It doesn’t take a genius to know that your body needs a little more when you’re exercising. When you’re out sweating, you need to drink some water. If you’ve run around and played with your kids all day, you probably worked up an appetite.

After a workout or vigorous day, you owe it to yourself to refuel your body with something healthy and filling. Many times, people opt for a protein shake or bar to quickly refuel and restore their energy.

While there’s nothing wrong with either (just be sure to watch how much sugar is in those bars), they get kind of repetitive after awhile. What are some meals that have plenty of protein and are delicious at the same time?

Below, we’re going to point out some of our favorites for you to enjoy. Give them a try next time!

Chicken and Quinoa

There are plenty of things you can do with chicken, but if you want to mix it in with another protein packed food then look no further than quinoa. The quinoa we all know and love is technically a seed from a certain plant, and it’s packed with protein.

How you pair the two is up to you, but we recommend grilling it before mixing it with your quinoa. If you don’t have a grill, try baking it or putting it on the stovetop with a bit of olive oil.

Quinoa is quite easy to make, just boil three cups of water for every cup of quinoa.

Other ingredients are up to you, as you can add olives, veggies, tomatoes, or anything else you want. Quinoa itself can be a bit bland, so make sure you choose your ingredients wisely to give it plenty of extra taste.

Spanish Omelet With Chorizo

Let’s travel to the country of España for this new take on a classic dish. The ingredients for the spanish omelet (classically known as tortilla española) are quite simple: potatoes, onions (optional), eggs, olive oil, salt, and chorizo. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare, and has one tricky step.

Start by filling a pan with olive oil (at least an inch) before adding in the cut up potatoes. Add your onions and salt while it’s all sizzling together. Be sure to mix everything, breaking the potatoes up even more.

On the side, break open four eggs and whisk together in a bowl. Add your chorizo bits at this point, then mix the potatoes together in a bowl. Once you’ve mixed everything, put it back in the pan and wait until it’s golden brown.

This is the tricky part, but now you have to flip the omelet onto a plate and then put the uncooked side back in the pan. We highly recommend watching a YouTube video on the process.

Falafel

With chickpeas becoming incredibly popular, it makes sense that we’d talk about falafel here. Falafel is quite easy to make, but does require about 24 hours of total time. Make sure you have a whole day planned out before making the dish.

You’ll need two cups of dried chickpeas and plenty of other small ingredients, including” parsley, cilantro, fresh dill, garlic, onions, pepper, cumin, coriander, baking powder, and sesame seeds.

You’ll have to start by soaking the chickpeas for about 16-18 hours. After that’s complete, you’ll want to add in all the spices and other ingredients and mash them together. Make sure you do a thorough job, as you don’t want to have lumpy falafel.

After that’s done, you need to put your glorious mixture back into the refrigerator. After an hour, take out the falafel and make spoonful patties. Grab a saucepan and put roughly three inches of olive oil in the pan.

Let each patty fry for about four minutes before removing them. Dry them off and let them cool for a bit. That’s it, you’re finished! The process isn’t overly difficult, it just takes a while.

Falafel can be used for many things, from wraps to little snacks. You really can’t go wrong with the dish.

If you really enjoy using chickpeas, you can try to make hummus which uses chickpeas and olive oil. Like falafel, it takes awhile to make but is quite easy overall.

Bonus material.

Recipe for Sweet Potato Protein Bites

• 2 cups steamed sweet potato
• 1 ½ cups shredded coconut
• 1 cup almonds
• ⅓ cup melted coconut oil
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp ground flax
• 1 ½ scoops Nourishing Lactation Protein Powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2-3 drops Stevia
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend
2. Transfer dough to a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour
3. Once chilled, begin scooping out your bites. Roll them into balls and then roll them in any topping you want, such as shredded coconut.
4. Enjoy! You can store your bites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 10 days.