Cycle food - your recipies

Alek

After receiving generally positive comments on my the flapjack/grain bar I've baked for the last Audax, I think it would be nice to share the recipy with broader audience.

Please note that the quantity is huge, as it is based on full packs of stuff - I hate leftovers stuffed around the kitchen. Feel free to downscale it.

Also, nutritionists may say that it contains too much fat from seeds, not enough simple sugars and protein - I don't really care guys. Its tasty, not too sweet and can survive a few hours in the back pocket without crumbling or getting soggy. And most importantly keeps me going for 200k without ill effects on the stomach.

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3 cans of Carnation condensed sweetened milk (397g each)
1 jar of smooth peanut butter (340g)
1 pack of sultanas (375g)
1 pack of brown lineseed (250g)
1 pack of sesame seed (200g)
1 pack of dried coconut (250g)
2 small packs of pumpkin seeds (2x100g)
1 big pack of sunflower seeds (300g)
1 big pack of jumbo oat flakes (1,5kg)


([FONT=Default Sans Serif,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]All bought in Tesco, in other stores amounts per pack may vary)[/FONT]

1. Combine all dry ingredients except for oats in a bucket (Seriously! Its a lot of stuff. You may need to wash it first, but some don't care )

2. Heat up milk with peanut butter in a pot - carefully and at low power, as it may scorch easily

3. Mix it well with seeds (you can start nibbling at this stage. I couldn't resist, its seriously yummy)

4. Add oats and keep mixing until happy :pac: I stopped after approx. 1kg., but it may vary - it should be quite dense. Don't overmix, as it will break oat structure (I did.)

5. Prepare two large baking trays and line them with good baking parchment (tesco's brown one is perfect, lidl's white isn't)

6. Lay the mix onto the parchment, cover with another sheet and treat it with a rolling pin until more-or-less evenly flat, 1-2cm thick. Remove top paper.

7. Cut it with wet pizza wheel into small squares

8. Bake at 120-130C (convection oven) for an hour

9. After baking, cut it with pizza wheel again and let it cool.

10. Enjoy!


(Overall cost - approx. 20euro. Makes 4 kilos of flapjack :eek:, which is approx 50 standard 80g bars)
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Online nutrition calc gave me the following values for 100g:

fat: 23g (incl. saturated fat: 8g)
carb 49g (incl. fiber 7g and simple sugars 22g)
protein 12g
calories: 430kcal

mruser2014

Better alternatives available.

Very Very high in fats and bad fats for that matter. I wouldn't be eating to many of these.

High sugar content so needs to be limited to long spins and not to be eaten outside of these or the weight will pile on.

Thats my take on it anyway.

Alek

You can substitute grains/nuts/raisins for more oats to cut most fat, however I'm eating stuff like this daily, along with other "unhealthy" foods - like loads of butter for example, and still keeping my weight pretty low (81kg, 189cm). Regular excercise is the key - I used to weight 95kg a year ago and didn't really changed my eating habits. (Well, even 105kg at some stage). My blood tests are also perfect, managed to bring down lipids and cholesterol to very good levels just by cycling and (recently) running.

The definition of "better alternatives" used to change so often over years I simply stopped caring

mruser2014

An advantage of these is that you don't have the added preservatives and salt that are in shop bought ones.

Well done of the weight loss and good bloods. The cycling is obviously helping that.

However, a high fat and high sugar diet is not good for cycling performance. While you may have lost weight you would be able to increase your performance if you cut out down those high bad fats. Plenty of good fats in fruit and nuts but these are very high in bad fats and sugars.

Each to their own but I wouldn't be recommending people to eat these everyday. Its madness in my opinion. Too much badness in them and akin to eating lots of cake and biscuits.

Oryx

I didn't think they were too bad. Mostly unprocessed seeds and grains. The sultanas are full of sugar, okay. But if these are used when training, you need an energy rich food, and these are a hell of a lot better than say, Ride bars or similar.

jimm

Great idea for a thread.

Not my recipe however, but copied from StickyBottle....Saxo-Tinkoff chef makes rice cakes.
Video: How to make rice cakes; widely regarded as great grub for cyclists

http://www.stickybottle.com/coaching/video-how-to-make-rice-cakes-widely-regarded-as-great-grub-for-cyclists/

jinkypolly

jimm wrote: »

Great idea for a thread.

Not my recipe however, but copied from StickyBottle....Saxo-Tinkoff chef makes rice cakes.
Video: How to make rice cakes; widely regarded as great grub for cyclists

http://www.stickybottle.com/coaching/video-how-to-make-rice-cakes-widely-regarded-as-great-grub-for-cyclists/

Another GCN video claimed by stickybottle.

Here's GCN's take on energy bars which coincidentally I made a batch of last night (with very slight variation).
http://youtu.be/jMJEIiWV3VQ

2 Wheels Good

From Odlums

Simliar to above, but no peanut butter and raisins instead of sultanas. I use sesame seeds as well and use mixed fruits sometimes instead of the 125g raisins and 100g cranberries. The coconut can be a bit strong too so I’ve dropped that for Goji berries and mixed nuts.

Only 2 mandatories are the porridge and the condensed milk so it's possible to mix and match from the cupboard for the rest. I use organic oats instead of the odlums porridge. I've tried to get an alternative to the condensed milk but no luck there.

Ingredients

300g/11oz Odlums Harvest Fruit Porridge
1x 397g Tin Condensed Milk
125g/4oz Shamrock Raisins
100g Packet Shamrock Flaked Almonds
100g Packet Dried Cranberries or Blueberries
75g/3oz Shamrock Desiccated Coconut
2 tablespoons Linseeds

i_surge

mruser2014 wrote: »

Better alternatives available.

Very Very high in fats and bad fats for that matter. I wouldn't be eating to many of these.

High sugar content so needs to be limited to long spins and not to be eaten outside of these or the weight will pile on.

Thats my take on it anyway.

Bad fats in coconut shaving, sunflower seeds and linseeds???

Maybe peanut butter depending on what brand.

Sounds like a good blend to me, especially for long distance with protein in the seeds.

Better than powerbars or other such sh*te

mruser2014

i_surge wrote: »

Bad fats in coconut shaving, sunflower seeds and linseeds???

Maybe peanut butter depending on what brand.

Sounds like a good blend to me, especially for long distance with protein in the seeds.

Better than powerbars or other such sh*te

saturated fat: 8g???

That is a lot of bad fats in one bar.
Also the OP is eating these daily and not just on long spins.
I was saying there is too high a sugar content which converts to fat plus all high saturated fat? Not good to be eating everyday.
Maybe if he took out the peanut butter. The Calories are a also high for just a small piece of food. Grand for a long spin alright but that’s all.
I just don't see the need for such a large amount of fat for a cycle bar.
That’s my take on it anyway.

ford2600

mruser2014 wrote: »

saturated fat: 8g???

That is a lot of bad fats in one bar.
Also the OP is eating these daily and not just on long spins.
I was saying there is too high a sugar content which converts to fat plus all high saturated fat? Not good to be eating everyday.
Maybe if he took out the peanut butter. The Calories are a also high for just a small piece of food. Grand for a long spin alright but that’s all.
I just don't see the need for such a large amount of fat for a cycle bar.
That’s my take on it anyway.

I eat high fat, but like the look of Alek's bars for very long spins. Do you post OP? Taking orders for the Fleche?

Saturated fat is bad? Trans fats yes, lots of evidence saturated fat is quite harmless.

ZiabR

By removing the Peanut Butter and Sultans you would lower the saturated fat to circa 2g. But you could change the peanut butter brand and go for an expensive organic version. (I love peanut butter too much )

AstraMonti

Mini sausages, cheese, macadamia and brazil nuts for long spins. Works quite well with a small bottle of vino in the other pocket.

nak

Very surprised no one else has mentioned the 3 cans of condensed milk! Ouch.

ford2600

AstraMonti wrote: »

Mini sausages, cheese, macadamia and brazil nuts for long spins. Works quite well with a small bottle of vino in the other pocket.

I use nuts on spins over 150km, generally nothing less than that.

Once I go over 200, I need some food but not much. More mental than anything I think

Cheese and sausage could be manky by then! Wine is always good

Cream is my go to fat in service stations. I get funny looks when 250mls of double cream is gone in one swig.

Alek

ford2600 wrote: »

Do you post OP? Taking orders for the Fleche?

Haven't thought about it? No problem if you want

(not doing Fleche this year though)

bambergbike

2 Wheels Good wrote: »

I've tried to get an alternative to the condensed milk but no luck there.

You can "bind" flapjacks with lots of different ingredients or combinations of ingredients. Banana, coconut oil, nut butters, butter, condensed milk, coconut cream, golden syrup, flour, ground linseeds...

What alternative to condensed milk you pick probably depends on why you want an alternative and what flavours/nutritional balance you want, but there should be an alternative out there somewhere - which ones have you already tried and found wanting?

bambergbike

I forgot at least two possibilities there - margarine and agave syrup. I'd shy away from the former on health grounds and the latter on cost grounds, so neither occurred to me right away.

eeeee

I bind flapjacks with honey then bake. They can be a bit soft though, but yummy. Conversly they stay together better as they don't flake apart.

Oryx

I'm even worse, I melt honey and butter together as a binding agent, and throw an egg in too. I mix oats, ground almonds, ground seeds, dried fruit, chopped walnuts and various other nuts/seeds depending on whats in the cupboard. Cinnamon or vanilla essence adds flavour. It has a more cake like consistency, and I haven't nailed the texture yet, its still a bit crumbly.

Beasty

gadetra wrote: »

I bind flapjacks with honey then bake. They can be a bit soft though, but yummy.

My diet still comprises soft food - being a creature of habit, for the past 6 weeks it's been pretty much porridge for breakfast, toast which is barely past the "white" stage plus marmalade to soften it for lunch, and mash mixed with cheese for dinner. In between snacks comprise yoghurt or dunked biscuits/granola bars ....

Ole Rodrigo

Porridge with soy milk and those frozen mixed berries from LIDl. Mmm, mmm.

Green Curry with fish, lots of green veg and a handful of thai basil thrown in at the end. Theres something about rice, veg and coconut curry thats especially nice after a spin.

Inspector Coptoor

I've a batch in the oven now.

300ml Almond milk mixed with
100g cashew butter (organic)
100g peanut butter (organic)
Packet sesame seeds
Two handfuls almonds
2 handfuls cashew nuts
Mix in oats until quite thick.

Far is by far the most represented macro & I'm absolutely fine with that.

Brian?

jimm wrote: »

Great idea for a thread.

Not my recipe however, but copied from StickyBottle....Saxo-Tinkoff chef makes rice cakes.
Video: How to make rice cakes; widely regarded as great grub for cyclists

http://www.stickybottle.com/coaching/video-how-to-make-rice-cakes-widely-regarded-as-great-grub-for-cyclists/

Made these Wednesday night for my spin yesterday. Fantastic.