20 Post-Workout Meals That You Will Savor to the Last Bite

French Toast Protein Shake

Enjoy brunch on-the-go with this healthy protein shake that tastes like French toast.

Starting with a base of cottage cheese makes it rich and creamy. Then cinnamon, maple, and nutmeg turn it into a sippable French toast. If you have pumpkin pie spice in your pantry, you can use that instead to add the right balance of fall flavors.

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Baked Banana Walnut Oatmeal

After a morning run in the crisp, cool air, there’s nothing like a comforting bowl of oatmeal to warm you up and refuel you for the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to take hot oatmeal on the go, but you can bake it into bars using protein powder. These can be taken out on the trail, packed in a gym bag, or eaten as a filling alternative to a protein shake.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Shake

Chocolate milk is good for post-workout recovery because it offers a balance of carbohydrates and protein. So why not boost it with even more protein in the form of peanuts and whey and call it a day?

This peanut butter chocolate shake has 50 grams of protein – that’s more than enough to help you recover from muscle fatigue. And if you use PB2 powdered peanut butter, you can cut 100 calories and 13 grams of fat while still getting the nutrients you need.

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Baked Honey Curry Chicken with Green Beans

Don’t want to stand in front of the stove to make dinner? You don’t have to.

With this curry chicken recipe, you can prep it all and toss it in the oven on a baking sheet. The only prep work is to cut and marinate the chicken before it goes in the oven. As it bakes, whisk together the glaze so it’s ready to pour over the curried chicken and green beans.

Serve with white rice or your favorite grains.

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Peanut Butter Protein French Toast

At the end of a hectic week, you deserve a hearty breakfast of French toast, bacon, and eggs.

However, once you see the nutrition of the sugary breakfast favorite, you might think again. A plate of French toast at IHOP has 700 calories, 30 grams of fat, and 28 grams of sugar – before loading it up with syrup.

Instead if you dip the bread in a mixture of egg whites, protein powder, and peanut flour, French toast can be transformed to have 50 grams of protein with only 7 grams of fat and 2 grams of sugar.

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High-Protein Oreo Shake

You don’t have to cut all guilty pleasure foods out of your diet, but you can balance the nutrition a bit better by integrating wholesome ingredients like cottage cheese.

Instead of sitting down with a bag of Oreos and going to town, crush them up in a cookies and cream milkshake to get all the flavor plus the protein you need.

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Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad

After a workout, your body needs two things: protein and carbs. And that’s why a meaty pasta salad is awesome to eat post-workout.

Make it at the beginning of the week, and it’ll keep in the fridge up for up 3 days. Then it’s ready to inhale as soon as your workout is over. You can even take it to-go in an insulated bag.

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Green Egg Scramble

An egg scramble often has potatoes, diced tomatoes, salt, and pepper. A Western-style breakfast is tasty, but you can fill it out with more nutritious ingredients for a power-packed plate.

In this dish, Brussels sprouts and kale contribute a ton of fiber and vitamins. Cottage cheese, pepitas, and bacon bits add a little protein. And cranberries are known to ward off infections and boost cardiovascular health.

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PB2 Banana Greek Yogurt Parfait

When you buy flavored yogurt, chances are you’re buying ingredients you don’t want, including added sugar, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. This homemade yogurt parfait has more flavor than the packaged stuff, and yet all the sugars are natural from the banana and dairy.

This is so good you’ll want to eat it all the time for breakfast, a post-workout snack, and a healthy dessert.

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Protein-Packed Breakfast Burritos

Burritos are an easy way to cook up a bunch of ingredients to either enjoy immediately or freeze for later.

Starting with the ground turkey, the filling is made in one pan on the stove. And including the prep work, they’ll be done within a half hour.

The macros are for one burrito, so if you have a big appetite after an intense workout, you’ll want to grab two.

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Grilled Fish Tacos

Tacos are great anytime, but they’re especially awesome to eat post-workout because you can pile on the toppings to meet your nutritional goals.

Start with a lean meat like fish, which takes about 10 minutes to cook on the stove. Cut up the cooked meat, serve with corn tortillas, and then load up those low-fat fish tacos with veggies like shredded cabbage.

Avocado or guacamole is good too since it boosts energy levels and has potassium to regulate blood pressure.

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Orange Mango Recovery Smoothie

It’s easy to make a protein-packed fruit smoothie. Add a cup or so of fruit to a blender, preferably frozen if you like a thick texture. Then add protein powder, flavors like cinnamon, and enough liquid to make it drinkable.

The original recipe calls for vegan protein powder, but if dairy is part of your diet, you can get more protein with fewer calories using a whey isolate.

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Sweet Potato Turkey Sandwich

Anybody can make a turkey sandwich as long as there’s bread, meat, and cheese. But a next-level turkey sandwich? That takes a little more ingenuity.

This recipe is so creative that it replaces the bread completely, using spiralized sweet potato noodles to hold the sandwich together. They’re pan-fried into a sweet potato cake, and from there you can make an amazing sandwich.

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Hummus & Chicken Wraps

These wraps can be made ahead since they’re delicious whether the chicken is hot or cold. If you’re cooking for one, you’ll have a chicken wrap to wolf down right away, plus one to eat after you hit the gym tomorrow.

And this recipe is easy to adapt, so feel free to swap the spices for a seasoning blend, or use whatever vegetables you have on hand.

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Chicken & Veggies Stir Fry

Don’t fill up on greasy takeout on your way home from the gym. When you make a lean stir fry at home instead, you can ensure that the macros are on target.

You should get at least 40 grams of protein, plus about 60 grams of carbs. To make a great post-workout stir fry, go light on the oil, add lots of meat, and include heaps of veggies so all the carbohydrates aren’t from the rice.

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Coffee Banana Smoothie

When you need a serious jolt to recharge you, a coffee smoothie is a fast and delicious way to grab energy on the go.

If you typically brew a pot of coffee to start off your day, set aside a cup to cool. Then post-workout, blend the iced coffee with a frozen banana, some ice, protein powder, and other supplements like flax and chia seeds. It’ll cool you off while giving you energy and nutrients so you can keep crossing items off your to-do list.

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Stuffed Pepper Soup

Stuffed peppers are the kind of food that needs to be enjoyed at home. However, if you turn all those ingredients into a soup, it’s suddenly portable and much easier to reheat.

The soup is little more than ground beef, veggies, and rice. Not only does it deliver awesome post-workout nutrition, but stuffed pepper soup only takes 10 minutes to prep in the slow cooker. Then it’ll be hot and ready to eat when you get home from the gym.

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Balsamic-Glazed Sirloin with Sweet Potato Mash

After an intense workout, you’ll want to refuel with complex carbs stat. And sweet potatoes are one of the best foods to help restore your glycogen levels – in other words, giving your muscles back the energy you drained.

Not only do sweet potatoes offer nutritionally dense complex carbs, but are absolutely packed with vitamin A for strong bones and a healthy immune system.

A serving of this recipe is 3 oz. of steak, the standard for meat, so keep in mind that you’ll probably want to go back for seconds.

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Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta

Chicken Alfredo probably sounds awesome post-workout because it’s extremely filling and has protein, but all the fat in that creamy sauce isn’t ideal for recovery.

Instead of relying on heavy cream, this healthier and higher protein chicken pasta dish uses a mix of cottage cheese and Greek yogurt to make a creamy pesto sauce.

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Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie

A quick trick to infusing new life into a traditional dish like Shepherd’s Pie is to swap your vegetables for something similar but not as common.

Potatoes are an obvious target for being replaced because they don’t contribute much flavor. By using sweet potatoes instead, you’re getting half the starch compared to regular potatoes, which means there are more complex carbs.

Other root vegetables, including parsnips and rutabagas, will work on top of a Shepherd’s Pie too.

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