Her line of condiments shakes up a protein-fueled industry, but Marta Grace’s biggest flex: clean ingredients

Leaning on a standard protein shake might help someone hit their daily protein goals, Marta Grace said, but it also could be filled with sugar, preservatives, and other additives that make the journey to better health a heavier lift. The menu needs to widen, she added.

Grace’s protein-infused condiment line — Protein Fueled Foods — launched this spring as a side hustle with the help of her husband and three kids, emphasizing clean ingredients alongside convenience.

“This is for the mom who’s busy and their kids only want to eat French fries,” she said, “who can sneak in some protein in there with that ketchup or that barbecue sauce in whatever they’re eating. So it’s for moms, it’s for GLP-1 users, it’s for the gym bro. It’s for everybody, which is what I love.”

The brand now offers seven products — protein ketchup, hot honey glaze, blueberry bourbon bbq sauce, traditional spaghetti sauce, jalapeno lime hot sauce, citrus honey vinaigrette, and lemon garlic vinaigrette. All of the condiments are manufactured and bottled in Kansas City and are available online.

Bottles of Protein Fueled Foods condiments; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

“It’s really about getting people back to eating real, whole foods and eating at home again versus it just being another protein shake that’s already prepared for you,” said Grace, the broker/owner of United Real Estate-Kansas City and a former nurse.

“I’ve just always cared about health,” she continued. “So Protein Fueled Food is really just an extension of that.”

Click here to check out Protein Fueled Foods’ products.

Toss in few kicks

Condiments featured in the family-run line average 10-15 grams of protein per serving, Grace said.

Marta Grace, Protein Fueled Foods; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

“The products are clean, delicious, and natural,” she said. “So when you look at the labels, you’ll see there’s not a whole long list of things you can’t pronounce.”

The hot honey glaze has been the hero product, Grace said. She and her husband use it everyday.

“It’s a little bit spicy,” she explained. “We put it on — obviously — pizza. We put it on tofu. We put it on our salmon. It’ll caramelize beautifully when it’s on the saucepan. We put it on our vegetables. We do our little wings, little drumsticks in the air fryer, and then toss it with the hot honey glaze after. It’s just unlimited.”

“It’s good on everything,” she added, noting that it and the spaghetti sauce are the best sellers when they do pop-ups at farmer’s markets or fitness expos. “It makes everything better.”

The blueberry bourbon bbq sauce is lower in sugar than most typical sauces, Grace shared, and she likes to add in a little bit of the hot honey to give it a little bit of spice.

“When you taste it, you’ll see it’s not super sweet,” she continued. “But you’ve got that sweetness from the blueberry and the antioxidants from the blueberry, as well. So a lot of added benefits, and it’s one of my favorites.”

Grace even adds the hot honey to the citrus honey vinaigrette to give her salads — which she eats religiously — a kick, she added.

“It already has a little bit of sweetness in there with the citrus and honey,” she said. “It also has ginger. So a lot of, again, healthy things that we know our body needs are in there already.”

The spaghetti sauce — another bestseller — features fresh basil and 15 grams of protein per serving, which is four tablespoons.

“For me, I like my spaghetti really saucy,” Grace noted. “So I do closer to eight tablespoons. That’s 30 grams of protein.”

“In fact, we have a recipe we’re putting on the website, where we add cottage cheese for more protein,” she added. “It also makes it creamy, and we use chickpea pasta, which also has protein, as well. So it’s over 50 grams of protein in that pasta dish without any meat. So I love that one.”

The Pat and Marta Grace family behind Protein Fueled Foods; courtesy photo

Building entrepreneurial muscle

Grace’s family life inspired her to start Protein Fueled Food, she shared. One day, she offered to make lunch for her and her son to share after he finished working out. He turned his nose up at her salad and made a protein shake instead, insisting he needed protein — not just a salad — after working out.

“I had just made a little vinaigrette at home — a little lemon, garlic, and stuff — and I’m pouring the dressing as he’s pouring his shake,” Grace recalled, “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’d be really cool if that protein was in my dressing.”

So she searched online, she recalled, figuring she’d find some at like Whole Foods or Sprouts.

“I was like, ‘Oh wow, this is crazy! This doesn’t exist,’” Grace said.

This discovery — over two years ago, she noted — inspired her to start testing recipes. But it stayed on the back burner for a while as she is busy growing her real estate company, which boasts 350 agents.

“It was really my kids who kept motivating me, saying, ‘Hey, mom, I think that’s a really good idea; you really need to do something with it,’” she explained, noting they still help her with social media for the brand.

At the same time, Grace was on a health journey of her own, she noted.

As a new empty nester with increased time on her hands, she started focusing more on working out and taking a GLP-1 to lose some weight. But despite lifting weights and feeling stronger, she struggled to build muscle.

“It was just the lack of protein,” she explained. “I just feel like — even me being a nurse — there’s enough education out there. There is more now, but a couple years ago, there really wasn’t much out there letting people know how crucial it is to have enough protein to build that muscle, especially if you are on GLP-1s. Your body is going to eat that muscle from somewhere, and a lot of times it’s those important muscles around your heart and stuff like that. So it’s extremely, extremely important.”

So Grace partnered with a local manufacturer and dedicated herself to recipe development for Protein Fueled Food, she said, noting she wanted to be “obsessed” with the products that would be released.

“If I have a barbecue sauce, I want it to be my favorite barbecue sauce,” Grace continued. “If I have spaghetti, I want it to be my favorite spaghetti sauce.”

Now three months after releasing the brand’s first condiments and selling out after many samplings, she and her family are working on even more protein products and having conversations with local and other big box retailers.

“Our initial strategy is actually going to be primarily working with influencers and selling online through social media,” Grace added.