Feerlessfood's Blog

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: 

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!