For me, a perfectly ripe local peach is one of the sweetest treats of flip-flop season. Their season is fleeting up here in Ontario so when August rolls around I’m working the stone fruit into my recipes anywhere I can. While a very sensible way to eat a hazardously juicy peach is by simply leaning over a kitchen sink with napkin nearby, I’ve also found a number of tasty ways to turn peaches from the farmers’ market into optimal recovery fuel.

Recharge with these recipes and you’ll be peachy keen to make them again and again.

Peaches and Cream Soaked Oats

Scoop this up for breakfast or after a hard workout – either way your taste buds won’t be disappointed.

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup plain or vanilla protein powder
2 teaspoons chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2/3 cup low-fat milk
1 small peach, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped almonds
1 tablespoon coconut flakes or chips (optional)
1 – 2 teaspoons maple syrup

In a bowl or half pint glass jar, stir together oats, protein powder, chia seeds and allspice. Stir in milk and then top with peaches, almonds, coconut if using and maple syrup. Cover and let soak overnight in the refrigerator.

Minty Peach Cheesecake Smoothie

This smoothie, which provides a winning mix of recovery protein and carbs, tastes like summer in a glass.

1/2 cup milk of choice
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 peach, pitted and quartered
1/4 cup fresh mint
2 tablespoons hemp seeds (hemp hearts)
1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 small frozen banana

Place all of the ingredients in a blender container in the order listed and blend until smooth.

Peach Toast

I can think of no better way to kickstart recovery than grabbing hold of this fully-loaded toast. It’s a delicious mix of creamy and sweet only made better by some nutty crunch. If you like, ricotta cheese can replace the cream cheese.

1 slice bread, toasted
2 tablespoons cream cheese
1 teaspoon orange zest (optional)
1/2 peach, sliced
1 tablespoon pistachios
2 tablespoons sliced basil
1 teaspoon honey

Spread cream cheese on toast and top with orange zest if using, peach slices, pistachios and basil. Drizzle on honey.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.

It seems that there is no end to the interest in transporting tasty treats from the kitchen to the trail. Recently, I was asked by Alive magazine, a publication I have worked with for many years, to put together a collection of portable nibbles that can help people stay energized during their summer adventures. The idea is that you need not rely solely on packaged energy foods to keep your gas tank from hitting red. It very much aligns with the premise of my book ROCKET FUEL.

From Curry Apricot Bars to Mocha Crepes, click here to head over to the Alive website to find this collection of recipes (and admittingly, more appetizing food photography) to help you keep up the pace all summer long.

Sweet Potato Energy Bites

Chocolate Hummus Stuffed Dates

Curry Apricot Bars

Mocha Crepes

Mini Trail Mix Muffins

The weather has finally become more conducive to longer outdoor workouts up here in Ontario, which means I have an appetite for stuffing some tasty fuel in my jersey pocket or backpack for those times when I’m happily spending a few hours on the saddle or walking in the woods. And of course, that means getting in the kitchen and rustling up some DIY rocket fuel.

When looking back at the recipes I developed for ROCKET FUEL, I always have a soft spot for the small pancakes, known in Russian parlance as blini, that I still use regularly to energize my rides. Since then, I”ve had a great time in the kitchen scheming up some new ways to flavor the bite-sized rounds. These savory baby pancakes offer up a respite from the sweetness that often dominates most endurance fuel. Pesto provides bright flavor, while those little chunks of sun-dried tomato offer up some palate-awakening umami. And I’ve even been known to slide a couple slices of cheese between two pancakes – I can think of no better way to slay mid-workout hunger. Great for the drive home from the mountain bike trails, too. Use store-bought pesto, or go ahead and blitz up your own for even fresher flavor.

For transport, you can simply slide a few of the savory pancakes into a small zip-top bag. But my preferred method is to use the eco-friendly reusable wraps from Abeego. These beeswax wraps are especially handy when I’m stuffing something between the mini pancakes and want to keep everything held together.

Pesto Mini Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk or unflavored nondairy milk
2 tablespoons pesto
1/3 cup finely chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons butter or oil

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, gently beat together eggs and milk. Whisk in pesto. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Stir in sun-dried tomatoes. Let batter rest 10 minutes.

Heat butter or oil in a skillet over medium heat. By the tablespoonful, drop batter into pan and heat mini-pancakes until edges begin to turn inwards and bubbles form on the surface, about 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for 1 minute more. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more butter or oil to pan as needed. Let prepared pancakes cool, preferably on a wire rack. You should get at least 22 mini-pancakes.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.

Smoothies will continue to be one of my go-to recovery options, but sometimes after a hard ride battling the winds that are a frequent foe here in the Ontario countryside I crave something that feels a little more substantial. Enter this guise of chia pudding. The lofty amounts of soluble fiber in chia forms a gel when mixed with liquid, which is easily exploited to make spoonable nourishment with a tapioca-like texture.

The strawberries provide recovery sugars and antioxidants, yogurt gives your weary muscles some much needed protein, chia seeds offer up essential omega fatty acids and a range of must-have minerals, and chocolate is just awesome. And there is no reason why this pudding can’t serve as a make-ahead breakfast option. Topping options include sliced fresh strawberries, chopped nuts like pistachios, coconut flakes, and even crunchy granola. If desired, raspberries can replace strawberries and you can stir in dark chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate.

By far, my favorite jars for making chia pudding as well as any overnight oat recipes are the Ball 16 ounce wide mouth glass jars. The large opening makes it easy to add in all the necessary ingredients and they have plenty of room for digging around with your spoon.

Look for more chia seed pudding recipes to fuel your adventures in the pages of ROCKET FUEL.

Strawberry Chia Pudding

2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries
3/4 cup milk or plain non-dairy milk
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup chia seeds
1 ounce chopped dark chocolate

Place strawberries, milk, yogurt, honey or maple syrup, vanilla and a pinch of salt in a blender and blend until smooth. Divide among 2 jars. Add half of the chia seeds and chocolate to each jar, seal shut and shake. Chill for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.

This winter, my girlfriend and I had the pleasure of riding our bikes between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. When you combine the fetching scenery, well-meaning denizens, exceptional backroads, incredible value and, of course, tasty eats, what you end up with is a very rewarding pedal power experience indeed.

From these cycle touring trips, I always like to glean culinary inspiration that I can import back home. Take for example the Loatian inspired Coconut Rice Cakes and the Fruit and Grain Drink borrowed from Chile that you can find in the pages of ROCKET FUEL. So I thought I would put together a visual potluck of some of the best foods that we used to fuel our Vietnamese two wheeled adventure.

You can read my trip journal from our 1,700 mile journey through Vietnam here.

Of course, no ride through Vietnam is complete without a daily Banh Mi habit. We most often opted for the egg and pickled veg variety. Will have to adapt this to a jersey pocket version.

Com Ga – a tasty mashup of yellow rice, grilled chicken, herbs and chili sauce. As spotted in Hoi An.

Kem Flan – A Vietnamese flan doused in coffee syrup. Worth the plane ticket alone.

We started most days with a comforting and nourishing bowl of noodle soup, a.k.a. pho.

These sugar sesame bars ended up being our Vietnam rocket fuel.

Nothing is better in the midst of a steamy ride that a combo of sweet iced coffee (cafe sua da) and iced green tea.

Mi Quang – A stunningly delicious bowl of thick noodles, quail eggs, pork, herbs and nuts. All for less than a buck for a hearty serving.

Vietnam produces most of the world’s supply of Dragon Fruit. They were worth carrying the extra weight.

Shrimp dumplings (White Rose) are a satisfying street food snack in Hoi An.

A big day on the saddle deserves an even bigger rice cake.

Dalat pizza – rice wrappers grilled till crispy and adorned with all sorts of toppings. Perfect for a cyclists lion sized appetite.

After climbing for a couple hours this display on the way to Dalat is a welcome sight.

Move over pho! Bun Bo Hue might just be the best soup in Vietnam.

Are fried silk worms Paleo?

Jackfruit chips are something we need more of in North America.

Ok, smelly durian is not the most practical addition to a cyclists fuel arsenal.

Hey Tabi, are you going to share some of that coconut water?

Yes, fresh squeezed cane juice is better than Gatorade.

These buns were tasty but not sure if that color is natural.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.

Most people assume that since I’m the author of Rocket Fuel which is a book dedicated to making your own exercise fuel that I have a serious hate-on for packaged energy foods. That’s not the case. It’s just that I believe a well fueled athlete should rely on a combination of what comes out of their own kitchen and what comes from a store. And truth be told, there are better options than ever when someone is looking for convenience food to help them keep up the pace. That’s why I thought it would be a good idea to pass along some of my favorite packaged energy foods that pair perfectly with some DIY fuel when I’m on the saddle for the long haul.

KIND Pressed Bars

One of the newest additions to the line-up of KIND bars are a standout. Athletes who crave simplicity will appreciate that the soft and chewy Pressed bars have a pared down ingredient list that contain little more than fruit and veggies. Don’t worry, they don’t taste like a salad in bar form. There is plenty of natural sweetness from the fruit to make them, well, sweet on the palate. During exercise, I appreciate that they contain a high percentage of carbohydrates to better fuel a workout and lessen the risk of tummy troubles. For instance, the Apricot Pear Carrot Beet bar (yes, that is essentially the extent of the ingredients) gets 95% of its calories from carbohydrates. Compare this to the 44% carbs found in the KIND Almond & Coconut (one of their many nut-based bars) and you see why the Pressed bars can be a better choice for a jersey pocket. Not to mention no risk of melted chocolate coating. I’m happy to give KIND kudos for raising the bar on portable fuel.

Untapped Maple Waffle

Want to slay mid-workout hunger? These portable waffles hit the spot – no waffle maker required. But let’s be honest here, the real reason I’m happy to trumpet these Dutch-style stroopwafels is that they are sweetened with maple syrup. My eastern Canada upbringing has trained my palate to think of maple syrup as its own food group. The primary form of carbohydrate in maple syrup is sucrose, which is a combo of glucose and fructose. Research has shown that sucrose is a reliable exogenous fuel source during endurance exercise and can elevate performance during long bouts of activity.

If your outing involves stopping at a coffee shop along route, try plunking a Untapped waffle in your espresso – a scene that seems almost criminal not to Instagram. Full disclosure: I often enjoy a waffle topped with a smear of nut butter as a pre-ride snack. The brand also offers up a coffee infused waffle (brilliant!) and maple syrup packets for a more natural gel-like shot of energy.

Made in Nature Figgy Pops

If you believe social media, balls are the new energy bars. So it was only a matter of time before companies started packaging up balls for sale on store shelves. Among the burgeoning number of offerings, I’m loving the Figgypops from Made in Nature. Available in appetizing flavors ranging from Tart Cherry Fig to the chocolaty Choco Crunch, these great balls of energy are dried fruit based (from the name, you can hazard a guess they contain dried figs) meaning they contain plenty of natural sugary energy. A serving of the balls gleans about 65% of its energy from carbohydrates so they can help keep you going strong to the finish line. When I don’t have any homemade energy balls on hand, I’ll simply place a handful of Figgy Pops in a zip-top bag and slide them into my jersey pocket for when I’m in need of a quick roadside nosh. I’ve had my eye on Made in Nature for several years now as they have several inventive whole food based products. The Ancient Grains Supersides can make any post-workout meal better.

Sun-Maid Raisin Packs

Sometimes it’s a good idea to call upon Mother Nature to keep your legs moving forward. A recent study found in the pages of the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition showed that budget-friendly raisins were just as effective as sport chews at improving endurance performance during an 80-minute run at 75% V02max followed by a 5K time trial. This makes sense when you consider that the parched grapes are 100% carbohydrate energy consisting of a combination of glucose and fructose. Studies show that ingesting two different simple carbs (i.e. glucose and fructose) during exercise is more effective at boosting performance than taking in just one form of simple carbohydrate. Based on this data, I’m a proponent of slipping a box of Sun-Maid raisins into a jersey pocket or gym bag for times when you’re in need of a natural energy boost. In Rocket Fuel, I even have a recipe for a DIY raisin energy shot that will give any commercial gel some stiff competition.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.

A major inspiration for writing ROCKET FUEL (other than fame and fortune!) was the emergence of research showing that certain foods you can source from supermarkets and bulk bins can do just as good of a job at boosting exercise performance and recovery as engineered sports nutrition products. Case in point: deliciously sweet-tart Montmorency cherries. It turns out their abundance of antioxidants can help athletes get more out of their workouts.

A study in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that cyclist who consumed a Montmorency tart cherry concentrate for 8 days prior to a 109-minute cycling trial experienced signs of accelerated recovery such as less inflammation and muscle pain. An important perk for those who regularly train hard. A separate study in the journal Nutrients discovered that regular consumption of Montmorency tart cherries can improve measures of recovery such as muscular pain and agility in those involved in sprint style sports such as soccer.

This makes Montmorency tart cherries a powerful addition to any diet geared towards achieving peak performance. For this reason, I’m always looking for ways to sneak more into my eating plan. Dried tart cherries are a great addition to a bowl of yogurt or oatmeal. They also find a way into many of my trail mix combos and DIY energy bars. Tart cherry juice can be enjoyed straight up after a spirited workout or used as a liquid base for post-training smoothies. Or try wrapping up this bundle of recovery nutrition after your next sweat fest. Creamy, crunchy and sweet at once, these craveable wraps provide a double cherry wallop to show your weary muscles some love. The dried Montmorency tart cherry topping is equally good strewn over yogurt or ice-cream. If using Montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate, mix 2 tablespoons with 1 cup water, which is roughly the equivalent of 1 cup of pure tart cherry juice.

Want to find out how Montmorency tart cherries can improve your fitness gains? The kind folks at Choosecherries.com would like to award a ROCKET FUEL reader with some tart cherry goodness to try this recipe or any of the other tart cherry infused recipes found in the pages of ROCKET FUEL. Just e-mail us at contest@rocketfuelfoods.net with “Montmorency tart cherries” in the subject line to enter. This contest closes January 12th!

Cherry Cheesecake Wraps

Serves 4

1 cup Montmorency tart cherry juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup dried Montmorency tart cherries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
2 teaspoons grated orange or lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
4 small whole-grain wraps
1/2 cup cream cheese
4 tablespoons chopped almonds

Place cherry juice, honey, dried cherries, cinnamon, ginger, orange or lemon zest and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove dried cherries from pan and set aside. Raise heat to high and boil, uncovered, for 3 minutes, or until liquid is reduced by about half and syrupy. Stir cherries and almond extract if using back into liquid.

To assemble wraps, spread about 2 tablespoons cream cheese on a wrap and then top with cherry mixture and almonds. Roll and eat.

In Rocket Fuel: Power-Packed Food for Sports & Adventure, award-winning dietitian Matt Kadey offers up 120 delicious, creative, and convenient real-food recipes to power your everyday exercise and weekend adventures.

Rocket Fuel is available now in bookstores, outdoors stores, and online from these online retailers:
MattKadey.com
VeloPress
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
local booksellers
Chapters/Indigo and MEC.ca in Canada

Food photography by Aaron Colussi.