Cycling Foodie

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A wonderful post-ride recovery meal - easy, low carb, high protein, and delicious!

Spicy Chipotle Shrimp with Stir Fried Vegetables

3 tablespoons good quality olive oil
8 ounces shrimp (medium to large size), cleaned, shelled, & deveined
1 – 2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot or red onion
1 – 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 – 2 tablespoon Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce, finely diced
1/4 cup dry white or sparkling wine
salt, pepper, red chile flakes to taste

about 4 cups of assorted vegetables* of your choice, cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons orange juice
a dash of low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped

Prepare all of your ingredients. Rinse the shrimp, shell, and devein them. You can leave the tails on or pull them off – it’s a matter of personal choice.  Lay them on paper towels to remove excess moisture.

Over medium-high, heat one tablespoon of the oil in a wok. Add the shrimp and cook until they just start to turn pink. Remove from heat and set in a colander to drain. Wipe the wok clean.

Add the second tablespoon of oil to the wok and reheat, on medium heat. Add the garlic and shallot or onion and cook until they just begin to caramelize. Add the Chipotle peppers and heat through. Return the shrimp to the wok and toss to combine well. Add the wine and cook on medium heat to reduce the wine and thicken the sauce. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and chile flakes. Remove from heat, cover and keep warm.

In another wok, heat the last tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Add your vegetables in batches and stir fry a few minutes. Add the orange juice and soy sauce, and cook just until the excess liquid is mostly evaporated. It’s important to not overcook the vegetables for this dish, so watch them carefully.

To serve, divide the vegetables between two large dinner bowls, top with the shrimp, and garnish with the cashews.

This makes two large servings.

We used asparagus, carrots, celery, French green beans, mushrooms, and snap peas.

If you want to add some healthy carbs, this would be great with some brown or black rice.

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This is an awesome dinner to serve the night before a big ride. To make it a great recovery meal, serve it as a side dish with some good lean protein such as fish, chicken, turkey, or pork tenderloin.

Pasta Primavera

1 tablespoon good olive oil
Assorted vegetables*, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into about 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 can tomato paste
1 jar of marinara sauce
your favorite pasta

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy bottomed skillet. Saute the vegetables for a few minutes, just to start them cooking. Add the tomato paste and marinara sauce. Stir to combine well. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and allow to simmer for about 15 to 30 minutes. How long you cook the sauce will depend on how crisp you like your vegetables. I tend to like mine on the crisp side, so when I prepare a Primavera this way, I only cook the sauce 15 to 20 minutes.

Cook your pasta according to the directions its packaging. Drain the pasta, and if desired, toss with a little olive oil.

To serve …

Portion your pasta into a bowl.

Ladle your Primavera Sauce over the pasta.

If desired, sprinkle with a little freshly grated cheese, such as Parmesan, Asiago, or Romano. A good, crusty bread will be a nice accompaniment, also. If you feel like something a bit richer, then feel free to add a bit of Italian Sausage, sweet or spicy would be good. To keep it on the light side, be sure to use a lower fat sausage, such as chicken or turkey.

* Tonight I used asparagus, carrots, fresh fennel, French green beans, heirloom cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and snap peas. You can use any combination you like! That’s the beauty of a recipe like this – it is so very flexible. It’s easy, nutritious, low in fat, and delicious, too.

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Legend has it that lentils will bring good health and prosperity in the New Year. How convenient that we just happened to have a bone-in ham for Christmas! I’ve got my batch of lentil soup on the stove right now and it will be ready later today.

I sort of followed the recipe on the bag of lentils, but mostly improvised. I didn’t quite have enough stock, so I used some dry white wine for part of the liquid. I don’t like canned tomatoes, so I used fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes. All of the measurements below are approximate. Normally I would add an onion or shallots, but I didn’t have any on hand (shocking!), so they’re omitted from this recipe.

Lentil Soup - a family tradition for good luck, health, and prosperity for the New Year!

Lentil Soup

2 pounds lentils
1 tablespoon oil (I like avocado or olive oil)
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup diced lean ham (optional)
1 ham bone*
1-2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
2-3 cups dry white wine
8-10 cups chicken stock (low sodium)

Prepare the lentils – spread the dry lentils out over a kitchen towel and check to make sure there are no pebbles or sand in them. Next, place the lentils in a colander and rinse with cool water. Set aside.

In a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot, heat the oil over medium heat. If you’re using onion or shallots, saute them a bit first, then add the carrots and celery. Saute the carrots and celery to soften a bit. If you’re adding the additional diced ham, add it now and saute a bit with the vegetables. Add the wine and increase the heat to bring to a gentle boil.

Add the ham bone, sliced tomatoes, and lentils; give a good stir. Pour in 8 cups of stock, stir well. Cook on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook on low heat until the lentils are tender. You’ll want to stir the soup every 30 minutes or so and if necessary, add the additional stock. After about 2 hours, the soup will be ready to eat, but I usually cook it longer (3-4 hours) because I like the lentils more well done.

* For the ham bone … if you’ve recently cooked a bone-in ham, you’ll want to save the bone for making soup like this. If you don’t have a leftover ham bone, then you can use 3-4 ham hocks. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that ham hocks will add more fat to this recipe. They’ve got great flavor, but they are loaded with fat. If you don’t have a ham bone and don’t want to use ham hocks, Trader Joe’s makes a Smoked Chicken Apple Chardonnay Sausage that would also be good in this soup. Just dice it, saute it in place of the ham, and there you go.

You could also make this vegetarian by omitting the ham and using vegetable stock. Oooh, you could use Shiitake mushrooms to give a bit of meaty texture. Adding a bit of brown rice or barley would round out the protein in a vegetarian version, also.

Oh, the possibilities!

This soup tastes even better the next day, and it freezes well, so make a big pot today – just in time for the New Year. Enjoy!

Serving suggestion ... serve with homemade biscuits.

Here’s an idea … take your favorite biscuit recipe, add a handful of shredded Parmesan, Asiago, and/or Romano cheeses, and some chopped fresh herbs. Simple, easy additions are often the best!

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As promised, here is the recipe for Chicken Vegetable Soup. This is a very homey and rustic soup recipe. You can use homemade chicken stock or your favorite brand of prepared stock.

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Serve piping hot garnished with a bit of Parmesan cheese

Here’s what you will need:

About 2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 carrots
3 stalks celery
1 medium onion
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
6 ounces fresh cooking greens, such as kale or Swiss chard, roughly chopped
12 ounces cooked kidney beans, rinsed and well drained
1 cup fresh or frozen peas and/or corn
1 cup chopped fresh Roma tomatoes
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1 cup shredded chicken meat (optional)
4 quarts of chicken stock
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
2 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated Parmesan cheese to garnish

Assemble and prepare all of your ingredients. Wash, drain, and cut the vegetables and herbs. You can cut the vegetables into bite sized pieces, or a little larger, depending on your preference. Remember that larger pieces take longer to cook, and you don’t want them so large that they’ll make the soup difficult to serve or eat. If you are using baby greens, you may not need to chop them at all, but I usually give them a chop or two just to make sure I don’t end up with a stem falling off my spoon and making a mess while I’m trying to enjoy the soup.

In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot over medium heat, add about 1 tablespoon of the oil. Add the onions and saute until softened. Add the carrots and celery, stirring to combine with the onions. Saute a few minutes, then add the mushrooms briefly. Cover and reduce heat to low. Allow to sweat a few minutes.

Click here for a culinary definition of “sweat.”

Remove the lid, give a good stir to the onion mixture. Add the chopped greens, beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, rice, and chicken meat.

Add the fresh greens, cooked rice, and beans.

Add the stock and give a good stir. Cover and bring the heat up to medium high. You want to watch this carefully because when it gets close to a boil, you’ll reduce the heat to low. Allow to simmer until all of the vegetables are cooked to your liking. This will take a good 2-3 hours on low heat. Add the fresh herbs in the last hour of cooking; this will help to maintain their fresh flavor.

Add the stock, bring to a gentle boil, and then set to simmer.

This soup is terrific with a hearty homemade bread, like this multi-grain bread.

This recipe is very flexible – you can adjust the amount of any of these ingredients, substitute different vegetables, use pasta in place of rice, omit almost any of the ingredients (except, of course, the stock!). Have fun with it – try different variations and combinations.

For my vegan friends, you can easily make this vegan by using a vegan vegetable stock and omitting the chicken meat. There will be plenty of protein from the rice, beans, peas, and corn.

Legumes and grains are complementary proteins. What this means is that pairing a grain with a legume will provide you with a nutritionally complete protein. For example, rice + beans, or corn + peas.

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I am so thankful to have been able to take the day off work Friday. The weather could not have been more perfect for a quick 46-mile jaunt on the American River Trail. I haven’t been able to do a lot of cycling lately, but I kept up with my riding partner pretty well today. The ride left me hungry and craving healthy refreshment.

Sweet, refreshing, and healthy

Just as we got home I grabbed a papaya; I have been craving them lately. A hearth-healthy snack, papayas are loaded with antioxidants like vitamin C, beta carotene, flavonoids, and fiber. They’ve got lots of health benefits, such as anti-inflammatory effects, promoting digestive health, immune support, just to name a few.

Papayas have even been featured on WebMD as Fruit of the Month!

This gave me the energy needed for stretching and a few chores, but I was hungry again soon. I haven’t made a smoothie in a while and that was just what I needed.

This smoothie will leave you feeling like a Super Hero!

Cherry, Mango, & Pineapple Smoothie

1/2 cup each: frozen dark sweet cherries, mango & pineapple chunks
1 scoop whey protein
8 ounces filtered water

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

I’m estimating that this smoothie has about 235 calories.

Enjoy in good health!

It’s time to head out for a little family picnic adventure on this lovely, rainy day!

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Yesterday I got to try OneBar.

Fueling with "1 BARS" prior to Foxy's Fall Century

Can't wait to try it!

I had the apple flavor and I really liked it. Besides tasting great, it packed really well on the ride. It tasted like real food, not how some bars taste overly processed. It was easy to eat, and sat well in my belly. Hopefully it will be easy to find at my local markets because I really want to try the cherry and mango flavors, also.

By the way, I have no idea who these other cyclists are, but thanks for letting me join in your pictures!  I hope you enjoyed your ride as much as I did mine!

Apple OneBar ... it's a recommend!

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A spicy curry powder is a perfect complement for sweet potatoes. Rich and decadent tasting, this side dish will leave you satisfied and nourished. Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamin A, fiber, and a good source of potassium, copper, and and manganese. Curry also has many health benefits. Research has shown that the spices in curry powder may provide health benefits such as blood sugar control, anticancer benefits, and cholesterol management.

All you’ll need to make this is sweet potatoes, some good curry powder, a good quality olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit. Wash the potatoes and pat dry.

Slice into about 1/2-inch thick rounds.

Drizzle with some good olive oil.

A generous sprinkle of good curry powder.

Gently toss to evenly coat and spread in a single layer in the roasting pan. Roast for about an hour, or until they’re soft, rich, and sweet. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

You can also make these with yams, but sweet potatoes pack a more powerful nutritional punch.

Enjoy in good health!

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Are you looking for a super simple, super healthy, super rich-decadent-tasting side dish? Try this!

Roasted Asparagus and Shiitake Mushrooms

1 or 2 bunches of asparagus
6 to 8 ounces of fresh shiitake mushrooms
good quality olive oil
salt

Roasted Asparagus

Clean and trim* the asparagus. Rinse the shiitakes and drain well; if necessary trim the stems a bit. Place the asparagus and mushrooms in a large roasting pan, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and sprinkle with a generous pinch or two of salt. Roast at 375-degrees Fahrenheit until the asparagus is to your liking. I like it crisp-tender.

Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms

If you’re cooking other items in the oven at the same time, you can use whatever temperature you’re using for your other items, as long as it’s at least 350-degrees. I’ve roasted these at anywhere from 325 to 450 degrees and found that 350-400 degrees is best, but you could go up to 450 if need. At 325, it just took a little longer and I found it didn’t maintain the bright green, fresh flavor I like.

If you’re grilling, you can cook these on the grill, too! Just remember to use a pan that can go on the grill – like the disposable aluminum pans pictured here.

This tastes decadent, but it is a low-calorie, nutrition-packed side dish. Roasting brings out a delicate sweetness in the asparagus and shiitakes, the olive oil lends it a rich, almost buttery flavor. It’s also vegan and gluten free!

If you happen to have leftovers, they make a great addition to a frittata, or tossed with some pasta and other goodies (fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.). They’d also be great quickly stir-fried with some brown rice. Oh, the possibilities!

Rich in antioxidants, folates, vitamins and minerals, asparagus has many health benefits. Shiitake mushrooms are also a nutritional powerhouse, rich in trace minerals copper, pantothenic acid, and selenium. Shiitake mushrooms also have anti-inflammatory characteristics that can be very helpful.

*Tip: to trim the asparagus, I just hold the cut end on one hand and the center of the stalk in the other hand. I then gently bend the stalk until it snaps. I start as close to the cut end as possible. The stalk will naturally break where the tougher part ends. This is a great method to avoid unnecessary waste, but you’ll get stalks of varying length. If you want or need the stalks to be the same size, then you’ll want to use a knife to trim them.

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Dinner ... what's on your plate?

We had another gorgeous morning in Davis for a pre-work ride. Tomorrow and Sunday both look promising for some great cycling weather, too!

I’ve been super hungry all day after my morning ride, but I want to eat a little lighter right now because I feel like there has been too much foodie and not enough cycling lately. It’s time to reverse that trend and get back on track training for my 2014 Napa Valley Tour de Cure.

Are you hungry, but want a low-calorie and healthy dinner entree? Try this – it’s a generous portion, about 20 grams of protein, and only about 260 calories.

Sautéed Greens, Shiitake Mushrooms, and Chicken Apple Sausage
~ One serving ~

1 teaspoon avocado oil
3.5 ounces shiitake mushrooms, rinsed and sliced
1 3-ounce smoked chicken apple sausage, sliced into about 1/8-inch thick slices
5 ounces cooking greens (spinach, kale, chard), cleaned and spun dry

1. Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
2. Add sliced mushrooms and saute, browning slightly.
3. Add sausage and cook to heat through.
4. Add greens, cover, reduce heat to medium-low and allow to steam until the greens are wilted and tender.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This has about 260 calories:
Oil = 40
Mushrooms = 35
Sausage = 140
Greens = 45

Enjoy! Here’s hoping you get some great cycling in this weekend!

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Today’s ride was just a quick 21-mile easy ride. It’s been a while since I’ve done a longer ride, so I really felt yesterday’s ride this morning. That’s OK. I’ve got lots of chores to do at home, so that will keep me busy enough. However … it is a beautiful and unseasonably warm day out there in Davis today, so I will certainly have to find some excuse to get out and about again soon. But first … a snack.

This smoothie is luscious and refreshing. It’s a perfect post-ride or workout recovery snack – rich with flavor, but low in calories and loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  The whey protein is great for muscle recovery. For more information on the benefits of whey protein, click here.

Getting Ready To Blend ...

Emerald Paradise Smoothie

1 cup frozen raspberries
3/4 cup frozen mango chunks
3/4 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1 to 2 scoops vanilla whey protein
2-3 big handfuls of Tuscan kale
1 to 2 cups of filtered water

Place frozen fruit, protein powder, kale, and water in a large capacity blender and blend until smooth. For a thicker smoothie, add ice.

Makes about 7-8 cups.

Getting Ready to Enjoy!