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Archive for the ‘Cycling Food’ Category

February 4th, 2022

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Next post: Pineapple Coconut Topping. Made it recently. Friends asked for the recipe. I’ll get that out later this week.

November 3rd, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fruit Pancakes, Pancakes

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

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).

Here’s what you need for ingredients and…

…equipment.

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

September 13th, 2021

Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food, Running Food

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Fresh Banana-Mango Ice Cream Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to make very quick & easy – and fully flavorful – simple banana ice cream made with only bananas, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. This recipe takes that banana ice cream from simple to exciting by adding fresh mango, coconut flakes, raisins – and even rum-soaked raisins (they go GREAT with this!). Of course, like any recipe you see here, the added ingredients I just mentioned, though they work terrifically well together, are just suggestions. You can substitute mango with pineapple, blueberries, or strawberries. You can use any kind of dried fruit and add chocolate chips or chocolate powder – and much more. So, use your imagination to make your full-on banana ice cream the way you want to suit your taste and dietary needs.

Here are the ingredients I use (yep, rum raisins in the jar).

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

August 23rd, 2021

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food

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Fully Flavorful Banana Ice Cream Picture Book Directions

This easy-to-make, fully flavorful banana ice cream is made with only the 3 ingredients shown below: bananas, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon – no cream or sugar at all. Best of all, with those 3 simple ingredients as a base, you can use your imagination to take flavor as far as you want to go. I’ll show you some examples over the next couple posts.

The only kicker: you’ll need a sturdy food processor, as shown below, to make this recipe. If you don’t have one, either click this link for mash and freeze banana ice cream, which doesn’t require a food processor, or borrow a food processor from a friend or relative and make enough banana ice cream to share with them.

Click this link or any picture on this page for easy-to-follow 3 ingredient banana ice cream picture book directions.

March 6th, 2021

Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cereal, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Grains, How To & Tips

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Stove Cooked Steel Cut Oats Picture Book Directions

Steel cut oats: great stuff – for lots of reasons!

First, taste – and tastes always rules! Steel cut oats have a rich, nutty flavor and taste great in both sweet and savory dishes – I’ll show examples in future posts.

At the same time, they are both a complete protein source and a complex carbohydrate, which makes them ideal for sustained, not spike and drop, energy, like the kind of energy you need for a good run, bike ride, hike or just to get through a long work day. They’re also rich in fiber and anti-inflammatory (next post will show how to cook steel cut oats to accommodate people on the first phase of a diet intended to relieve IBD).

Here’s how rolled oats (left) look compared to steel cut oats (right).

The big difference between the two is pre-processing. Unlike rolled oats, which are hulled, pre-cooked and then flattened by heavy rollers to allow for quicker home cooking, steel cut oats are not hulled or precooked, which allows the same oat grain to retain more of its nutrition and flavor.

To learn more about steel cut oats and how to cook them as easily as possible – just 25 minutes on the stove almost all hands-free, just click this link or any picture on this page for complete, easy-to-follow step-by-step picture book directions.

February 27th, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Nutrition, One Bowl Meals, Pancakes, Running Food

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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.