Archive for the ‘Fitness Food’ Category

My Dear Ol’ Mom’s “JIC” and Nut Butter and Cookie Spread Road Crepe

My dear ol’ Mom “live life ‘bright eyed & bushy tailed’ and with compassion” role model had quite a few family famous lines. One was “Take it with you, JIC”, aka “Just in Case”, which she almost always qualified with a blunt “It’s better to have it and not need it than not have it and need it”. Yes, ma’am.

This past Saturday I sure heard her voice between my ears while prepping for a crunch on the bike with my good Hickory brothers. I’d actually started that prep the night before by making fresh crepes – all easy (click this link for picture book directions). I then laid on a good spread of both nut butter and cookie spread and topped that with raisins (click this link for step-by-step picture directions – and skip adding yogurt & whipped cream if you’re packing that crepe as shown below).

Crepe with nut butter, cookie spread & raisins packed in a zip bag for a bike ride

In the background of the 2-shot picture above, you can see what I had for breakfast before the morning ride: fruit with yogurt, jam and dried fruit along with 1/4th of a toasted waffle with nut butter, cookie spread and raisins that I topped later with a shot of yogurt and whipped cream – and very little coffee. I thought I had time. I didn’t.

As I’ve mentioned before, a breakfast like the one above almost always keeps me completely fueled for my rides. Same thing here. We stopped for coffee halfway out. I had an extra large with milk but didn’t eat anything – I wasn’t even slightly hungry – and was just fine for the whole ride as mapped out above.

If my dear ol’ mom could’ve seen me, she would’ve smiled, “Well, at least you had it, sonny. JIC!” Ma’, you bet – and thanks! (Wow, that last line makes my eyes swim – for good reason!)

Fresh Crepes with Nut Butter, Jam, Yogurt & Whipped Cream

Last post – I know, quite a while ago – showed how to make fresh crepes, which are just as easy to make as flapjack pancakes but are way more versatile, as shown with just a few examples above.

Whether you use your own crepes or pre-made store bought crepes, the top middle version, filled with nut butter and jam and topped with yogurt and whipped cream is very easy to make, killer flavorful and great power fuel for any kind of strenuous activity because of its combination of simple “get up and go!” sugars from the jam and cookie spread (optional), complex carbs from the flour in the crepe, protein from the egg in the crepe, Greek yogurt and nut butter, and fats from nut butter, yogurt (if you use whole milk yogurt) and whipped cream.

Here’s what I use to put together a crepe like this: homemade crepe (which can be substituted with a prepared, store bought crepe), then from left to right: whole milk Greek yogurt, almond butter, cookie spread (optional – I love both added flavor and light crunch!), jam, raisins and whipped cream.

Crepe with nut butter, jam, yogurt and whipped cream ingredients

Start by spreading nut butter, cookie spread (optional) and jam down the middle of the crepe.

Spreading nut butter, cookie spread and jam down the middle of a crepe

I fold over one of the crepe thirds and add a dab of nut butter to the middle of that third and then fold over the opposing third, as shown below, to keep the crepe folded in place when I warm it in the microwave oven.

Using nut butter to keep the folded crepe thirds together when warmed in the microwave oven

Warm the filled crepe in the microwave oven for 20 seconds.

Warming the filled crepe for 20 seconds in the microwave oven

Finish buy topping the warmed crepe with yogurt and whipped cream.

Finishing with a good shot of yogurt and whipped cream

This crepe just by itself is great. Here’s how I have it before a good crunch on the bike that keeps me satisfied completely with no need to refuel on the fly for distances of 30-50+ miles with plenty of North Carolina hills along the way.

Pre-ride crepe with nut butter, cookie spread, jam, yogurt and whipped cream

Improvising: Top Gun Maverick and Fresh Spinach & Berry Salad S2E

If you’ve seen the new, fantastically fun Top Gun Maverick movie, you know the “Mav” is all about improvising on the fly and living to fight another day.

If you’re a regular here, you also know I consider improvisation the spice of life, and that spice of life is all about fun.

Here’s an example. Last post showed how to make this very simple but fully flavorful fresh spinach and berries salad – great summertime stuff!

Now, here are some ingredients you can use to take that same salad from simple to exciting (S2E) all very easily.

Sure, these ingredients look like a lot. But don’t let that bother you. They just represent a range of choices you can pick from or substitute with anything you like to make your salad all your own regarding flavor and dietary needs.

Click this link or the picture below for picture book directions and,…

…back to Top Gun – and fun. The “Mav” might have the bad guys – and the Navy – but he’s got nothing on us roadies. Ha!

Whole Grain Cereal with Fresh Fruit & Kefir Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to use Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Cereal to put together a fully flavorful energy igniting/energy sustaining breakfast bowl. In that post I mentioned that recipes are just suggested guides that can be altered to meet your specific taste and dietary needs.

And, even though that post featured Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Cereal as the main ingredient, you certainly can make that recipe – or something very much like it – using any cereal you like. True to that word, here’s what I’ll call a “twist on a twist” based on a breakfast I had in Germany years ago, “Bircher Muesli mit Obst und Yoghurt” (Muesli with fruit and yogurt), that usually comes in two separate bowls, as shown here.

It is certainly easy to see from the ingredients I use below to make what I call Whole Grain Cereal with Fresh Fruit & Kefir that my interpretation of the recipe is quite a bit different than what I had in Germany.

And, that’s exactly where the fun comes in – and all it takes is a little imagination and, sure, some risk taking, to make the most of that fun.

Click this link or any picture on this page for the Whole Grain Cereal with Fresh Fruit & Kefir Picture Book Recipe that you can use as is or vary however you like.

Next post: what exactly is kefir and why do I feature it so much?

Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Cereal Breakfast Bowl Picture Book Recipe

Here’s one very easy, fully flavorful way I use the Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Cereal featured in the last post to put together a “fire me up and keep me going!” pre-ride sustained energy breakfast bowl made with…

…these ingredients.

I say “pre-ride” because cycling is what I do most, but this breakfast bowl works just as well to prepare for any physical activity: run, hike, gym, anything that requires sustained energy.

Regarding the recipe itself, as mentioned in the picture book directions you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page,…

…what you see for ingredients here are only suggestions intended to inspire your imagination to make your own breakfast bowl all your own.

Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Cereal Picture Book Recipe

Last post was about how to repurpose a failed recipe. The Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Bars I tried to make didn’t work out as intended as solid bars that would stay together in bar form if taken along on a bike ride, run or hike. But the crumbling result, packed with fully flavorful ingredients, sure worked fine as a robust cereal rich with both “get up and go” fast fuel complex carbohydrates and energy sustaining protein and healthy fats – and tastes great!

The recipe for Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Cereal uses these ingredients…

…and is actually two recipes in one as it shows first how to cook quinoa if you want to use quinoa and don’t already have it cooked when you start putting the power cereal together.

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete picture book recipe.

Next post will show how I use this cereal to power up before a good bike ride.

More soon!

More Specific Banana Nut Butter Bar Ingredient Details

Timing can be great!

Last post earlier this week discussed what’s really in an ingredient and what that means to you, especially if you have dietary restrictions. Then, entirely coincidentally, this week I got a text from a good cycling bud asking whether to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes and what type of chocolate chips to use to make Banana Nut Butter Power Bars. He couched his question with a note that his skills are pretty much limited to toasting Pop Tarts. Excellent on all fronts!

I loved the question! Right away, I tore down the old recipe to revise it with this more descriptive list of ingredients and…

…these new directions that you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page.

Always glad to make changes – that’s “learning and adapting” life in action. And what I like best is hearing what works and doesn’t work for people actually using any recipe I put on this site so that I can help make your work – and mine – in the kitchen as easily fully flavorful as possible. That’s life enriched!

Power Bar Sandwich Picture Book Recipe

Very easy to make, fully flavorful, energy sustaining power bar sandwich

A good friend, George, popped me this power bar meme the other day.

The reason for disappointment: just look at the ingredients listed on a random search for power/protein bar nutrition labels.

Sample of commercially available power bar ingredient labels

About the only flavorful – and potentially real – ingredients in the above three labels combined are organic cashew butter, chocolate, peanuts and peanut butter.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

For the past 2 weeks, since two good cycling buds, Sean and Eddie, asked on a ride about making homemade power bars, I’ve been reworking older power bar recipes and working up new ones – and have sure learned a lot.

The most important lesson learned – that sometimes came the hard way: make is fully flavorful as quickly and easily as possible. And that’s how I approached this very easy-to-make power bar sandwich made with only the fully flavorful and full-on energy sustaining ingredients shown below: whole grain bread; nut butter; choice of honey, jam (fig butter) or cookie spread; fresh fruit; raisins; and chocolate chips.

Power bar sandwich ingredients

Regarding proof under fire, the power bar sandwich you see here – with coffee -…

Power bar sandwich

…sustained me easily, with no need to refuel on the fly, for a 40+ mile North Carolina bike ride.

Click this link or any picture on this page for power bar sandwich picture book directions.

Banana Nut Butter Power Bars, Part 2: Boosted Flavor

Here’s how to take banana nut butter power bar flavor from good to great!

No doubt you’ve had the experience; You bite into something and think, “Yah, that’s good, but it could really be better if…”

That’s exactly what I thought when I tasted a fresh batch of the banana nut butter bars I posted recently – and you know the deal here: flavor rules. And not that those bars didn’t taste good. They did. But good isn’t good enough. So, right away, I made another fresh batch with adjusted ingredient quantities, as shown in blue below.

Here’s how a bowl full of flavor boosted banana nut butter power bars came back after coffee with my good Hickory buds.

Click this link or any picture on this page to download the freshly revised picture book recipe.

Banana Nut Butter Power Bar Picture Book Recipe


These potently flavorful, easy to make banana nut butter power bars work great for dessert or as an on-the-go sport power bar. As you see in the picture above, I prefer making them in the toaster oven for ease and speed, though the picture book directions linked to this post also show how to bake them in a standard kitchen oven.

Regarding the ingredients shown above and below, I know it looks like a lot – but don’t panic. The spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg) along with vanilla extract are the cornerstones of the full flavor of these bars. If you don’t have some of those spices, just use a little more of what you do have. You can also use juice (apple cider works great) instead of coffee and substitute ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, and whole grain cereal with any other ground similar type of ingredient, like ground nuts or your favorite cereal. The bottom line: imagination and available ingredients are your only limits.

Banana Nut Butter Power Bar IngredientsClick this link or any picture on this page for a complete, easy-to-follow step-by-step picture book recipe.

Designed by Free Wordpress Themes and Sponsored by Curry and Spice