Cycling Food | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Archive for the ‘Cycling Food’ Category

February 18th, 2019

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food

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Warm Fruit Topping to Fuel a Winter Training Ride

Pre-cold weather ride “goose fat” (homemade oil combo) on face & warm fruit topping for breakfast

Yes, it’s February, but any day cycling the road sure beats a day on the living room trainer, especially when there are sights like those below before the snow blew in last night.

Bottom line: Weather’s a state of mind. Just be prepared.

For me that means, step one, “goose fat” (homemade mix of avocado oil, coconut butter, shea butter, and a shot of honey) on the face and something warm to fuel me up for a good hop in the saddle.

Click this link or the picture above or below for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe that shows how to make a fruit topping that goes great on warm cereal, French toast, pancakes – your imagination is your only limit! As always, a quick nod and smile to Bicycles Battling Cancer and Springfield Police, Fire, and new this year, military vets, Ride to Remember.

January 21st, 2019

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Poultry, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes

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Roast Turkey – Warm, Fully Flavorful Feast Any Day

With all that it has to offer: its signature warm smell while it roasts, terrific comforting flavor fresh out of the oven, incredible leftover versatility, and much more, especially when it’s cold out, why have roasted turkey just on Thanksgiving?

I’ve roasted two turkeys since Thanksgiving: one to have leftovers at home after Thanksgiving, which I’m still enjoying in portions out of the freezer, and another to prepare for a Bicycles Battling Cancer dinner at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge in Boston last week.

If you’ve never roasted a turkey, you might think it’s a real chore.

It isn’t. In fact, it’s stress-free easy.

The keys to roasting a turkey beautifully successfully are roasting the turkey without stuffing (which otherwise will lead you to overcook the bird to cook the stuffing safely), using a meat thermometer, and doing most of the roasting with the turkey’s most delicate meat, the breast meat, cooked out of direct contact with the heat, which means roasting the bird mostly breast side down as shown in the top left picture below.

Click either this link or any picture on this page for complete, easy to follow fully flavorful stress-free roast turkey directions.

November 12th, 2018

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Nutrition, Salads & Salad Dressings

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Anti-Inflammatory Fresh Ginger Cilantro Kefir Salad Dressing Picture Book Recipe

If you’re an athlete or physically active at all, you know how inflammation exhibited in joint or muscle pain inhibits how you move your body. Inflammation is also a key contributor to diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and much more.

The very easy to make, fully-flavorful fresh low fat salad dressing you see here goes great on any salad as shown below – or anything savory – and contains kefir (a good bacteria, yogurt-like fermented milk drink), fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh cilantro, ground turmeric, mustard, apple cider vinegar, ground black pepper, and honey – all of which are rich with anti-inflammatory benefits.

Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Figuratively and Literally

First, the figurative lemon. I recently became part-owner of VOmax, makers of custom design performance sportswear. When my new business partner, Raj Singh, took ownership at the beginning of the year, the company was dysfunctional. Business was down. Morale was low.

Our objective as new owners: transform the company from dysfunction to excellence. Easy to say, hard to do. But even in dark times, there’s usually a bright side – and, in our case, quite a few of them.

We started right away promoting excellence in our products and service – always a dynamic process. On the personnel front, we recently hired a new graphic artist, Fred Crisp – excellent talent, positive attitude, and terrific eye for detailed art/design. Then, just last month, we hired an outstanding merchandiser and production manager with lifelong experience in the apparel business and fresh PhD, Charm Rammandala – you bet, he’s a charm!

We’ve also retained and added to our skilled, highly talented core of technicians on our factory floor, who expertly put all our products together with loving care. Love makes a family. The new VOmax is our family, and all of us are now fully alive exuding, “You’ve never seen us like this before!” pride.

Now, for the literal lemon and how to turn it into fresh lemonade. Just click this link or picture below for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe that shows how to do that both with the traditional amount of sugar and also with reduced sugar – that’s the way I have it now. Great stuff!

Bottom line: no matter how sour the lemon, there’s always a way to turn that bad boy around to something positively sweet.

June 6th, 2018

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Cycling, Cycling Food, Running, Running Food

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A Friend’s Genuine Cancer Note and Fresh Ginger Mint Tea – Super Easy Hot or Cold

The tea you see above: great stuff I drink just about everyday and look forward to after rides preparing for a now annual Bicycles Battling Cancer, Ride to Remember, and other rides that add charitable purpose to my daily joy of cycling – and now, running.

Regarding cancer charity efforts, I’m not a big Facebook guy, but last year about this time a Westborough friend I’ve known since our kids were in elementary school laid down a post that, as soon as I read the first few words, made me want to read what you see below, all of which she wrote beautifully.

“After chemotherapy treatment, it’s true that it takes years to feel alive… with the side effects of the chemotherapy and radiation, you will never be back to 100% because of the weakened immune system.
Sure, in the most difficult moments of life you realize who your real friends are or the people who really appreciate you.

Unfortunately, like most friendships, FB friends will leave you in the middle of a story. They’ll publish an “enjoyed” for the story, but unfortunately they don’t really read your message when they see it’s long.

More than half may have stopped reading. Some may have gone to the next post on your news feed.

I have decided to publish this message in support of the families of friends and relatives who have fought this terrible disease until the end…

Now, I focus on those who take the time to read this message until the end… a little test, if you like, just to see who reads, and who shares it without reading.

If you’ve already read everything, choose “like” so I can thank you on your profile.

Cancer is a very invasive and destructive enemy of our bodies. After the end of the treatment, the body remains devastated. Recovery from the damage caused by the treatment of the disease is a very long process.

Please, in honor of a family member or a friend who died of cancer, or still fighting cancer, copy and paste this as a post on your FB.

How many times have we heard others say: “if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me, I’ll be there to help you”. so i bet most people who saw this post (maybe even Reading until the end) will publish, to show your support to the family / friend who can wrestle.

Copy and paste – do not share this message.

I’d like to know who I can count on to take a minute of your day and really read this. When you finish this, you write “done” in the comments. Done for a friend.”

That was the post: clear and written with true courage and strength. I can’t tell you I know what it’s like or how she feels. All I can do is offer help to enable you to empower yourself to take charge of your life by enjoying life-promoting foods – there are tons of them that taste amazingly good – and promoting moving your body. Diet and exercise are the two primary contributors to improved quality of life and disease prevention.

Here’s a recipe for ginger mint tea that I drink daily – sure, I vary the flavor by adding other anti-inflammatory ingredients, just as you can.

Ride, run, and, most importantly, live on!

June 3rd, 2018

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Grains

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Quinoa Power Bar Picture Book Recipe

Not too long ago, I came upon a recipe for rice cakes (nothing like the puck-shaped, crunchy variety you find on grocery shelves) put together by pro-cycling Team Sky nutritionist Nigel Mitchell to sustain top world-class athletes on long rides. Here’s a shot of Nigel’s rice cake recipe along with…

Nigel Mitchell's Team Sky Rice Cakes Recipe

Homemade Almond Butter: Training Food Extraordinaire – All in Pictures

I’ve always been a big fan of almond butter: great flavor and texture, terrific energy sustainer. Years ago, when my favorite vendor of that almond butter – and many other favorite food products, Trader Joe’s, experienced a recall and then was only able to dole out cases of new almond butter the way Apple doles out new versions of its iPhone, a Trader Joe’s salesman I’d gotten to know asked me quite bluntly, “Do you have a food processor?”

Chewy Whole Grain Pancakes – All in Pictures

Last post showed how to make the best of a cooking fail as I tried to develop a whole grain pancake recipe that I’d forgotten I’d already developed last year. Memory’s great – when it works.

Here’s how that chewy whole grain pancake turned out last year.

Then, I topped a piece of that pancake with nut butter and a pre-cooked fruit topping along with…

…fresh and dried fruit, and then…

…kefir, ground flaxseed, and a good shot of honey.

Click any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture book recipe – and then lay whatever you want on that finished pancake to make it all yours.

May 20th, 2018

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Pancakes

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Whole Grain Pancakes, Part Negative 1 – In Pictures

Memory’s a great thing, especially when you forget.

I’ve been posting a series of cycling training foods for the Bicycles Battling Cancer ride coming up June 10th out of Marlborough, MA, and thought it’d be great to put together a whole grain pancake made with some leftover brown rice, steel cut oats, and bulgur wheat I’d made recently.

And that’s exactly what I did yesterday morning, combining an egg, vanilla extract, the whole grains I just mentioned, ground cinnamon, and raisins. – all to come up with this -…

…not quite a cohesive pancake. No problem. Next time, I told myself, “Just add some flour and maybe some nut butter”. Should work great.

And then I checked my notes while putting this post together and saw I’d actually made and shot a pancake exactly like that with all parts in place called “Improvised Chewy Whole Grain Pancakes” last August. Excellent!

So, why show what I did today here? Because even fails can taste great. I just put what I had in the pan in a bowl and topped that with a spoon of almond-peanut butter, some quickly cooked apple-mango-cranberry topping, dried fruit, kefir, ground flaxseed, and a shot of honey.

All good and plenty of fuel to keep me going for a 30+ mile good-paced training ride on the bike. Next time: the recipe I forgot to remember – all in pictures.

May 14th, 2018

Blog, Breakfast, Cereal, Cycling Food, Fitness Food

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Supercharged Oatmeal – Great Training Fuel!

Here’s how to vary the flavor and supercharge oatmeal by adding protein and some fat to keep you fueled and satisfied for any kind of endurance athletic or physically demanding activity. First, though, a couple quick notes:

1. Flavor and taste – most important – are exceptionally personal. The ingredients you see below work great together – for me – but my taste is not your taste. For example, you’ll see in the picture below that I use plain nonfat Greek yogurt, which I love for its flavor, thick texture, and high protein content. You, however, might not like Greek yogurt – or any yogurt at all for that matter – and that’s ok. Skip it, replace it with something else – and do the same for any other ingredient you see below to make your simple to exciting oatmeal all yours. Read more »