Tag Archives: recovery recipes

Chilli Chocolate Recovery Bites

Posted on by
Reply

Chilli Chocolate Recovery Bites

Before I go straight to my next recipe, mouth-wateringly delicious Chilli Chocolate Recovery Bites, here’s a quick update on what’s been going on at Go Faster Food over the last few weeks, as it’s been fairly hectic, to say the least…

I’ve had my head down writing and am finally making good progress with my new book, Go Faster Food for Kids, which I’m hoping to launch at the start of the new school year in September 2013.

I’m also been getting heaps of magazine features to write and Q & A’s to comment on, which is great news for Go Faster Food; for 220 Triathlon, Triathlon Plus and Running Fitness this month. Friday was spent in the kitchen doing a photo shoot for my 220 Triathlon monthly recipe slot, with my photographer, Evie; there’s some great recipes to come if you’re a regular 220 reader…and Evie’s images are really appetising.

The talks are going well too. I recently talked on ‘nutrition for race performance’ at BW Cycling, a fantastic new ‘destination’ shop for serious cyclists in Bristol, owned by Xterra World Champ Andy Wadsworth and World and Olympic XC rider, Oli Beckinsale, and ‘practical healthy eating for triathlon’ at the Triathlon Show at Sandown Park, as part of the 220 Triathlon Live! team, where I was rather in awe of being on the same list as one of my all-time heroines, the amazing Chrissie Wellington…still getting over that one!

Chrissie Wellington/Chilli Chocolate Recovery Bites

There’s been some running going on as well! The extremely chilly Tunbridge Wells Half at the end of Feb, and this weekend it’ll be the Reading Half (hopefully a less chilly one), as part of the Mizuno Evos team. I’ll be in my pink evo cursoris, as these are definitely my favourites; with a little cushioning, they tend to propel you forward, I feel faster and lighter in them…and I love the colour!

Mizuno Evos Cursoris and LevitasSo, now to the latest recipe, which, I must say went down extremely well at the Triathlon Show (I usually take edible examples along to my talks!) Chilli Chocolate Recovery Bites. Find out why they are so good for recovery and how to make them… click here for recipe.…

 

Download the FuelSmart Series

Optimise your performance with Go Faster Food FuelSmart.


Nutritionally-formulated meal plans and delicious recipes to help you go further, faster.

FuelSmart for Race Day
 

Not so naughty but very nice desserts

Posted on by
Reply

Not so naughty but very nice desserts

I’ve just been sent this tasty dessert recipe post from Holland & Barrett today. Greek Yoghurt with Honey and Lychee and Lime Sorbet; simple, nutritious and delicious desserts which make excellent post workout snacks, packed with carbs, protein and vitamins to replace depleted glycogen and help your muscles repair and recover.

 


Healthy food recipes  can scare some people into thinking that they aren’t tasty or interesting, especially when it comes to sweet desserts and so today’s post is all about

changing this perception! It’s quite a common thought for people to consider pudding as a ‘treat’ and a chance to be ‘a bit naughty’ but that doesn’t mean that your sweet course can’t still be a treat.

There are so many desserts out there that are healthy and yet still taste just as good – if not better – than other puddings considered a treat. Here are two puddings perfect for solitary dining or if you’re entertaining guests

Greek Yoghurt and honey

If you’re looking for a quick and easy alternative to ice-cream then you’ve found your match. This dish will take you seconds to prepare so it’s perfect if you’re craving something sweet after your evening meal.

You’ll need:

  • 200g Low-fat Greek yoghurt
  • 3 tsp honey, drizzled on top
  • A handful of walnuts

Place the yoghurt in a bowl and drizzle the honey on top. If you would prefer the honey mixed in, spoon together. Sprinkle a handful of walnuts on top.

Greek yoghurt is low-fat, high in protein and really thick and creamy so you won’t feel like you’re skimping on taste. Honey is a fantastic way to naturally sweeten up any dish, as it contains natural sugars. If you don’t like nuts, swap them for blueberries, strawberries, bananas or any fruit combo you like – it’s delicious.

Lychee and Lime Sorbet

This dish is perfect for refreshing the palette and satisfying your taste buds, and because it sounds so exotic it promises to wow your dinner guests.

You’ll need:

(Serves 6)

  •  3x 400g can of lychee in syrup
  • 50g caster sugar
  • Two egg whites
  • Zest from two limes
  • Juice from one lime
  1. Drain the syrup from the lychees into a pan and add the sugar. Dissolve over a gentle heat and bring to the boil for one minute.
  2. Use a food processor to blend the lychees until they are very finely chopped. Add the lime juice and syrup. Tip into a container and freeze for at least six hours until frozen.
  3. With an electric whisk, beat the egg white and lime zest until thick, pale and smooth. Take the frozen mix out of the freezer and break it up with the whisk. Fold in the egg white and lime zest mixture. Freeze overnight.
  4. Serve and scatter the remaining lime zest over for effect.

The lychee contains an impressive list of vitamins and the fruit is low in calories, and egg white is high in protein which makes this dish a great option for dessert.

Hopefully this post has helped alter the stipulation that healthy desserts are boring and dull, and to any healthy food-phobs out there – try it and see what you think!


Passion for Pancakes

Posted on by
1

blueberry pancakestrackfieldandroad.tv are coming round to tomorrow to film me in the Go Faster Food kitchen; I feel a pancake theme coming on. I do feel a bit guilty when Pancake Day comes around each year. We all know that pancakes are to signify the beginning of the 40 days of Lent, traditionally a way of using up the rich food in the larder such as eggs and milk, but I’m afraid, the Go Faster Food family eats pancakes all year round. Why? Because they are delicious, dead easy to make, fabulous recovery food after a long run, and always feel like a decadent treat. The word ‘fasting’ just doesn’t enter the vocabulary I’m afraid! A horrible thought and a horrible word.

Pancakes are a great food for athletes; they make a fantastic post exercise recovery treat and are a fun and tasty way to get some high G.I. carbohydrate and protein into your system after a serious workout. Carbohydrate to replenish your glycogen stores quickly and protein to keep your muscles healthy and help repair any muscle trauma. The quicker you start the recovery process the better, as it’s immediately after exercise that your body will absorb what it needs most efficiently.

What’s really good about pancakes is that you can make the mixture before you leave the house, dream about them when the going gets tough on your run/bike ride and then cook them on your return (or better, get someone to cook them for you) even while you’re doing your stretches.

Of course there are lots of different types of pancake, all delicious. You’ve got the flat light pancakes we see more often in the UK, most delicious in their simplest form with just lemon and sugar, then there are the risen, fluffy american-style pancakes (see my American Blueberry pancake recipe in Go Faster Food), , and if you want to be really sophisticated there are wholesome breton-style ‘galettes au sarassin’, made with buckwheat flour.  Whichever you prefer, all you really need is a basic mix of flour, eggs and milk; you can then add oats, spices, fruit, raising agents to customise your pancake. Just make sure you use the best quality ingredients and really really fresh free range eggs.

Apple power pancakes (good for pre-run endurance and packed with vitamins and oats for endurance)

Breton Buckwheat pancakes (recovery, or as a light supper with a green salad; these work well with savoury fillings such as ham and cheese, smoked salmon and creme fraich, goats cheese and parma ham)

American Blueberry pancakes (post-run recovery, carbo-loading, weekend brunch with friends)

Hot Oatcakes with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (light as a feather, wholesome with wholemeal flour for a special post-exercise treat)

For the lightest ever English-style pancake  make a batter with about 100g plain four (4 tablespoons), 250ml milk, pinch of salt, 1 egg. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the salt and make a well in the centre. Break the egg into the well and gradually beat in the milk with a wooden spoon, drawing in the flour from the sides to make a smooth batter. Alternatively whizz it all up with an eletric whisk. For the lightest pancakes, my little secret is to add 50 ml of really cold water to the batter mix just before you are ready to start cooking the pancakes.

Heat a knob of butter in a heavy-based frying pan or pancake pan. When it is hot, tip it around the whole base so that it is covered and then pour in just enough batter to thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, until it realeases easily from the bottom and then toss and cook the other side until golden. Transfer to a plate and add you favourite filling. Lemon and sugar, maple syrup and bananas, chocolate sauce (yuk, but kids like it), my home made quince jelly (yum), whatever takes your fancy.

Butternut Squash Cake

Posted on by
2

Whilst playing around with butternut squash recipes I fell upon the idea of grating it up and making a cake, just like you might do with carrot or courgette. It works! In fact, it works really, really well and what’s even more surprising, my daughter, who will normally extract any trace of butternut squash from her meal, absolutely adores it!

I think butternut squash is a fabulous vegetable and an excellent addition to any training diet. Bell-like in shape, it has a beautifully smooth, creamy-coloured skin which protects its dense, rich golden-yellow flesh. Its texture is deliciously soft; its taste sweet, buttery, nutty. It’s hard to believe that as little as 10 years ago few people in the UK barely knew what a butternut squash was. Now it’s widely available and has gradually become a much-loved and versatile staple in our shopping trolleys.

We may consider this beautiful tangerine-hued vegetable as just another starchy ‘comfort food’, but butternut squash is in fact a powerhouse of nutrients. It’s a complex carbohydrate loaded with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which can reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, boost immunity and help the healthy funtion of the reproductive system. It’s low in fat, and rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium. It even contains folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1 and a plethora of essential minerals. Weight Watchers endorses butternut squash as one of its ‘zero foods’ because of its low content of calories and saturated fat.

To cook a butternut squash, peel the skin with a good, sharp vegetable peeler. Cut off the stem and then slice in half lengthwise, from stem to end. Scrape out the seeds and the stringy membrane with a spoon. If you’re roasting or baking squash you don’t need to peel.

Butternut Squash Cake

It’s a rare ocassion that this deliciously moist cake gets iced in my house – it’s always wolfed down as soon as it comes out of the oven. That’s fine! It’s packed with goodness. If you do get to the icing stage you’ll find this cake keeps very well for a few days.

You will need a 20cm round cake tin, greased or lined with greaseproof paper

For the cake

  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 2 eggs
  • 200g butternut squash, peeled and grated
  • 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • juice of 1/2 orange
  • 125g self-raising wholemeal flour, sifted
  • 75g raisins or sultanas
  • ½  tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp salt
  • small handful whole or chopped walnuts to decorate

For the icing

  • 110g full-fat soft cheese
  • 20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 40g icing sugar
  • squeeze of lemon or lime juice

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3–4.
  2. Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, beating well as you add each one.
  4. Fold in the grated butternut squash, raisins and nuts, and add the orange juice.
  5. Fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spice and salt.
  6. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes – you will know the cake is done as the cake comes away from the side of the cake tin and is springy to the touch.
  7. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
  8. Cream the cheese and butter together. Add the icing sugar and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Spread the icing generously over the cake.
  9. Decorate with whole or chopped walnuts.

Try my great pre-event dish for carbo-loading too – butternut squash risotto with maple syrup almonds

Cod wrapped in parma ham with lemony basil salsa

Posted on by
2

Just a quick post about the most delicious, healthy and, most importantly, FAST, 10-minute supper we had tonight. An excellent training meal, cod is an really good, tasty and low fat source of protein. I served it with potatoes in their skins, crushed with a little olive oil and fresh spinach with a little nutmeg and crème fraiche:

Serves 4

  • 4 fillets of line-caught cod
  • 8 slices of parma ham
  • 30g basil leaves
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • dessert spoon capers
  • zest of a lemon plus a little lemon juice
  1. Heat the oven to 200C.
  2. Lay 3 basil leaves onto each cod fillet and season with a little salt and black pepper
  3. Wrap two slices of parma ham around each cod fillet.
  4. Lay the fillets in a baking dish, drizzle with a tbsp olive oil.
  5. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the cod is just cooked through and the parma ham begins to crisp up.
  6. Meanwhile finely chop a handful of basil and the capers. Put this into a small bowl and mix in the lemon zest, a squeeze of lemon juice and another tbsp or two of extra virgin olive oil.
  7. Serve the cod fillets with the basil/caper/lemon zest mix drizzled over.

 

Kasabian Bassist, Chris Edwards in Bristol for Go Faster Food supper!

Posted on by
Reply

On 3rd September Kasabian Bassist, Chris Edwards and his brother Jay start their gruelling MONSTER Lejog cycle challenge from Lands End to John O’Groats in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Lucky me, they’re stopping over at my place in Bristol for a Go Faster Food Supper! So on 6th September, after a little photo shoot with the local press at the Clifton Suspension Bridge,  I’ll be preparing a Go Faster endurance meal special for Chris, Jay and their dad, who is  accompanying them in a support vehicle. Will it be Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Toasted Almond Couscous or Smoky Black Bean and Chorizo Chilli with Herby Salsa and Basmati Rice? Decisions, decisions…

They’ve had lots of training advice from my lovely friend and chief supporter of my flapjack recipes, Charlotte Thompson, although how they find time to do any training in their busy tour/work schedules completely defeats me.

Now they need to get their nutrition right!

Riding any distance burns a vast amount of calories and makes you ravenously hungry.  The boys need to make wise food choices to help them complete their challenge with consistently high energy levels. High mileage on the bike day after day means the boys need to keep their glycogen levels (ie the carbohydrate stored in the muscles which provides the body with energy) topped up all the time . They’ll also need plenty of water and electrolytes to replace fluid loss, and protein to repair muscle cells.

Carbohydrate is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen. Glycogen
levels become depleted after a workout and the quicker they are
topped up again, the quicker your recovery will be and the better
you will feel for your next session.

For sustained energy levels, Chris and Jay should base their main meals on low-to-medium Glycaemic Index (G.I.) foods, and try to have heaps of carbohydrate (about 60%) and a fair amount of protein (about 20%) each day. They should also steer away from too much fatty food, as this could make them feel sluggish. Low to medium G.I. foods break down slowly during digestion, releasing glucose gradually into the bloodstream and thereby providing the body with a more consistent level of energy. A good low G.I. breakfast of something like porridge or muesli and fresh fruit, followed by poached eggs on wholemeal toast will set them up for the day.  ’Little and often’ will be the key to a good day’s ride - they will need to ‘feed’ every hour or so with a mix of salty and sweet foods like wholemeal sandwiches, healthy snacks, flapjacks, malt loaf, nuts and raisins and they’ll need to take on plenty of fluid (both water and sports drink, a cup every 30 mins -see my hydration post)  Snacks during the day should also include some higher G.I. carbs, carbs which will be absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream to give instant energy, such as honey and jam sandwiches, sports drinks, jelly beans etc.

smoky black bean chilli

The main focus of each evening will be eating! Plenty of carbohydrate to replenish depleted glycogen levels, plus some protein to aid muscle repair, so that they can start the next day with renewed strength and energy.

Anyone wanting to make a donation to the cause, click on Teenage Cancer Trust.