Ive been trying all sorts of foods to push through training sessions as a triathlete.
The cheap brands and the expensive brands.
I enjoy making my own energy bars, breads, and even gels, to take on long rides or rides on TR.
So i was wondering what are peoples go to recipes (ingredients and instructions) so that everyone else can benefit from the great ideas we all may have.
Ive started off with my gel recipe below of which are all real food and has done me the world of good on my stomach when running long.
Ingredients
100g boiled white rice (over boiled so its super soft) (this is the base of the gel)
200ml coconut water (for the electrolytes)
100ml Maple syrup (for fast acting glycogen replenishment)
Juice of one lemon or 50ml of lemon juice from a bottle
1-2 teaspoons of salt (for the sodium lost in sweat)
Instructions
Simply blend all this in a ninja/bullet/soup type blender
You can play about with the amounts of liquid type ingredients to get the consistency of how you want it. I blend it for quite a while and then pass through a sieve to remove any harder bits.
Usage
Ive kept it in the fridge (covered) in a measuring jug for nearly 4 weeks and its been fine.
To use, i have a soft flask and fill that up and carry in back pocket on ride or run.
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract [original recipe calls for 1 tsp]
Directions
Cook rice, water, sugar, and coconut oil per rice instructions (eg stove, rice cooker, etc).
Mix in cream cheese and vanilla.
Add any other spices, fruits, chocolate, etc
Spoon into a large zip-closure freezer bag. Flatten, smooth the air out and leave to cool on a flat tray. Once cool, transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight.
In the morning, slide your tasty slab of rice onto a cutting board. Cut into approximately 20 squares. You can either keep them all together in an airtight container, or individually wrap them in foil, the way we do. Either way, they should be stored in the fridge until needed. Refrigerated, they will keep for about four days.
Potential add-ins (I have not tried any of these)
Fresh blueberries + dark chocolate chunks (72% cacao or higher)
Dried cranberries + fresh orange zest + white chocolate chunks
Dried tart cherries + fresh lemon zest
NOTE: I freeze my individually-wrapped rice cakes and they have kept well for several weeks. I take them out of the freezer before a ride and they are soft enough to eat after an hour.
I have been a huge fan of rice cakes on long training rides; they’re inexpensive and can be really delicious.
This is a good list of some of the faves. I LOVE the Umami Rice Cakes, they’re a great break from constant sweet snacks like gels and sports drink. I also enjoy the Nutella bars, though I make them with much less coconut than called for. The basic recipe is obviously super versatile, so try filling with whatever fruit, jam, nut butter etc. you prefer.
A few tricks worth employing:
Pre-treat your rice with dilute hydrogen peroxide. (Then rinse before cooking). Rice often contains bacterial spores that are not fully eliminated even by cooking, so this makes it last much much longer, even at room temp. More info here:
Not made clear in the Skratch recipes, but add all ingredients to your rice at room temp and pack it into a pan or bag, then FULLY chill (over night if possible) before cutting and wrapping.
I really love Skratch Paper for wrappers; they’re the perfect size, stay wrapped, and are easy to unwrap even while riding. I’ve tried standard aluminum foil and parchment paper, neither are close to as good. 100% worth the (minimal) cost to get the good wrappers: NEW Skratch Paper 2.0: parchment-lined aluminum foil - Skratch Labs
So you’ve been able to freeze your rice cakes and they aren’t a crumbly mess when you thaw them?! Hmm, maybe I need to try this particular recipe sometime. I never go through rice cakes quick enough that they stay good in the fridge and every time I freeze them I end up with foil packets full of crumbly rice!
Correct, and I only use half of the cream cheese that the EF Pro recipe recommends - no issues. I’ll occasionally have a rice kernel drop but haven’t had the whole block disintegrate.
I bike early in the morning and typically pull one out of the freezer as soon as I wake up as I’m making my last minute preps to get on the bike. I’m usually taking my first bite about 45-60 minutes after it starts thawing. It might be a little frozen toward the center but it’s definitely soft. No major issues.
With the hydrogen peroxide pre-treat in the link I posted on how to make your rice cakes last longer, I have no issue keeping these in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I generally make a recipe with 2 cups dry rice/3 cups water, and turn that into 12 cakes; I have no problem going through that number in 2 weeks. These end up containing 40-50g carb and 180-250kcal per bar depending on other add-ins.
I haven’t tried the cream cheese addition, though I’m interested. Seems like that’d add a fair amount of fat to the bar, but I could also see it improving flavor and consistency.
I missed that link on first read through but I’ll have to try that, sounds like an interesting idea! I know rice in the fridge is fairly high on the list of things that can give you food poisoning so I’ve always been hesitant to make rice cakes for that reason but yeah if they could be in the fridge for a few weeks safely that would help!