Movin' On Up!

The Pedaling Chef will soon be moving to its very own domain: ThePedalingChef.com
Most of this should be done on Friday, and I'm hoping to post my newest article on the new site Saturday morning. Please favorite ThePedalingChef.com so that you can keep up to date on my bike and food adventures! I appreciate all of your support!

In the meantime, here's a teaser for my next article:

Field Test: Homemade Clif Bars

Fueling up with one of my Clif Bars.

The overwhelming positive response to my Homemade Clif Bar post was a pleasant surprise! I had many people try the recipe for themselves over the weekend, several of whom added their own twists and variations, which is exactly what I wanted.

The feedback from those who tried the bars has been that they are very tasty, have a nice consistency, and are an all-around success. That's great, but it isn't enough. After all, these are supposed to be a homemade version of Clif Bars, not just a snack-time treat.

I therefore had to test the bars under the circumstances that I would use store-bought Clif Bars. What better way to do that than spending a little over 4 hours on the bike, covering about 83 miles?

When I ride at a pretty fast pace, I try to take in about 200 calories per hour. I like to get most of these calories from solid food, but I also use electrolyte and carbohydrate additives in my water which can add a fair amount of calories themselves.

In order to really get the full effect of these bars, I used very little water-additives in my bottles today. I calculated that this only added up to just shy of 100 calories. The rest of my fuel was to be had from my Clif Bars.

Because I did not want to overstuff my pockets, I took only 3 bars with me. I previously calculated the nutritional information of the bars and concluded that one bar is around 150 calories (A real Clif Bar has around 250 calories in it). In other words, I had 450 calories worth of homemade Clif Bars in my pockets. It's important when doing hard efforts to have very calorie-rich food sources so that you can fuel your workouts properly without having to feel gorged or feeling like your jersey pockets are so full that they are dragging you down. 2 store-bought Clif Bars would have given me 50 calories more than 3 of my homemade bars. The calorie to amount of food ratio is therefore much more favorable with real Clif Bars than mine, meaning that I need to make my next batch more caloric. 

I also feel like I can streamline the wrapping process to take up less space in my pockets. I didn't want to crush the bars and end up with crumbs, so I had to be fairly conservative. I wrapped each bar with a strip of parchment paper, stacked the 3 bars together and tried to flatten them a bit the way a butcher would do with burger patties. I then placed the stack in a ziplock bag. This took up most of the allotted space that I had for food on this particular ride. Winter rides always call for a bit more equipment in the pockets so space is fairly limited.

That aside, the bars were great! They delivered quick, but sustained energy, sat well in my stomach without slowing me down, and most importantly, they were downright delicious! What I liked about these bars over traditional Clif Bars is that they were a bit softer and easier to down. Traditional Clif Bars tend to be somewhat hard, especially when they are exposed to the cold Utah air. That's not much of a problem if you eat one while taking a gas-station break, but it is fairly annoying trying to chew and breathe when you're going 30mph. My homemade bars stayed soft enough to be edible, but hard enough to not fall apart.

What's my conclusion, then? There is no clear cut favorite when comparing this first batch of homemade bars to store-bought bars. With a few minor modifications in wrapping and calorie count, however, I think I can get my homemade bars to be better, in my eyes, better than store-bought Clif Bars.

In order to solve the wrapping issue, I may opt to wrap each bar in just enough parchment paper to not leave any parts exposed, and ditch the plastic bag idea altogether. I may sprinkle some powdered sugars on the bars as well to make sure that if my makeshift wrappers to open up while in my pockets, I will not end up with a sticky mess.

Now, that leaves the question of making these bars more caloric. This is hardly an issue! There are countless ways that I could do this. We're talking the addition of more nuts, chocolate, shredded coconut, etc. In other words, I get to add more delicious ingredients to my recipe. Cutting calories can be difficult, but I don't think anybody has ever had much trouble adding calories in their diet!

Lastly, I want to address the issue of cost. It's pretty difficult to assess the exact cost for making one homemade Clif Bar as I had a lot of ingredients on hand. If there is enough interest, I will go to my local grocery store with pen, paper and a calculator and figure out exactly how much it costs.

Bacon 'n Egg Ramequins

There's no better way to start the day than with a good breakfast. One of my favorite ways to get a good amount of protein in the early morning is to make these bacon 'n egg Ramequins.

These are not only super easy and quick to make, they are also very presentable and can therefore be made for special occasions such as brunches or even surprise breakfast for loved ones!=.

Here's what you'll need to make two ramequins:

• 2 Eggs.
• 4-5 Strips of Bacon (I use extra lean turkey bacon, but any bacon works). 
• Some herbs and/or spices such as thyme and rosemary.
• Salt and Pepper.

Optional ingredients that can be added are:

• Hashbrowns.
• Cheese.

I like that these require so few ingredients as it means that there is almost no preparation ahead of time. You can wake up, get these ready, and eat them in time to get out the door. Here's how you put these together:

• Preheat your oven to 350F.
• Fry the bacon in a pan until it is about halfway done and still tender. If you want to go the healthy route, let the bacon cook in its own fat. If you don't care, feel free to add butter or olive oil to add flavor to the cooking bacon.
• Once the bacon is halfway done, pop it in a ramequin as shown in the picture. I generally do 2.5 strips per ramequin. That is, I cover the inside of the ramequin once, then do another strip inside of that to add some structure, and then about half of a slice to the bottom in order to keep the egg firmly in place. The final bacon structure alway reminds me of a rose.
• Next, crack an egg directly into the little nest that you made with the bacon.
• Sprinkle herbs, spices, salt, pepper, and any of the optional ingredients over the egg. Give the ramequin a gentle shake to allow the toppings to settle into the egg white slightly. 
• Cover the ramequins with aluminum foil, and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Check them every 5 minutes to make sure that they are doing alright. Once the egg white is set, they are done.
• Once they have cooled a little bit, you can eat them straight out of the ramequin or you can unmold them to make a neat presentation. To unmold, simply run a knife around the space between the bacon and the ramequin to separate the two, then turn the ramequin over and let the Bacon 'n Egg cup fall out gently.

There you have it, a healthy, quick, and easy breakfast. You can start the day with these to get some good protein, or you can make them for guests if you want a few "Oohs" and "Aahs" at a family brunch or party.

Homemade Clif Bars

Let me preface this by saying that this is not a purely original recipe. I'm not the first to have thought "I should make my own Clif Bars!" as evidenced by the many recipes found using a search engine. I've noticed that most of the recipes I have run into use more or less the same base ingredients: oats, puffed rice, and flaxseed meal. I followed that example, but the rest is my own adaptation. There are dozens of different combinations that one could come up with to meet their likes, and I encourage you to be creative.  I feel that I should also add that while these are healthy, they are relatively high in calories as they are made primarily to fuel sports and exercise.

Here are the ingredients that I used:

• 1&1/4 Cups Gluten Free, Brown Rice Krispies 
• 1 Cup Rolled Oats
• 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal
• 1/4 Cup Crushed Nuts (Any type can be used, I chose walnuts for this batch.)
• 1/4 Cup Dried Fruit (I used a combination of apricots, apples, and pears.)
• 1/3 Cup Honey (Plus extra*.)
• 1/2 Cup Nut Butter (Once again, up to you. I used Organic Creamy Roasted Almond Butter.)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• **Optional: A few squares of dark chocolate and some rice milk (Or any other kind of "milk".)
• You can also add shredded coconut, spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg, chocolate chunks, and anything else you like to snack on!

For anybody trying this who is not very experienced with cooking, I recommend to always start by measuring out your ingredients. That way, you don't realize midway through cooking that you forgot something important that forces you to deviate from the task at hand.

Once your ingredients are measured, go ahead and follow these simple steps:

• Get a large bowl and mix together the rice, oats, flaxseed, fruit and nuts. 
• Put the honey and nut butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Stir this well until the two are melted and combined, making sure to not allow it to burn. Add the vanilla extract and stir some more and take the mixture off the heat.
• Pour the honey, butter, and vanilla mixture over the dried ingredients in the bowl and start mixing. It's best to use your hands here as a spoon will just get sticky and make things all the more messy. If you have kids or culinarily-challenged loved ones (The type that only can only make omelets.), now is a good time to employ their help as very little can go wrong and it's fun to get others involved.
• *Based on how sticky your mixture is, you may want to go back and heat another 1/3 to 1/2 cup of honey with just a few Tbsp of water in the small sauce pan you previously used. Stir until a syrup forms, then pour this over everything and mix again. This will help things keep together if you are finding that your mixture is too crumbly.
• Once everything is thoroughly combined, press the mixture into a pan of your choice (Preferably square of rectangular if you are going for the energy-bar look). This step allows you to create nice, evenly shaped bars.
• From here you can proceed one of two ways. I chose to use the pan to shape one large bar, then un-molded it all onto some wax paper to allow it to cool properly and make it easier to cut. You could also cut individual bars straight in the pan the way many people do with brownies. Either way is fine.
• **Optional: For those of you that feel the need to make this a tad bit more elaborate, chop up 4 or 5 squares of chocolate (I used 70% dark) and use a splash of rice milk (or whatever kind of "milk" you like), and put that in a bain-Marie over a fairly low heat. Stir frantically until the chocolate melts, and you will have a chocolate syrup. Pour it over the molded Clif mixture (fun patterns encouraged) and allow it to set.

Depending on what you will be using these bars for (eg snack at home or energy bar for on the go workouts), you can cut the bars any different number of ways. I eyeballed my cutting and made 15 bars out of this batch. Wrapping is another story. I chose to let the bars dry out a bit on the counter to make sure that they wouldn't get destroyed in my jersey pockets while I was on the bike. I don't plan on pre-wrapping them all individually. Rather, I'll let them hang out in my kitchen and wrap one or two in plastic wrap, parchment paper, or aluminum wrap before my workouts. That way they stay nice and fresh, and I can enjoy them when I'm out on the road.

Please share any thoughts on possible variations, comments, and constrctive criticism in the comments! Click here for detailed nutritional information for 1 bar (1/15th of a batch).

No-Bonk Sundae

There's a fine line between eating too little and eating too much. I have had some pretty tough workouts the last few days, and I have found myself bonking when I get to the last 30 minutes or so of my rides. Getting to my house from downtown Salt Lake City takes about 20-25 minutes of climbing up pretty steep grades (depending on the route). This gets tricky because, while cyclists often use the last dozen minutes of a tough workout to cool-down, I always have to plan ahead for what is often the toughest climb of my day!

I'm currently as light as I've ever been, but I don't attribute this to starving myself. I've actually upped my food consumption to properly fuel my workouts which in turn seems to have made my body more efficient and has allowed me to slim down even more. As much as I like being skinny, I have few energy reserves to keep me from bonking, so it's important for me to stay on top of my caloric intake.

Tonight, I realized that if I didn't eat a couple hundred extra calories, I'd have a hard time staying strong throughout my 4 hour workout in the morning. I thus thought for a bit, and came up with this really healthy, dairy-free No-Bonk Sundae.

• I started with half a banana (This is neither the first nor last time that I will mention how much I love fruits.) and half of a Chocolate-Brownie Clif Bar that I had left over from this morning's workout. 
• I mashed the two together and microwaved the mixture for about 2 minutes. This allowed the banana to soften up and the chocolate in the Clif bar to melt. 
• I then took 3 or 4 spoonfuls of So Delicious dairy-free coconut-milk Cookies N' Cream "Ice Cream" and stirred it into the Clif Bar and banana mixture. 
• I topped the sundae off with a few almonds and dried cranberries, and a dark-chocolate covered cherry. There are dozens of toppings that one could add to this to meet their tastes such as nuts, dried fruits, shredded coconuts, chunks of dark chocolate, or even a squirt of your favorite flavor of GU if you need a few extra calories! The flavors of the Clif Bar and "Ice Cream" can be interchanged as well, I just used what I had on hand.

This created a really delicious sundae. Rather than grabbing junk food that would most likely slow me down on my ride, I mixed healthy and energetic ingredients to create an awesome little dessert. It's important when trying to live a healthy lifestyle to seek out healthy ways to transform your favorite meals into energetic fuel sources. That way, you never feel deprived and you are able to stay on top of your dietary needs.

Click here for detailed nutritional information.

Valley of the Sun Stage Race Report

I haven't gotten a chance to post a race report from Valley of the Sun yet, so here goes:

I left on the Thursday morning before the race, carpooling with some ex-teammates to help keep the cost of gas down. Riding down in a lifted Toyota Tacoma with 32" off-roading wheels wasn't exactly the most efficient way to travel, but it did the job. One of the guys in our party split off to go stay with family, leaving myself and two others to split a hotel room. We got along great and each focused on our respective races. My races were all very early in the morning so I tried my best to have all my stuff packed and ready to go on the eve of the races so that I could wake up and get out of the door without waking my roommates up. Our hotel was right off a large freeway in Chandler, Arizona. This was helpful because each stage was 30-60 minutes away and it was nice to be able to jump right on the freeway and cruise there.

I was nervous about this being my first stage-race ever, but I also was confident in my abilities because of how hard I've been training and how well I've been taking care of my body by stretching, eating well, and getting plenty of sleep. "A winning effort begins with preparation."-Joe Gibbs

The first stage of the race was a 14.5 mile time trial. It was on a mostly flat, out and back course with gentle rollers. This was my first time trial ever. I don't have a time trial bike so I had to put a disc wheel and clip-on aero bars on my S-WORKS Tarmac SL4. I didn't get a chance to do a proper fit for the clip-on aero bars, but I still feel like it was better than using a standard road bike with no modifications. As I was warming up on my trainer, I calculated what pace I needed to ride at in order to match last year's best category 5 time of around 34:30. A few miles in, I realized that I was feeling strong enough to do better than that time, and upped my pace by a few miles per hour. I managed to pull off the 3rd best time of the day (in my category), coming in at 33:32. More than anything, this was a great learning experience.  I made several rookie mistakes that tacked on a few extra seconds here and there, and I felt like I could have gone a bit harder, but overall I was happy. Two really strong riders, James Walsh and Anthony Moye, put up really fast times, which really set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

The second day of racing was comprised of 2.8 laps around a pretty fun course, totaling 46 miles. This course was fairly straight forward, and had a medium hill on the final stretch that played into my favor. From the get-go, the pack stayed together pretty well. I felt like I had a firm grasp on how this race was playing out. Although this was my first road race, I had done dozens of tough group rides which gave me a lot of confidence. On the second lap, there was a King of the Mountain bonus. I broke off with a small group and managed to kick it on the last part of the hill to win the sprint and get the bonus. I was really happy about that as I really enjoy climbing and feel like it is one of my strong points in cycling. The race slowed down significantly after that, with one lap left until the finish. The group got to the final hill together, and no real attacks were made on the climb. This is where I went wrong. I was worried about attacking, being followed, and wasting all of my energy. In reality, I would have had better odds of winning had I kicked it on the hill, taking only the true climbers with me, rather than letting it come down to a short sprint on the line. The top guys rolled in together. I knew who I was marking, but with 200m or so left, a guy came up from behind us and sprinted hard (I had not been watching him). By the time I reacted to his sprint, I was a bike length or two behind him. I closed a part of the gap, but was not able to get the win. I was happy with 2nd place, but felt like I let an opportunity get away. The top 3 in the general classification stayed the same after the road race. A few small time changes were factored in, but it was not enough to do anything significant.

Day 3 held the final stage, a 25-minute criterium. It was fairly obvious going into this race that I was racing to keep my 3rd place general classification standing. The race was too short and the course too flat to hope to break away and get much more than a few seconds on the leaders. This was one race that I had some confidence in, not because I feel like I am necessarily skilled at criteriums, but because I at least had done 3 or 4 of these in the past and knew what to expect. The race played out fairly conservatively. Each of the leaders took a couple of pulls, but no true breakaway was formed. The last lap was super sketchy. I got elbowed a few times and my wheel was touched on a couple of the tighter corners where everybody was scrambling for the inside line. The race came down to a sprint. Anthony Moye, the 2nd place guy in the general classification, kicked it hard and won by a few bike lengths. I was able to sprint well enough to get 2nd place. Honestly, I was just happy to not have gone down on that last lap!

All in all, the time trial decided the general classification for the whole weekend. I pulled off a 3rd place general classification finish which I was very happy with.

I learned a lot this weekend. I got a taste of stage racing, feeling out my first time trial and road race. I also honed my travelling and adapting skills. It may sound silly, but the ability to travel and room with other people who don't have the same schedule as you is important. It's also good to learn how to pack minimalistically but without forgetting any of the essentials. Being able to roll with the punches and adapt to what comes your way without losing focus on your racing is a skill that I am working on perfecting, as it can take you a long way both in cycling and in "real life". I also made some really cool connections with some other cyclists from the Western US, which will make future races even more fun!

Photo credit to the two top pictures go to Zazoosh. Other photos are from my iPhone, and from a couple of other racers who tagged me on Facebook. I will post better podium shots as I get them.

Marble Potato Stew

Today was my first day back off the bike in almost two weeks. I've been travelling through the Western states to get to races in that time, and have not had a full day at home when I could relax and take it easy. I was thus very eager to take advantage of today to cook something that I've been concocting in my head ever since a fateful Whole Foods visit in Walnut Creek, California.

It's no secret that I like to shop at Whole Foods. One of the reasons for this is that I always find at least one thing that really captures my attention and sparks my imagination. This time, it was marble potatoes. I was browsing the produce section when I saw a bag of these small, colorful potatoes. I instantly started brainstorming. I knew I wouldn't have a chance to cook for another dozen days so I waited until my departure to pick them up and dropped them off at home before heading to Arizona (I had one day to get back to SLC from California before heading to Arizona).

Anticipation built as I got more and more excited to cook with these wonderful little taters. So, first thing this morning, I stepped out into the snow, got the grill going and started cooking away!

I knew that I wanted to make some sort of stew, but I didn't want it to be boring. I therefore decided on which vegetables I was gonna use (red bell peppers, tomatoes, yellow onion, and garlic), and chose to cook them up a la "Méchoui" as my grandma loves to do. This consists of grilling the vegetables and letting them char a bit to add a nice smoky flavor. I put the potatoes on the grill at the same time. I brushed everything with olive oil and sprinkled some salt from Martigues for extra flavor. Once all that had cooked nicely and the potatoes had softened, I grilled up some chopped steak just until grill-marks appeared. Note: I am not a big fan of red meat but I am a believer that eating it occasionally is good for you, and I thought it'd go great with this dish. Pork or lamb would also probably work well.

From here, I put everything in my trusty slow cooker, and added fresh thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper, some tomato sauce, and low-sodium organic beef broth. I set the cooker on high, and let it cook for about 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

 The result was everything I had hoped it would be. Using the grill to pre-cook the vegetables added a huge amount of flavor. The slow cooker allowed the ingredients to cook through at their own pace, leaving the meat and potatoes tender and creating a very nice broth. This recipe is actually pretty healthy. I used very little olive oil and had a pretty lean cut of beef so there was very little fat. One could go a step farther and use turkey or chicken breast to keep this extra lean, and use just a few less potatoes to lower the amount of calories a little.

As good as this stew is straight out of the cooker, this sort of stew is always better the next day, so making it a day ahead if very recommended. That is, if you can resist!