In lieu of the GU...

For my next culinary adventure, I am diving into making portable foods that will replace energy bars and liquid foods like GU. This past December St. Nicholas surprised me with the book, Feed Zone Portables, written by Biju Thomas and Allen Lim.

A few key items from the book that popped out for me:

1) Solid vs. Liquid food:
Athletes tend to think that they need energy sources that pass through the stomach as quickly as possible (i.e.: GU), which is a valid notion for short-duration high-intensity exercise. But for prolonged exercise (like skiing the Birkie, at least for the amount of time it takes me to complete the race), it's advantageous to maintain a constant stream of energy rather than dealing with periodic influxes of energy (Feed Zone Portables, pg. 39-40)

2) Real ingredients vs. mystery ingredients:
Cooking from scratch you can control the ingredients that you put into your body. The third ingredient in my leftover GU packets from Birkie 2014 is fructose, that which I have worked so hard to avoid since December. With the onslaught of processed foods, looking at the ingredients list is just as important as looking at the nutrition label to assess calories, carbs, fats, etc. For example, my GU also contains the preservative Sodium benzoate. Fun fact: the internet informs me that sodium benzoate is used in fireworks as a fuel in whistle mix,  a powder that emits a whistling noise when compressed into a tube and ignited.

3) The book also gets into the super-technical side of things:
-What to eat/drink when its warm/hot
-Charts that estimate of the calories needed to ride a century at different speeds (carb. deficits)
-Etc…

Alas, for my purposes (not being an elite athlete), I'll stick to the mantra of real ingredients where I can manage the amount of sweetener/sugar being used.

PB&J Rice Cake

Cinnamon Apple Rice Cake

I cooked my first ever batch of sticky rice (super easy without a rice cooker) and created the above portables!

PB&J Rice Cakes: sticky rice, water, peanut butter, fruit preserves (I just mashed up some blackberries)

Per serving: Energy 301 calories, Fat 9 g, Sodium 95 mg, Carbs 49 g, Fiber 2 g, Protein 7 g, Water content 56%

Cinnamon Apple Rice Cakes: sticky rice, water, apple, raw sugar (I used Stevia), topped with sugar (again, Stevia), cinnamon and salt.

Per serving: Energy 159 calories, Fat 0 g, Sodium 174 mg, Carbs 36 g, Fiber 1 g, Protein 3 g, Water content 68%

Yeah, this book also gives you the in depth nutritional facts about EVERY RECIPE. Which is good to know as I don't need to stock up on the fiber during the race or I'll bind up. As I was wrapping up the portables (the book even has directions on how to neatly fold them up into little packages), I did sample both and found them to be quite tasty. 

Wrapping up the portables with parchment paper

Next up: test them while out skiing on the trail.