This summer I’ve had a new (to me) problem in training.  Cramps.  Mostly in my calves.  They are pretty much constantly on the verge of charlie horsing…and Tuesday’s longish ride was no exception.  A big part of this is my crappy job keeping up with electrolyte replacement.  A big part of this is also that it was one-million degrees and I sweat like a pig (sidenote: a co-worker’s husband saw me running on the treadmill last Sunday and remarked to my coworker that I sweat an abnormal amount.  lovely).

Anyway, the whole time I was riding and hot and sweaty and cramping, I fantasized about bananas.  Wonderful potassium to heal my ailing calves.

By the time I got home, I was drooling thinking about the creation I was about to make for dinner.  And that creation was Bananas Foster Cottage Cheese Pancakes.

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• Canola oil cooking spray

1. Combine cottage cheese, eggs, milk, oil and stir until combined

2. Mix in dry ingredients (minus the brown sugar and cinnamon) and two sliced bananas

3. Plop some of the batter on the griddle.

4. When little bubbles begin to appear on top, flip pancake and allow to cook through.

4. In a saucepan, melt butter.

6. Add cinnamon and brown sugar

7.  Allow the sugar and cinnamon to dissolve, and add the last sliced banana, vanilla, and a cup of water.  Cook until a syruppy consistency has been reached.

8. Top pancake with syrup.

9. Eat.

10. Lick plate.

Um, where did this week go?  Tomorrow is Thursday, and then my weekend starts.  Kinda.  Except Friday is really spent in a DUI seminar.  But, DUI = talking about booze all day = close enough to a weekend for me.  I blame a lot of things for me going MIA from the blog again. Like 3 hours of crappy painful dental work.  And the resulting codeine fog that followed.  And this appeal brief that is due to the Court of Appeals Tuesday and I’m having to reteach myself how to Bluebook.  And bluebooking f-ing sucks (can I get an Amen for those lawyers and law students out there?).

But, anyway.  Enough excuses.  Back to the point.

On Saturday Night, I lay about, exahusted from the very hard ride that morning. And I was hungry; my garmin, after all, told me that I had burned almost 3,000 calories during my ride alone.

So, I stumbled down to the kitchen to find dinner. But my kitchen was too messy for cooking. And I was too tired to clean it up. I had nothing prepped for easy nuking. So I turned to the freezer for an easy frozen meal. Which there were none of.

But, oh. There was an unopened pint of Ben and Jerry’s Milk and Cookies Ice Cream.

So that’s what I had for dinner.

The entire pint. Straight out of the container. As I talked to Ariela on Skype.

Now, given all of my training, this is not a problem…calorically. But, as proper fuel for all the training I’m doing? Not so good. And honestly, folks, foodage is what I am struggling with the most. Because on average I am consuming about 4000 calories a day…and still losing a little weight. Sure, it would be easy to hit that calorie target with ice cream and Oreos, chips and pizza. But that crap leaves me feeling sluggish and is not the right fuel for my training.  And, even ice cream gets old after awhile

A few weeks ago, I tried to cook all my meals for the week on the weekend so that I would have healthy food at my fingertips.  But I got tired of what I had cooked by Wednesday or Thursday.

So, I’ve tried a new tactic this week.  Simple, easy, quick meals.  And…almost  all of the ingredients of these meals are local!

Brekky in bed: 3 Eggs, goat cheese, peccorino cheese (not local), roasted red peppers and roasted tomatoes.

Salad Nicoise: Ahi Tuna Steak (not local), boiled potatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes (FROM MY GARDEN), salad greens, olives (not local), hard boiled egg, beets.

Roasted Eggplant Salad: Salad Greens, Portobello Cap roasted with balsamic vinegar and evoo, feta cheese and Rosemary and EVOO roasted potatoes.

And finally, this has nothing to do with this post, but I want to introduce you to my new baby and cupcake partner:

Both he and I are ready for our next cupcake adventure…after this appeal is final written.

Alrighty…so now you tell me…any ideas on how to avoid eating a pint of ben and jerry’s for dinner (besides keeping my kitchen clean for cooking…because, folks, that’s just not gonna happen. )

So, with all the training I’ve been doing, I’ve been burning mad calories.  It’s been great.  Except that I don’t have the time to cook real food.  So (oopsies) my dinners have devolved into meals of Ben and Jerry’s straight from the carton and random assortments of dry cereals.  For realz.

It’s just that the last the I want to do after working all day and training during the evening is cook.  I want to eat.  And then sleep.  And then wake up and start all over again.

In fact, my weekends are starting to look predictably like: sleep, eat, train, eat, nap, eat, train, eat, sleep, eat, train, eat, nap, train, eat, sleep.  The week days are scarily similar…just throw some work in the mix.

Anyway, because I know that I cannot fuel myself on an Ironman journey with ice cream alone, I tried out a new plan this weekend:  TV dinners a la Pen.

In general, I boycott tv dinners because of the amount of preservatives in them, the environmental impact of all of the unnecessary storage, shipping, and disposable containers, and the all around lack of tastiness.  Plus, I am trying to eat as locally as possible.  So, I made my own “TV dinners.”  I surveyed the local produce sitting in my fridge and whipped up a few different things for the week as I enjoyed my free and relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Roasted Chickpeas with Old Bay

Sauteed beets with beet greens, spring onions, and rosemary

And what’s a day of cooking without some delish butter…

to which I added Snap Peas and Mint.

And finally, some Collards and Kale sauteed in Garlic and EVOO.

There was also a green lentil and sweet potato curry.  Yum.

Then, I packaged everything into meal portions.  Mixing and matching the dishes so no meal was exactly the same.

There were little lunch sizes.

And big dinner sizes. (that’s the curry below on the left)

Enough meals for the week.

And, now, all I have to do is grab a container out of the fridge for dinner, pop it in the microwave, and eat.  Good healthy local eats.  Now, I know microwaving food is not ideal.  And I’m not going to get into that right now.  BUT, all of my containers are BPA free, so that’s a health plus too.

Do you all have any other suggestions on how I might balance training my butt off and still having time to eat real, good, food?

On another note, I have been able to try ALL of the new Ben and Jerry’s flavors…if you have not yet tried the Milk and Cookies…go do it.  It’s soooooo good in my belly.

Alrighty, time for bed.

During tri season, I eat A LOT.  And I normally eat a lot compared to the normal person anyway, so when I say it’s a lot…it’s a lot.  And last season, I realied a lot on very processed pre, during, and post training food.  One of my goals this year is to reduced the amount of processed foods I consume; training food included.

So, this weekend I went to task creating some pre-workout fuel.  Let me introduce the Puffed Corn Trail Mix:

Mixed in a bowl: dried fruit and nut mix, extra raisins, dried unsweetened coconut, wheat germ, and puffed corn.

Warmed up about a cup of honey and poured over the mixture.  Tossed the mixture to coat.

Spread the mixture out on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

And baked for about 10 minutes.

One cup of the mixture has: 203 cal, 7.8g of fat (mostly from the coconut), 28.5g of carbs, 4g of protein.  It tasted pretty good, except the parts that burned (oops….).

In other burned food/cooking news…I definitely set a fire in my kitchen today.  Oopsies.  (ps. Mommy, I’m fine, the kitchen is fine, the animals are fine).  It was mostly just scary.  But yea, don’t forget about the coconut that you are toasting in the oven…that is all.

Has anyone else ever tried to make a “sporty fuel” from scratch?