Archive for January, 2010

29
Jan
10

Rice cake Pizzas…Strike two!

By Feerlessfood 1 Comment
Categories: Barbeque, Chicken, Dinners, Nutrition, Pizza and Races
Tags: , , , , ,

Update 1:  I got into the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon today!  So I will be heading to San Francisco for the race on May 2nd.  Will be interesting because I have a half-Ironman 6 days after…  But how often do you an opportunity like this!  Just gotta figure out how to ship my bike… 

Update 2:  Before I enlighten you all on dinner tonight, I gotta give a shout out to my little brother, Stewart.  For Christmas he gave me a one year subscription to the Barbeque Sauce of the month Club.  How baller is that??  My first two bottles finally came a couple days ago and here’s what I received: 

January

 

First sample

 This bottle tasted, eh, ok.  I’ll go into more detail later–when I have tried the other bottle as well.  I’m also tracking them all in spreadsheet for analysis that I will post each month, haha. 

As for my latest attempt at rice cake pizzas, not a success, but certainly not a failure.  Not that any of my recipes are failures… But at least I think I have perfect the method so that it will work the third time I try it!  If you read the previous post where I tried to make these, you’ll see that I hated pretty hard on rice cakes.  I still stand by this, but it was because of the type of rice cake.  A Quaker Caramel Apple or Butter Toffee flavored rice cake is filled with a ton of of other sugars and additives along with the rice.  The kind I bought were Quaker No-Salt flavor.  One ingredient, Organic Brown Rice. I was still hesitant, so I asked Triathlon professional and nutrition expert Ben Greenfield over at his site, www.bengreenfieldfitness.com.  If you listen to Podcast #79 he answers the question I had about the rice cakes.  Basically, this type is ok.  It’s certainly not a first choice for a carbohydrate, but it is mostly natural and very low in calories. 

In my research, I also found out how they create such a crisp patty: They are cooked really hot and really fast in a pressurized disk.  Maybe that’s why my “cakes” didn’t work so well when I tried to make them myself.  

Here is what I learned while making these:  Put the toppings on first and then sauce on top so that the cakes dont get soggy in the middle.  I didn’t get back from the gym to start cooking till about 9, and since I was trying to be as  fast as possible, I just used some Laughing Cow cheese spread on the bottom instead of shredded cheese.  I couldn’t taste it at all making it basically a waste.  (I feel the same way about mozzarella..it doesn’t really have any flavor and if I’m using cheese, I want to taste it!)  I recommend using shredded cheddar.  So here’s what the ideal recipe would be:

  • Plain rice cakes
  • Tomato Sauce
  • Grilled chicken
  • Vegetables (such as onions, tomatoes, mushrooms,  and I love pineapple, although that’s not a vegetable)
  • Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • Plenty of garlic, crushed red peppers and other spices

Ingredients, plus chicken

Before the oven

Hot and fresh out the kitchen....

So let me know if you try and have more success than me! 

I was thinking, would anyone be interested in seeing what a day in the life of eating for me looks like:  all meals and snacks? 

And remember, leave me your fitness and nutrition questions and I will write posts on them!

27
Jan
10

Why you should eat eggs, Egg baked potato, and Slooow south western chicken

By Feerlessfood 2 Comments
Categories: Chicken, Dinners, Eggs and Nutrition
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I am a big proponent of eating real eggs.  They are basically natures perfect food, I mean think about… they are life waiting to happen.  Most people think that eggs are awful for your cholesterol and you should only eat the whites.  This is a fair assumption, but there has been a lot of research disproving this myth.  Check out this article from Men’s Health:  

In a recent review of dozens of scientific studies, Wake Forest University researchers found no connection between egg consumption and heart disease  

Read more: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/saturated_fat/Eggs.php#ixzz0dmaYNnJM  

 
Pretty cool, I think.  Our grandparents probably grew up eating eggs, bacon, and toast with real butter every morning.  Yet, they didn’t have an obesity epidemic like we face now.  There were no such thing as Pop-tarts back then.  I won’t start on why I think saturated fats are actually good for us and that its all the trans fats, added sugars, and filler preservatives in our foods that are killing us… but I just wanted to give some background for Egg Potato!
I realized at the end of the day, last saturday, that I had really hadn’t had any healthy fats in my diet for the day.  I decided I would include an egg with dinner, and I figured since we eat hash browns and eggs, I would just bake an egg in a potato.
I started by cooking the potato in the microwave and then moving it to the oven to get crisp.  About 8-10 minutes before I was ready to eat, I pulled out the potato, made a well, and cracked an egg inside and put it back in the oven for that time.
 

Pre-baked and split

  

Egged

  

Baked--a little too long, you really want the yolk to be runny

  

As noted in the caption, I baked mine just a little bit too long.  I love my yolks runny, and that way I could have mixed it up with the potato which I wasn’t able to do as well.  Oh well, next time.  Also, don’t forget to season!  Same as you would an omelete or a baked potato– I used garlic, onion, chili powder, and ranch seasoning.  

I also took another go with the slow cooker, making some South Western chicken concoction.   Here’s what I used:  

  • Like 3(?) chicken breasts
  • 2 Spicy low-fat andouille chicken sausages
  • Good amount of black bean salsa
  • 1 can of a corn, okra, and onion soup
  • 1 can green chiles
  • Garlic, onions, and chili powder

Southwest Chicken ingredients

  

It came out well!  Could have used a little more spice though.  What would give it that, does anyone have any ideas?  

Cooked it on high for about 4 hours:  

Simmerin'

  

So again, let me know if you have any fitness or nutrition questions you would like me to discuss, or dishes you want to see me cook!  

25
Jan
10

Chicken and vegetables Lasagna

By Feerlessfood 5 Comments
Categories: Dinners and sweet potato
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Of course I’m still riding on my new crockpot high.  So while scouring the recipes in my new Crock Pot cook book, I found a recipe for vegetarian lasagna.  But, I don’t do recipes, so I added my own twist.  I added chicken and eliminated the noodles in place of layers of zucchini.  Here is the recipe, all ingredients are however much you feel like adding.  I could barely close the slowcooker!

  • Eggplant (sliced into planks)
  • Mushrooms
  • Onions (rings, not diced)
  • Fresh sliced tomatoes
  • 1 sliced sweet potato
  • Grilled chicken breast
  • Part skim ricotta cheese
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Tomato sauce
    • 1 can crushed tomatoes
    • Added garlic, onion, oregano, and thyme

Proceed by layering sauce, eggplant, sweet potato, chicken, onions, mushrooms, ricotta cheese, and repeat.  After 2-3 layers, top with remaining ricotta, pour on remaining sauce, then top with sliced fresh tomatoes.  Finally, top with the parmesan.

Raw Realness

Layering

Ogres are like Lasagna...they've got layers

 

And to complete the ensemble

 

It unlayered itself

 The result?  Great flavor!  But where did all this liquid come from??  I forgot the water content of vegetables, so while this cooked, all the liquid came out.  I realize now why I should have included noodles– as the liquid comes out of the vegetables, the noodles would have been cooked and absorbed the liquid, thus making the whole thing come out perfect!  So, I will be adding some whole wheat lasagna noodles next time.

Plus, I realized after making this, that the only once carbohydrates were whatever was in the vegetables and the litle bit from the 1 sweet potato.  So that brought me to the issue of trying to figure out if I should add a serving of rice or something on this side?  It is also incredibly fiber-filled, so not ideal if you have a hard workout planned for the next morning.

In all it was great.  But the take-aways; use lasagna noodles as well to ensure firmness and a source of carbohydrates for energy!

I’m writing this while watching The Chowdown Countdown, #s 40-21.  I realize I need a couple more delicious looking and tasting meals.  So, that being said, what would you guys like to see me make or ingredients to cook with??

19
Jan
10

Whole wheat, Pumpkin, Oatmeal, Protein Bar-ish things

By Feerlessfood 3 Comments
Categories: and the like, fitness, Nutrition and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , ,
Maaaaan, not again.  This is the second time I’ve laces snap on me like this and its really annoying.  Now I have to go find some laces before tomorrow workout.  Plus, these laces were pretty fly too–the neon green on black look.

Broken Laces

 

 And while I was outside, I grabbed this shot for yall… 

Feerlss

 

 I was hanging out a friend of mines house last night, and another friend, Abby, brought over Jo-Ann’s Power Bars, a recipe she got from Allrecipes.com.  

So maybe Melissa and I hinted very strongly that we would like to give these a try…  They were really good though! 

Jo-Ann's Power Bars

 

They were a little bit soft, so I popped them in the oven for a few minutes when I got home to crisp them up. 

Of course, I ended up saying that I would make some “trail mix-like scones.”  Well I made something…I wouldn’t call them scones, thought.  I call them Whole wheat pumpkin protein oatmeal bar-things.  Here is the recipe: 

  • 1.5 cup flour
  • 1.5 cup oats
  • 1 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch
  • 1 can Pumpkin
  • 1 6oz. yogurt
  • 2 scoops protein powder
  • 1 little box of raisins

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees 

 Here is the total break down1750 calories, 15g fat, 73g protein, 331g carb.  I sliced these into 9 bars, making each: 195 cal, 1.7g fat, 8g protein, 37g carb 

These are very low fat, too low, missing all the benefits some seeds, nuts, or nut butter would have added. But, I plan to eat them as fast snacks before workouts, or fuel for during long workouts.  Here’s what they looked like from start to finish: 

Dry ingredients

Combined ingredients

Finished

Haven’t tasted them yet, but I’ll comment tomorrow after I try them!

18
Jan
10

Low and Slow Barbeque

By Feerlessfood 2 Comments
Categories: Barbeque, beef and Dinners
Tags: , ,

Has anyone ever seen “Healthy Decadence with Devin Alexander” on FitTV?  The show is a nice concept, showing how to make lower calorie and versions, but….its sucks.  I’m sorry, but she is incredibly annoying and a lot of the times, she is just wrong.  I don’t know if she is a nutritionist or anything, but some of the things she puts out there are just wrong.  Here is an all too familiar quote, “Now we’ll just use the egg white, we don’t all the fat in that yolk.  By leaving out the yolk, we just saved five grams of fat!”  Ok, Devin, anyone who can actually credibly speak about nutrition know the benefits of egg yolks–how they are packed with vitamins and have been shown to no impact of cholesterol levels. 

Or here’s another, “We’ll use reduced-fat peanut butter to lower the fat content even more!”  Have you ever read the nutrition label, babe?  Reduced fat peanut butter has the exact same number of fat grams as regular (really!)  Instead, some of the fat has been removed and replaced with hydrogenated oils and sugars.  Soooo…. basically, the healthy fats we eat the peanut butter for get removed and unnatural ingredients added…. 

Well anyways, I do get some ideas from her show.  She did a BBQ beef sandwich that got me thinking.  Of course, first I had to get a slow cooker…which I finally did!  I had literally been waiting months to try this recipe and here’s how it finally came together: 

  • 1 Lean London Broil Steak (trimmed)
  • As much BBQ sauce as you want to add
  • Onions
  • Seasonings; such as liquid smoke and some garlic

I let it sit in the slow cooker for like 12 hours!  I put it in before I left for work and didn’t turn it off till I got back from the gym that night.  I simply shred it with a couple forks and have been eating it on everything from rolls, baked potatoes, and tortillas!

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