Three no-bake protein desserts: cheesecake, bites and nice cream

You are thirty-odd grams of protein short for the day, it is late, and the oven is not happening. These three recipes cover that gap: a cheesecake in a glass, oat and peanut butter bites, and nice cream from frozen banana. Nothing gets baked, and the longest one takes 15 minutes of actual work.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 30 min in total — 10 min for the cheesecake, 15 min for the bites, 5 min for the nice cream. Cooking: 0 min. Servings: 9 in total (2 + 5 + 2).

Chilling time sits outside the prep figure. The cheesecake needs at least 2 hours in the fridge, the bites 30 minutes, and the nice cream is eaten straight out of the blender.

Ingredients

1. Cheesecake in a glass (2 servings)

• 300 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
• 100 g light cream cheese
• 30 g vanilla protein powder
• 20 g honey
• 50 g rolled oats
• 15 g peanut butter
• 100 g raspberries, fresh or defrosted

2. Oat and peanut butter bites (10 bites, 5 servings)

• 120 g rolled oats
• 60 g peanut butter, no added sugar
• 40 g chocolate protein powder
• 60 g honey
• 80 ml milk

3. Banana protein nice cream (2 servings)

• 240 g frozen banana (2 medium, sliced before freezing)
• 200 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
• 25 g vanilla protein powder
• 20 g peanut butter
• 60 ml milk

Method

1. For the cheesecake base, blitz 50 g of oats for about ten seconds, stir in 15 g of peanut butter and a tablespoon of warm water, then press the mix into the bottom of two glasses.
2. Whisk 300 g yoghurt, 100 g cream cheese, 30 g protein powder and 20 g honey until completely smooth. Lumps of powder will not break down later, so deal with them now.
3. Spoon the cream over the base, top with raspberries and chill for at least 2 hours. Before that the base is still sandy rather than set.
4. For the bites, mix 120 g oats, 40 g protein powder, 60 g peanut butter and 60 g honey by hand in a bowl.
5. Add the 80 ml of milk in two goes. The mixture should stick to your palm but hold its shape when you squeeze it.
6. Roll 10 bites of roughly 30 g each and chill them for 30 minutes. In a sealed container they keep for up to 5 days.
7. For the nice cream, put the frozen banana, 200 g yoghurt, 25 g protein powder and 20 g peanut butter into a decent blender.
8. Blend in short bursts, adding the milk 20 ml at a time, until the mixture is as thick as frozen yoghurt. Pour it all in at once and you get a drink rather than a dessert.
9. Serve straight away, or firm it up in the freezer for 15–20 minutes. Leave it longer than an hour and you will be cutting a solid block.

Nutrition per serving

Everything below is an estimate per serving, worked out from the quantities listed above. Your numbers will shift with the protein powder you use, the fat content of the yoghurt, and how generous your spoon of honey is.

Cheesecake in a glass (1 of 2 servings)

• Calories: about 420 kcal
• Protein: 37 g
• Carbohydrates: 40 g
• Fat: 15 g

Bites (2 bites, 1 of 5 servings)

• Calories: about 240 kcal
• Protein: 13 g
• Carbohydrates: 29 g
• Fat: 8.5 g

Banana nice cream (1 of 2 servings)

• Calories: about 300 kcal
• Protein: 25 g
• Carbohydrates: 35 g
• Fat: 9 g

If you want the bites to land closer to 20 g of protein, count three of them instead of two — roughly 360 kcal.

Swaps and variations

No protein powder to hand: in the cheesecake, replace it with 100 g of quark or dry curd cheese and drop the yoghurt to 250 g. Protein falls to around 28 g per serving and the texture holds. The same powder-free logic drives this protein smoothie made without protein powder.

Instead of honey, use 2 pitted dates soaked for 10 minutes and blended. Calories land in the same range, but the bite mixture turns stickier, so add another 10 g of oats.

Swap peanut butter for tahini or almond butter gram for gram. To pull the fat down, cut the peanut butter in the bites to 40 g and add 20 ml more milk.

Any small fruit works in place of raspberries; if you are tracking, here is how raspberries stack up on calories and protein. For breakfast in the same spirit, overnight oats with protein do the job, and when you need something even easier to carry, there is chia seed protein pudding.

When to see a doctor

All three recipes lean on dairy. If bloating, cramps or loose stools follow them consistently, the issue is more likely lactose than protein volume — speak to your GP before cutting out an entire food group on your own.

In short

Three desserts, no oven, 30 minutes of work and 9 servings between them. The cheesecake carries the most protein per serving at 37 g, the nice cream is the fastest, and the bites are the only one you can take with you. Fruit, sweetener and nut butter are all interchangeable — keep the dairy quantities where they are and the recipes hold.