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…

…a shot of Nigel himself along with a Team Sky rider eating on the move.

The ingredients you see in the recipe above: short grain rice, sugar, a few flavorings (vanilla, ground cinnamon and nutmeg), some coconut oil and a good shot of cream cheese all make sense, especially for top athletes out for energy-demanding endurance rides at high speed. Actually, the recipe reminded me very much of the quinoa and fat “war balls” that Incan armies used to eat on long marches hundreds of years ago.

I then got in the kitchen and combined the two ideas to come up with these quinoa power bars that use protein-packed quinoa instead of rice and replace cream cheese, coconut oil, and whatever fat the Incan’s used with nut butter, which contains a combination of healthy fats and protein. Here’s a shot of the ingredients needed to make quinoa power bars, which, as always, you can modify to suit your taste and/or nutritional needs.

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