Running Food | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Archive for the ‘Running Food’ Category

March 22nd, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Running Food, Sports Nutrition

Comments Off

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.

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

…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.

March 14th, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Running Food, Snacks

Comments Off

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.

March 4th, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food, Nutrition, Nuts, Running Food

Comments Off

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.

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

February 28th, 2022

Blog, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Grains, Nutrition, Running, Running Food, Snacks

Comments Off

Quinoa Power Bar Picture Book Directions

Killer North Carolina cycling & quinoa power bars the 3 to the right of “dude” left (me) haven’t yet tried (next ride, men!)

A few terrific cycling buds asked me on a ride this weekend if I have any recipes for power bars. I do: Quinoa Power Bars and Banana Nut Butter Power Bars.

The keys to a good power bar: a mix of simple and complex carbohydrates that your body breaks down quickly for immediate burn, healthy fats and protein that take longer to break down for sustained energy burn – and killer good flavor! Both the quinoa and banana nut butter bars provide exactly that.

First, quinoa power bars because I just updated that recipe yesterday with relatively new nutritional information and directions showing how to grind whole chia seeds to get the most out of them. I’ll update the banana nut butter bars next.

Click this link or any picture on this page for step-by-step quinoa power bar picture book directions.

February 18th, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Pasta, Running Food, Videos

Comments Off

How to Cook High Protein-High Fiber Pasta Picture Book and Video Directions

Picture book and video directions show how to cook fantastically versatile high protein-high fiber pasta

Just put out this 4 minute YouTube video showing how to cook high protein-high fiber pasta using a combination of black soy bean and edamame (young, green soybean) pasta.

Why high protein-high fiber pasta? First: flavor always rules here, and just like traditional wheat-based pasta, you can add flavor to it any way you like. I’ll show examples in future posts like what you see below: full-on flavorful high protein-high fiber pasta with fruit and mozzarella cheese.

High protein-high fiber pasta with fruit and mozzarella cheese

Second, but most importantly for your body, just about everybody could use more fiber and high quality protein in their diet. Click this link or the picture below for a quick take on fiber and what it does for us.

What is fiber and why do we need it in our diet?

You can also click this link or the picture below for How to Cook High Protein-High Fiber Pasta picture book directions.

February 4th, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Pasta, Running Food

Comments Off

Full-On Flavorful Lighter Pasta Alfredo Picture Book Recipe

Last couple food posts showed how to cook traditional wheat-based pasta and high protein-high fiber pasta to perfection – very easily.

You’re probably well aware that there’s nothing much more flavorful than the combination of freshly cooked pasta, cheese and cream you get with fettuccine – or any shape pasta – Alfredo. The only problem, Alfredo sauce is usually very heavy, and the culprit is heavy cream.

There’s an easy fix to that. Just substitute unsweetened evaporated milk for heavy cream. As shown in the label comparisons below, ounce for ounce (1 ounce = 2 tablespoons), evaporated milk has fewer than half the calories and 1/5th the fat of heavy cream, though I find the cooking properties and flavor qualities to be the same, especially for a dish like this.

You’ll also notice in the ingredients pictured below that I use garlic and a shot of balsamic vinegar to pump up the flavor, which is entirely optional when you make this dish. Flavor always rules!

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

January 20th, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Pasta, Running Food, Side Dishes

Comments Off

How to Cook Pasta to Perfection Picture Book Directions

Pasta: loved by most, goes with just about anything, and is incredibly easy to make.

First, what is “perfectly cooked” pasta? It’s pasta that’s cooked “al dente”, which is Italian for “to the teeth” and means that the pasta still has a little uncooked whiteness at the core of the cooked pasta piece, as (almost) shown below, which makes the pasta slightly firm, not mushy, to chew.

Here are the keys to cooking pasta to perfection:

Knowing how to measure pasta serving sizes
Heating water to a rapid boil before adding pasta
Using the correct amount of water and knowing how long to cook the pasta

Serving size: Plan to use 1 ounce of dry pasta per person as a side dish and 2 ounces of dry pasta per person as a main dish. To get a visual idea of what 1 or 2 ounces of dry pasta looks like in your hands as well as how much 1 ounce of dry pasta makes when cooked, see the photos directly below.

Here’s how rapidly boiling water should look before adding pasta: The photo on the left shows how real rapidly boiling water should look before putting pasta in the pot to ensure that the cooking time you use will give you the result you want. The photo on the right shows what I call a “soda fizz bubble” that is a clear sign the water is not yet hot enough to cook pasta.

Amount of water needed to cook pasta and pasta cooking time: I use about half the water recommended in the chart below – and have gotten the thumbs up for that from Italian cooks. I also subtract 1 minute from the pasta package recommended cooking time, even if the package cooking instructions, like the one below, specify an “al dente” cooking time, to ensure my pasta still has a “to the teeth” slightly chewy texture.

Click this link or any picture on this page for How to Cook Pasta to Perfection picture book directions.

December 17th, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fruit, Running Food

Comments Off

Pineapple Coconut Topping on Pancake Picture Book Recipe

What you see here sure works great as is but is really intended to inspire your fully flavorful imagination.

When I put together the last few posts that showed how to make quickly cooked fresh fruit toppings, I’ve said that they go great on pancakes, waffles, French toast, over warm or cold cereal – and much more. This post is about providing a concrete example that works with warm pineapple coconut topping on a leftover pancake.

Now, though the recipe you can get here works great as is – I’m sure a big fan – the real purpose here is to inspire your imagination to use this or any fruit topping in a way that satisfies your own personal taste.

For more details, click this link or either picture on this page for a complete pineapple coconut topping on pancake picture book recipe. Then use what you see in that recipe to fire your imagination!

December 11th, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit, Pancakes, Running Food, Special Recipes

Comments Off

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.

December 6th, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit, Running Food, Special Recipes

Comments Off

3 Easy Picture Book Variations on Warm Apple Cranberry Fruit Topping

3 easy-to-make variations on the warm apple cranberry fruit topping recipe theme

Last post showed how to make a warm apple cranberry fruit topping that goes great on warm or cold cereal, pancakes, French toast, waffles and much more. I mentioned in that post that the recipe is a base or building block recipe that can be easily varied by using different ingredients to meet your personal taste. This post shows three specific examples that work great as is and can also be used to fire your imagination.

The first two recipes are direct riffs on warm apple cranberry fruit topping. The third is berry based.

Apple, Kiwi, Cranberry Topping: This recipe just adds kiwi to the topping, which you can substitute with any other fruit: pear, grapes, berries and more. Click this link or the picture to get the recipe.

Here are 3 easy-to-make variations on the warm apple cranberry fruit topping recipe theme

2. Apple and Papaya Topping: Quickly cooking papaya is my favorite, most flavorful way of eating this tropical fruit. The recipe for this topping that you can get by clicking this link again is just an example of exchanging one ingredient for another either for the fun of it (I mean that) or to suit your personal taste.

3. Warm Berry and Kiwi Fruit Topping: This is an example of a more dramatic variation on the apple, cranberry topping theme. Again, you can substitute the berries or any fruit in this recipe to suit your specific taste. Click this link or the picture below for a picture book recipe.