Archive for the ‘Pancakes’ Category

July 11th, 2023 Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Drinks (no alcohol), Fitness Food, Food & Health, Fruit, Fruit Pancakes, Hiking Food, Nutrition, Pancakes, Running Food, Sports Nutrition Comments Off on Rocket Fuel Breakfast to Power Your Body in Motion

Rocket Fuel Breakfast to Power Your Body in Motion

Rockets, power, motion! Please tell me you find that “let’s go!” motivating! When it comes to fuel to power endurance exercise/any physical activity to keep your body in motion, the key is making sure to take in fats, protein, some carbohydrates and fluids – and having them all with full-on flavor.

Here’s what I had recently for the hop on the bike shown above with terrific good friends.

The fats, from whole milk Greek yogurt, whole milk kefir, almond-peanut butter and freshly made whipped cream, combined with protein from egg and whole grain flour in the fruit pancake, Greek yogurt and kefir gave me slow-burning sustained energy. The carbohydrates: a little sugar in my iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water drink, cookie spread on my pancake slice and fruit, dried fruit and jam in my fruit and yogurt mix, gave me instant energy to start my ride. And front-loading fluids with 30-40 ounces of iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water got me going well hydrated so that I just needed to top off with water while I rode, and the potassium in coconut water helped both prevent cramps and improve energy metabolism.

Of course, everybody’s body and fuel requirements are different, and only YOU know YOU. That means it’s most important to pay attention to what YOU eat and drink and how that affects YOUR physical performance, no matter what kind of physical activity YOU do. Still, though the fine details differ person to person, the base components are the same: carbohydrates for quick burning energy, a good shot of fat and protein for long-burning, sustained energy and plenty of fluids to start off well hydrated.

The next few posts, starting with iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water (killer good!), will show how to make each of the 3 pieces shown above that I have regularly – and always with a little improvised variety for flavor fun, before hopping out on the bike.

More soon!

April 19th, 2023 Blog, Breakfast, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit Pancakes, Hiking Food, How To & Tips, Pancakes, Running Food Comments Off on On the Road Improvised “On the Fly” Meals

On the Road Improvised “On the Fly” Meals

Top left & right: In DC for National Bike Summit. Bottom left: riding Fiesta Island with good Navy bud, Stormin’ Walker. Bottom right: “on the fly” improvised fruit pancake.

Been on the road the past 3+ weeks. First to DC as a new BikeWalkNC rep. to advocate with League of American Bicyclists at their National Bike Summit for improved road safety for all (For why, click 5 Reasons US Roads Are Dangerous for Pedestrians and Cyclists). Now in Monterey, California, to attend the country’s largest bike festival, Sea Otter. Have had almost all my meals “on the fly” (aka: completely improvised) whether I’ve stayed in Airbnb’s, like the one shown below, or with good friends and family.

Here’s an “on the fly” example. Was in San Diego last week at my Navy big brother’s place and made this improvised strawberry, blackberry and banana pancake for breakfast.

I’ve certainly made lots of fruit pancakes but never one with strawberries, bananas and blackberries. No big deal.

The keys to improvising are having a good, reliable, easy to remember base recipe and trusting your taste to make what you want. Also no big deal – but a lot of fun.

My base recipe for fruit pancakes: apple pancake. If you’re an apple fan at all, I think you’ll find that pancake both fully-flavor-satisfying and one that will let answer the question, “I wonder how it would taste if I made it with _______?” As soon as you ask that question – and you’re willing to take a little leap in faith – you’re off to the “on the fly” improvised races!

July 28th, 2022 Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Pancakes, Special Recipes Comments Off on Killer Versatile Active Life Power Food: Fresh Crepes with Picture Book Recipe

Killer Versatile Active Life Power Food: Fresh Crepes with Picture Book Recipe

Though France is well known for the premier cycling events of the year, the men’s and women’s gutsy, rip fast Tour de France, they are even better known for full-on food flavor.

One of my favorite go-to French foods is fresh crepes, which are, no kidding, just as easy to make as flapjack pancakes but much more flavorfully versatile and a great physical activity power source.

Here are the needed ingredients.

Crepes Made Easy ingredients

Click this link or the photo below to see a short, thumbnail sketch video showing how I made fresh crepes to take on a bike trip last weekend.

Click this link for a complete, very easy to use step-by-step picture book Crepes Made Easy recipe.

Crepes Made Easy Picture Book Recipe

December 11th, 2021 Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit, Pancakes, Running Food, Special Recipes Comments Off on Picture Book Warm Pineapple Coconut Topping Recipe

Picture Book Warm Pineapple Coconut Topping Recipe

This warm pineapple coconut topping is just an example of how you can easily improvise on the warm fruit topping theme.

Last two posts showed how to make warm fruit toppings that go great over hot or cold cereal, with yogurt, on pancakes, waffles or French toast. Your imagination is your only limit.

This post is about a variation on the fruit topping theme I’d never tried before but put together on-the-fly for breakfast with my good Hickory, NC, buds a little before Thanksgiving. The key to this warm pineapple coconut topping recipe is using a fully ripened pineapple, and the picture book recipe you can get here shows exactly how to check a pineapple for ripeness and ripen a pineapple that will most likely be under-ripe when you buy it at the store.

Here’s what you need to to make a warm pineapple coconut topping.

Click this link or any picture on this page for this warm pineapple coconut topping picture book recipe.

Next post will show an example of how I use this topping and toppings like it to power me through a morning that almost always includes a good rip on the bike.

November 3rd, 2021 Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fruit Pancakes, Pancakes Comments Off on Fresh Apple Pancake: Full-On Fall Flavor All in Pictures

Fresh Apple Pancake: Full-On Fall Flavor All in Pictures

Fresh Apple Pancake

Apples are the iconic fall fruit, and there’s not much more comforting and inspiring on a chilly morning than to wake up to the warm smell of cooked apples and cinnamon!

The hardest part about making this fresh, full-on flavorful apple pancake – that’s nothing like a syrup soaking, sugar spike & crash inducing flapjack – is turning the pancake from fruit side up to fruit side down and then back to fruit side up to serve on a plate.

No problem.

The step-by-step directions you can get here show how to make those turns as easily and safely as possible using either a pan top (as shown below) or large plate (shown in the recipe).

Flipping Fresh Apple Pancake

Here’s what you need for ingredients and…

Ingredients Needed to Make Fresh Apple Pancake

…equipment.

Equipment Needed to Make Fresh Apple Pancake

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe.

Fresh Apple Pancake Step-By-Step Picture Book Recipe

February 27th, 2021 Blog, Breakfast, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Nutrition, One Bowl Meals, Pancakes, Running Food Comments Off on How to Take Scrambled Pancakes From Simple to Exciting!

How to Take Scrambled Pancakes From Simple to Exciting!

Last post showed how to make scrambled pancakes, which are really just modified scrambled eggs with pumped up flavor (flavor rules!) and nutrition.

This post shows how to take those scrambled pancakes from simple to exciting…

…using only “commonly” found ingredients, like those shown below. I put commonly in parentheses because ingredients that might be common to me – or anyone else in particular – might not be common to you. As always, what you see below are only suggestions to stir up your imagination and give you a sense of technique. Use any added ingredients you want to take your scrambled pancakes from simple to exciting.

With your portion of scrambled pancakes in a bowl either fresh off the stove or warmed in the microwave oven, start topping with a good spoonful of peanut, almond or any nut butter (to make your own in advance, click this link), a good spoon of jam (honey or maple syrup), and 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt (I like non-fat Greek yogurt for its flavor and potent protein content).

Add your choice of quickly rinsed fresh fruit. I’m using pitted fresh cherries (in the winter, from Chile – killer flavor and crisp crunch!) and blueberries.

Add any dried fruit – optional but something I always do. I’m using chopped dried dates, but you can substitute with raisins, dried cranberries, dried prunes – you get the idea.

Finish off with a good shot of kefir, whipped cream or anything you like.

And that is all there is to taking easy, completely improvised scrambled pancakes from simple to exciting, also by improvising to satisfy your drive for full on flavor.

As I mentioned in the last post, that you see above just as is powered me through the 40 mile bike ride shown below at a decent pace – no problem at all, except for keeping up with Josh, Greg and hammer-fast Juan.

May 22nd, 2018 Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Pancakes Comments Off on Chewy Whole Grain Pancakes – All in Pictures

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 Comments Off on Whole Grain Pancakes, Part Negative 1 – In Pictures

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.

November 1st, 2017 Blog, Breakfast, Fruit Pancakes, Pancakes Comments Off on Full-on Flavorful Variation on an Apple Pancake Theme

Full-on Flavorful Variation on an Apple Pancake Theme

You have to fuel up before you can ride on. And, man, I dig that most excellent part of the cycling life!

Last week I brought the apple blueberry pancake above to my good buds at VOmax, who I’ve partnered with to put out the Breitz! bright, bold & cool to wear line of cycling and running wear like what you see below. Adding blueberries or any fruit, dried fruit – anything you like – to an apple pancake is an easy way to improvise on the root recipe you can get, all in pictures, by clicking any picture on this page. Read more »

December 8th, 2015 Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Pancakes Comments Off on Banana Flax Pancakes – Fully Flavorful, Easy to Make & All in Pictures

Banana Flax Pancakes – Fully Flavorful, Easy to Make & All in Pictures

Banana Flax PancakesThe hardest part of making these full-on flavorful banana flax pancakes – and it’s not that hard to do at all – is flipping them in the pan because there is no fat or oil added to the batter. I, therefore, recommend using a sturdy spatula like the metal-bladed spatula shown here as well as…

Sturdy Spatula

Read more »

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