So, my big race is Sunday. I’ve been training for it for about 12 weeks now, so I’ve put a fair bit of pressure on myself. Unfortunately, with the move and new job stress, I didn’t stay as on top of my training as I would have liked. Regardless, now’s not the time for excuses. What I can do now is try to get in my last few miles, and put some good nutrition in my body so I don’t feel weighted down and sluggish on race day.
Menu items for the week:
Breakfast: Quinoa Breakfast bars, adapted from fANNEtastic food
Lunch: Hearty Salad
Dinner: “Brie” and green apple wrap
So Let us Begin!
For breakfast, I usually tend to grab either a banana with raw nuts or a protein/breakfast bar. Often Luna, which are made by Clif bars and have almost entirely ingredients I can pronounce but tend to be higher in fat than I’d like, and sometimes Special K etc, which are decidedly less natural but lower in fat). The chemicals are what bother me in these bars, and I’d prefer something more natural and preferably vegan. Enter: Dark Chocolate Quinoa Bars from fANNEtastic food. The recipe looked interesting, and I thought I could veganize it, so off I went!
Ingredients –> with my modifications
Dry:
- 1 & 1/2 C cooked quinoa
- 1 C chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour –> I used Whole Wheat Pastry flour because I didn’t have garbanzo, but I’d prefer the garbanzo which doubles the protein)
- 3/4 C brown sugar –> I used 1/2 cup regular sugar with 1tbs of maple syrup because I ran out of brown sugar
- 1/4 C ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Cooked Quinoa
Wet:
- 1 C skim/low fat milk (or non-dairy substitute) –> soy milk
- 1 large egg –> 1/3 cup apple sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 C dark chocolate chips –> Sunspire Carob Chips
You can find the instructions on Anne’s site, it’s basically mix the wet and dry separately, then add wet to dry, and bake!
Makes 8 bars. Nutrition:
| Calories | 216 |
| Fat | 4.5g – 7% |
| Carb | 40g – 13% |
| Fiber | 3.5g – 14% |
| Protein | 3g – 6% |
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On to the Salad. I kept it simple with Spinach and mixed greens, tempeh (using my go to recipe and method), and steamed green beans. If I can get my hands on some kumquats, I intend to throw some in! Dressed with an all-natural dressing I had on hand, Cindy’s Kitchen Balsamic Vinaigrette.
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“Brie ” and Green Apple Wrap
Now for dinner, I got the idea of wanting a cheese-y wrap…but without the cheese. I thought of Cashew cheese which I’ve heard of before, and wanted to do some research on other types of nut cheese since Cashews aren’t exactly the healthiest member of the family. Google brought me to this super awesome website, Rawmazing, with a page dedicated solely to nut cheeses. Score! With the idea of a brie and apple wrap, I set off with this slightly altered recipe:
- 1 cup almonds, soaked, drained and skins removed
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tablespoon olive oil1 clove garlic
- Pinch of salt (shoulda used more, maybe a full ts)
Pretty tastey…albeit a little too garlic-y and not enough salt. Great counter balance to tart green apples 🙂
Skipped the wrap part today. Great tip for keeping apples from browning before lunch: damp paper towel.
Nutrition: 1/10 recipe, about 1.5 tbs
| Calories | 80 |
| Fat | 7g – 10% |
| Saturated fat | .6g – 2% |
| Carbs | 2.5g |
| Fiber | 1.21g |
| Protein | 2.5g – 4% |
runningwithrewards 