)

1⁄ 4 cup zero-calorie sweetener (I used Splenda)

2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream ( I used full fat)

1⁄ 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Coating

6 ounces sugar-free milk or dark chocolate ( I used regular milk chocolate)

Method:

Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350°F.
  • In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, heat unwrapped Double Chocolate Chunk Quest Bar for 10 seconds.
  • Using a rolling pin, roll the bar out to 1⁄4-inch thickness.
  • Bake for 4 minutes, or until bar is lightly crisped. Remove to cool.
  • Break the crisped bar into pieces, place in a mini blender, and process into a powder.
  • In a medium-size mixing bowl, add Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder, the powdered Double Chocolate Chunk Quest Bar, almond meal, cocoa powder, zero-calorie sweetener, baking soda, and salt, and mix well.
  • Add almond milk, vanilla extract, and red food coloring. Mix cake base until fully incorporated and batter is dark red.
  • Coat a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Pour in batter.
  • Bake 18 to 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and cake is completely cooked and springy.
  • Remove and let cool.
  • Break the cake into small pieces, and place in a large mixing bowl.

Frosting

  • In a medium-size bowl, add Quest Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder, cream cheese, zero-calorie sweetener, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
  • Mix until smooth.

Assembly

  • Add frosting to crumbled cake, and mix together until all frosting is incorporated.
  • Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 20 minutes.
  • Remove cake from freezer. Take a small amount of cake batter and form eighteen walnut-sized balls.
  • Break chocolate into even-size small pieces. Melt slowly over a double boiler or in a dry bowl that fits snuggly over a pot. (Water should not touch pot or bowl above it. Before placing pot on top, simmer water in pot on low heat, then turn off heat and place the dry bowl or pot with chocolate in it on top, and stir when chocolate starts to melt, until chocolate is shiny and smooth)
  • Once chocolate is ready, remove cake balls from fridge and carefully submerge each into melted chocolate. Gently tap the edge to remove excess. If chocolate begins to seize, simply return to double boiler. Place each pop on wax paper and insert lollipop sticks.
  • Chill for 10 minutes in freezer, or until chocolate hardens and creates a shell.

Nutrition Info:

Calories: 110

Protein: 7

Fat: 7

Net Carbs: 3

Fiber: 4

18 Nov 2014, Comments (8)

Quest Nutrition Protein Chips

Author: Healthnuttxo

Quest Nutrition Protein Chips!

I know, I know, I am a little behind on these, and while I did  get samples a little while ago my schedule is so tight I did not have a chance to post this until now.

SO,

Here we go!

I got 1 bag of 3 different flavors to try for free from Quest. I got the BBQ, Cheddar & Sour Cream, and Sea Salt flavors to try.

These chips are made without soy, and are gluten free. They are baked, not fried, according to the bag, and have roughly 21g of protein per serving with ~5 g of carbohydrates. They do not have any fiber in them, and are relatively low in fat. For example, the sea salt flavor had 1.5 grams of fat per bag.

One serving gives you a decent amount of chips, but they are flaky and airy, and a lot of the chips end up being very piecey and on the bottom of the bag. For example, I packed a bag for lunch one day and ended up eating entirely crumbs during class. Not super convenient! First up, the Sea Salt.

These were pretty good. The chips were half and half, were some would have a good amount of yummy salt flavor, and others would be on the blander side. The chips were piecey via mouth feel- they had this dried potato flavor to them but a rather strong undertone of whey protein flavor. They were dry, and brittle, and broke apart easily while chewing.

Next up, the BBQ flavor. Here’s a sneak peak.This bag wasn’t as damaged as my other two got during travel, so I got a shot of the chips as whole pieces not crumbs. The BBQ ones had a mild BBQ flavor, standard flavoring like most BBQ chips, but definitely not as strong. No flavor in the BBQ seasoning stuck out in particular. They had a nice crunch, and were not too salty, which was nice. I wish the flavor was a bit stronger. What happened was I would eat the chip, the seasoning would come off, and then it would taste like a plain chip within a few seconds of being in my mouth- that dried potato + whey flavor. It was doable for a snack ,but not my favorite.

Lastly, the Sour Cream and Cheddar. This had the same type of issue the BBQ one did. The flavors were good, mild, but good, but the seasoning came off so easily that it was as if they got sprinkled with seasoning after they were already baked. I wish it had some flavor throughout the chip. I definitely tasted cheddar flavors, can’t say I saw where the sour cream component was coming from. This bag I took with me to class and was the bag I ended up eating almost entirely in pieces, but I was hungry so it was still manageble.

Overall, to be honest, a disappointment from me! I expected better, seeing as I am in love with Quest Bars. I ended up buying a case of the sour cream  & cheddar after receiving my samples to try out of excitement, sure I would like them, and let’s just say I already ordered Quest Bars almost biweekly and I still have 2-3 bags of the chips left waiting to be eaten.

I probably won’t buy them again in the future, I really wasn’t that impressed with these. I can see them as a livesaver for someone who is on a strict diet and needs a “cheat”, because it is crunchy and has mild but good flavor, but it doesn’t beat out the quest bars. Also, there is no fiber in the chips, so they left me hungry where as a Quest Bar was much more fulfilling.  However, I did enjoy the fact they were only 5 grams of carbohydrates. Always down for low carb snacks being a diabetic. Overall, 2  stars

1 serving (Sea Salt) = 120 calories, 1.5 grams fat (0 saturated), 190 mg sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrate, 0 grams fiber, 0 grams sugar, 21 grams protein.

Ingredients (Sea Salt- from bag): Protein blend (milk protein isolate, whey protein isolate), dried potatoes, corn starch, high oleic sunflower oil. Contains less than 2% of the following: Sea Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavors.

28 Mar 2014, Comments (1)

Quest Nutrition Cookies & Cream Quest Bar

Author: Healthnuttxo

QUEST BARS!

I have been a fan of these bars for almost 2 years when I got a box to try from the company. Since then, I have been hooked. They seem to almost have blown up in popularity, and well deserved…these things are delicious and perfect when you are on a strict diet and need something high in fiber, low in sugar, and high in protein.

I’m sure almost everyone has heard of the new flavor of Quest Bars that came out recently- Cookies & Cream!! I got a free box of these bars to try, and I was pretty excited about it.

I mean come on…look at this bar. You can see “cookie crumbs” and chunks of white creamy “chocolate”!

First lets talk nutrition. This bar is GLUTEN FREE!, 180 calories, 7 grams fof fat (3 of which are saturated), 310 mg of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrate (17 of which are fiber), 1 gram of sugar, 2 grams of Erythritol (sugar alcohol), and 21 g of protein.

I use Quest bars as a snack, as I usually eat 3 meals and 2 snacks, or I’ll eat half when I have those bad hunger pains that just will NOT relent. The nutrition facts are quite awesome- not TOO high in fat, nice amount of fiber (which is ideal for me since I am a Diabetic for glucose control) and only 1 gram of sugar.

Okay, that’s all cool but how does it taste?
The bar is honestly, amazing. It’s my new favorite flavor. It’s chewy and dense, sweet but not overly sweet. The white chocolate chunks are creamy and have a vanilla flavor to them, reminiscent of the cream in an Oreo cookie. The cookie crumbs scattered in the bar is what won me over. Crunchy and tastes very similar to a cookie!! When you find a part of the bar with a huge piece of cookie crumbs or the white chocolate it is like hitting lotto— cookies & cream lotto 😉

Overall, I love these. I always order directly from the site, because I feel like they are freshest and softest from the website. These get 5 stars from me. I honestly can’t complain about a thing.

Q- What is your favorite protein bar? Or what is your favorite Quest Bar flavor? Leave me a comment below 🙂

28 Oct 2012, Comments (5)

Quest Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry Cheesecake, Peanut Butter Supreme Bars

Author: Healthnuttxo

Another round of Quest Bar reviews! I love these things! I am very grateful the people over at Quest Bar sent me a generous sample box for free so I can try all of their flavors. Today’s review will be of the Chocolate Peanut Butter, Strawberry Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Supreme Quest Bars. As always, these bars are gluten free, high in fiber and low in sugar! Woo!

Let’s do the Chocolate Peanut Butter first. (Because why not??! :p)

This bar was soft and chewy, and significantly more chewy than the other bars I have tried. It had a bit of an odd flavor, and I felt it tasted a bit artificial. I can see how it would be labeled a “chocolate peanut butter” flavored bar, as I detected elements of both. It was certainly a sweet chocolate peanut butter flavor rather than a savory one. I do think the chocolate flavor overpowered the peanut butter, and the peanut butter flavor was rather mild. It was a good bar, but not my favorite. 3 stars

Next up, Strawberry Cheesecake.

This one was YUMMY. Dare I say…it replicated a strawberry cheesecake almost perfectly? Or to the best of the ability that a bar could do? It had a slight tart yet sweet flavor from the strawberries, yet a subtle cream cheese flavor as well. The flavors complimented each other quite beautifully, and I found myself almost happy eating this bar. It was SO good! Very moist, and the perfect mouthfeel. I loved how I could actually detect and taste the strawberries as well. 4.5 stars

Lastly, the Peanut Butter Supreme bar.


This one was also quite tasty. A good amount of peanut butter flavor, which I certainly liked. I found it to be a little more salty than sweet, and quite dense. I enjoyed the bits of nuts dispersed throughout the bar as it added extra texture and crunch to the bar. I think if it was a tad sweeter and a tad less salty, I would have liked it more. However, still a good bar, but a little on the bland side. 3.5 stars

Overall, Quest Bars seem to be a hit. I have liked pretty much every flavor that I have tried! 🙂

Here is the nutrition of the Strawberry Cheesecake Bar

12 Oct 2012, Comments (2)

Quest Bar Lemon Cream Pie, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Apple Pie

Author: Healthnuttxo

MORE new flavors to try thanks to the kind folks over at Quest Bar :] This time around, it’s Quest Bar’s Lemon Cream Pie, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Apple Pie. All of those sound absolutely decadent, no? Now how would they taste in bar form? Let’s see…. 🙂

FIRST UP on this gluten free, high fiber and no sugar added line of bars is the Lemon Cream Pie.

Ok…now this one is GOOD! The flavor almost reminds me of lemon skittles, which sounds kind of weird but it’s not at all! It’s very moist and chewy, and very fresh tasting. Seriously…I was gushing over this bar while I was eating it (“Oh my GOSH THIS IS GOOD!” haha). What’s weird is I am not a lemon kind of gal…I normally pass on lemon flavored things. But this one had the perfect amount of sweetness, and wasn’t tart at all. The mouth feel of the bar is also really great. JUST PERFECT!!! 5 stars :]

Next up, Peanut Butter & Jelly.

Now you probably predict another 5 star review, huh? Thinking, mannnnn Lisa loves peanut butter she must love this bar. Actually, this was my least favorite! :[ It was considerably denser than the other bars and not as moist. It wasn’t really sweet, and had kind of a combination of a “toast” and peanut flavor, with slight and sweet undertones of a berry/ jelly flavor.  I did like the little peanuts in the bar which added a little crunch 🙂 3 1/2 stars

Lastly, Apple Pie.

Yummy! This bar was chewy and sweet, and definitely had a great flavor. I could detect a nice cinnamon flavor throughout the bar, but not much of an “apple” flavor unless you bit into an actual piece of dried apple. I DID like the fact that there were scattered dried apple skins in the bar, which added a yummy and sweet apple flavor. However, the skins were sporadic, so there were bites where I had just the bar/cinnamon dominant flavor. However, I still enjoyed this bar and would eat again. 4 stars

Annnnnnd here’s the nutritional facts for the Apple Pie Bar.


26 Sep 2012, Comments (4)

Quest Bar Cinnamon Roll & Coconut Cashew

Author: Healthnuttxo

The LOVELY people over at Quest Bar sent me a  free sample box of 11 of their products, the QuestBar.

What’s a QUESTBAR you ask? This particular line of protein bars states it is “the only protein bar with a perfect nutritional profile” according to the insert I was sent alongside the bars. Each bar has 20 grams of protein, 4-6 grams of “non fiber carbs”,  has no added sugar, no soy protein, and is gluten free.

I got the box yesterday, and already tried 2 of the bars. (Eager beaver over here 😉 )

The first one I tried was Coconut Cashew.

It was a tan colored bar, about the size, length-wise, of my palm.  Upon first bite, I though…cinnamon? There was a bit of a cinnamon flavor, which accompanied the yummy coconut. It was very chewy, very soft, and dense. It was sweet, but did not have a sugary taste to it. There was a bit of an aftertaste, but not overpoweringly so. I LOVED how chewy it was, and how it had a good bite to it. And although I didn’t really taste much cashew flavor, it was predominantly coconut and that “cinnamon” I tasted, I think the cashew may have played a role in the softness and (very) slightly oily consistency. You can see when you touch the bar it’s not super dry and I think the bit of fat from the nuts may have something to do with that. This one gets 4.5 stars

Next up, The Cinnamon Roll flavor.

I was recommended by 2 people to try this one, so I had high expectations. And…they were most certainly met!  This bar was SO good! Upon first bite, I definitely tasted the cinnamon. It was sweet, but again, not sugary tasting. It was also very soft, chewy and dense, as well as it had a very fresh and moist feel to it. I could almost taste the “icing” in the bar on the “cinnamon roll”, and….in fact…it DID pretty much taste like a cinnamon roll! Dang!!  I will definitely be ordering more of these in the future, as I really enjoyed it. I was quite sad when it was over, because the flavor was phenomenal and the nutritional facts were awesome to back it up. It was a tad high in sodium (300 mg) , but nothing too outrageous. 5 stars

One thing I liked about these bars, is that although they had a good deal of fiber in them, it didn’t bother my stomach. Sometimes with products that have a LOT of fiber (more than 8 grams or so added) I notice my stomach will hurt, but these did not do anything, which I liked. I was very content and filled with the bar, and really enjoyed both of these flavors 🙂 More reviews to come!

Here is the nutritional facts for the Coconut Cashew flavor.

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