Nutrition | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Archive for the ‘Nutrition’ Category

August 30th, 2023

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Breakfast, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Fruit, Hiking Food, Nutrition, Running, Running Food, Sports Nutrition

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Rocket Fuel Breakfast, Part 4: Fruit, Yogurt & More

Fruit, yogurt and more? Sure, always more! With full-on flavor – that’s half the fun of it. What you see above is what I put together to rocket-fuel up or an excellent hop on the bike with good buds this morning (below) – and with no need to refuel on the way.

You can get the base recipe I used, Summer Multi-Fruit Salad, by clicking either this link or any picture on this page.

To mix it up a bit, here’s what I used for ingredients and…

…how I put it all together – fruit first; then nut butter, cookie butter spread, jam; Greek yogurt & ground flaxseed with nutritional yeast…

…raisins & dried cranberries; and peach kefir. Killer and went great with the slice of cherry peach pancake and iced chocolate, coconut water coffee shown at the top of this page.

Enjoy!

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

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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 2nd, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, How To & Tips, Nutrition, Running Food

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More Specific Banana Nut Butter Bar Ingredient Details

Timing can be great!

Last post earlier this week discussed what’s really in an ingredient and what that means to you, especially if you have dietary restrictions. Then, entirely coincidentally, this week I got a text from a good cycling bud asking whether to use sweetened or unsweetened coconut flakes and what type of chocolate chips to use to make Banana Nut Butter Power Bars. He couched his question with a note that his skills are pretty much limited to toasting Pop Tarts. Excellent on all fronts!

I loved the question! Right away, I tore down the old recipe to revise it with this more descriptive list of ingredients and…

…these new directions that you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page.

Always glad to make changes – that’s “learning and adapting” life in action. And what I like best is hearing what works and doesn’t work for people actually using any recipe I put on this site so that I can help make your work – and mine – in the kitchen as easily fully flavorful as possible. That’s life enriched!

March 28th, 2022

Blog, How To & Tips, Nutrition

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What’s Really In a Recipe Ingredient?

What really is in an ingredient needed to put together a recipe?

That question – and the idea of fairness – popped in my head while I was laying out the last post that compared the ingredients of a random sample of store bought packaged power bars…

…with a homemade power bar sandwich made with the ingredients shown here.

As shown above, the packaged bars all have their ingredients listed by quantity in order of the most used to least used ingredient.

I listed the ingredients used to make the power bar sandwich in the same way: whole grain bread; choice of honey, jam or cookie spread; nut butter; fresh fruit; raisins; and chocolate chips.

But my list doesn’t say it all. Sure, bananas are bananas, blueberries are blueberries and raisins are raisins. And, the nut butter I use I make myself with just lightly salted and unsalted almonds and ground flaxseed, as shown here.

But the rest of the ingredients are much more complex, meaning that they themselves are made with a lot of ingredients. Here’s what’s in the whole grain bread I used to make the power bar sandwich:

Though I’m not a big fan of the added sugar, the rest of the ingredients look fine to me – and I’m sure not going to start off making the power bar sandwich by first baking the bread needed to make that sandwich.

Then there’s the choice of honey, jam and/or cookie spread. As shown below, the honey is just honey. The jam is made with fig paste, sugar, water and lemon juice. Simple enough.

But then there’s the cookie spread, which tastes great but is also made with many more ingredients than the honey and jam, including a good shot of added sugar. (A quick side note regarding nutrition labels: the first thing to check on any nutrition label is serving size. As you can see in the above picture, the cookie spread serving size is 2 tablespoons, which is twice the serving size of the 1 tablespoon serving size for honey and jam. That means that tablespoon for tablespoon, which is about all you need to make the power bar sandwich, fig butter has 45 calories, honey has 60 calories and cookie spread has 85 calories.)

Finally, here are the ingredients needed to make the chocolate chips:

The point here is that there are actually a lot of unseen/unnoticed ingredients that go into complex ingredients, like the bread and spreads, needed to make the power bar sandwich just as there are many ingredients that go into making any recipe that calls for prepared ingredients like canned or jarred products, sauces and seasonings – or just about anything found in the center aisles of the the grocery store.

The key take away here is that it’s important to be curious about what exactly you are putting into any food you make, especially if you have dietary restrictions. Being curious then means actually looking at nutrition labels in the store and deciding what works best for you before actually buying that food. Yes, that takes a bit more time, but the payoff to you and those sharing what you make for them to eat is well worth that time.

March 4th, 2022

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

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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

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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 22nd, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, Nutrition, One Bowl Meals, Pasta

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Microwave Cooked High Protein-High Fiber Pasta with Instant Tomato Sauce Picture Book Recipe

Putting together leftover pasta, tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese as shown here is incredibly flavorful, quick and easy.

Quick and easy, though, can come at a cost.

Salt, sugar and fat are the 3 main sources of flavor, and that is keenly important to bear in mind when you’re using any packaged or prepared foods, with salt (or sodium) being of most concern here for reasons outlined in the pasta and sauce recipe you can download by clicking this link.

Right now, let’s look at the three ingredients regarding their salt, sugar and fat content.

The first thing to look at on a nutrition label is serving size, circled in blue, because that number directly relates to all the quantity of the components (fat, cholesterol, etc.) listed below serving size. As listed on their nutrition labels, the high protein-high fiber soybean pastas I used have no sodium and very little fat. The only sugar comes from sugar in the soybeans. That’s fine.

To be fair, here are nutrition labels from two packages of traditional wheat-based pasta. You can see that the fat content for both, 1 gram, is minimal per 2 ounce serving. You can also see that these pastas contain no sodium or sugar. Of course, the biggest difference between the pastas above and below is the significant increase in protein and fiber found in the high protein-high fiber pastas.

Below are the nutrition labels from the tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese I used. One of the important numbers not listed on any of these nutrition labels is the daily allowed amount/value of sodium, which is 2300 milligrams (mg) per adult.

As shown above, the serving size for the sauce is 1/2 cup. 1/2 cup equals 4 ounces or 8 tablespoons. The serving size for the Parmesan cheese is 1/4 cup, which is the same as 2 ounces or 4 tablespoons. To make the pasta and sauce recipe featured here, I used 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) of tomato sauce (165 mg sodium) and about 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese (95 mg sodium) for a total of 260 mg sodium with both the sauce and cheese combined. 260 mg is 11% of the recommended daily sodium allowance of 2300 mg.

You can also see that the fat in the sauce is almost nothing, but seems to be high with the cheese. Again, serving size is most important. I only used 1 tablespoon of shredded Parmesan cheese, which is 1/4 of the serving size, which then translates to 1.75 grams of total fat or 2.25% of the recommended daily allowance of total fat and 1.1 grams/6% daily allowance of saturated fat.

Finally, the tomato sauce contains almost no sugar, especially in relationship to the 3 tablespoon serving size I used. The cheese contains no sugar at all.

Both the information above and how to use it to determine what you actually take into your body apply to all packaged or prepared foods, which you know from experience make up most of the floor space in a grocery store.

Click this link or the photo below for picture book directions that show how to make high protein-high fiber pasta – or any pasta – with tomato sauce.

January 14th, 2022

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blog, Breakfast, Food & Health, Nutrition

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High Fiber Flaxseed, Chia Seed & Nutritional Yeast Boost

This mix of flaxseeds,chia seeds and nutritional yeast is an excellent fiber and vitamin B boost to any meal

Last post talked about fiber and why we need it in our diet. This post shows how to make a practical mix of high fiber flaxseeds and chia seeds with the added optional benefit of nutritional yeast.

As I mention in the “Tips” section of the picture book directions you can get here, the mix of ground flax and chia seeds with nutritional yeast you see here is no “magic bullet”, but it sure helped improve both my gut health and vitamin B12 levels. My gut was in bad shape years ago due to poor stress management and a long history of prescribed antibiotic use, mostly for frequent middle ear infections. My vitamin B12 level was low due to not eating much animal protein.

I’ve since learned – and continue to learn – a lot about what goes on in our gut, how to manage stress much better and have changed my eating habits. More about both gut health and stress management soon. Regarding food, once I got “clued in” to the very new science of gut health 10-15 years ago, I’ve been eating a varied, well-balanced high-fiber whole food diet that is mostly plant based but is also strong in fish, poultry and meat. And I still use the mix of seeds and nutritional yeast you see here everyday as a fiber and vitamin B complex boost. Here’s how I had it this morning for breakfast with fresh fruit and yogurt.

Here’s how I’ve used it recently with both sweeter or more savory meals – all fully flavorful.

Sweet and savory meals topped with a mix of flaxseeds, chia seeds and nutritional yeast

Click this link or any picture on this page for picture book directions that show how to make this flaxseed, chia seed and nutritional yeast boost.

March 13th, 2021

Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Beans, Grains, Nutrition, One Bowl Meals

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Savory Steel Cut Oats with Beans, Avocado & Bell Pepper Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to put together a fully-flavorful, energy sustaining sweet one bowl meal with cooked steel cut oats, nut butter, fresh fruit and kefir. As I mentioned in earlier posts, steel cut oats are richly versatile and can be used to make savory dishes just as well as sweet tasting dishes.

And I know that sounds counterintuitive, “my breakfast oats mixed with savory ingredients – really?”, but it works great!

Here’s an example: Savory Steel Cut Oats with Beans, Avocado & Bell Pepper that combines the full flavor, chew, and potent fiber, complex carbohydrate and protein benefits of steel cut oats and beans with the zesty flavor of vitamin-rich fresh avocado, bell pepper, and cilantro shown below.

Click this link or any picture on this page for the easy-to-follow picture book recipe, which, as I’ve mentioned before, is for you to use either as is or as a visual guide to improvise with ingredients and flavors to make this savory steel cut oats meal all your own.

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.