I work with many endurance athletes – ultra runners, cyclists, Ironman triathletes, etc. Nutrition is key to their success or failure. I have helped countless of athletes go from an almost dismal finish feeling deflated, despondent, depressed and wondering why they even decided to do this crazy activity. It is never about being under or over trained, it always comes down to nutrition. Always.
I am also about using real food as often as possible, too. Many of my clients benefit from eating dates with raw cashews over store bought bars. I also have looked for ways to use more real foods when I cycle and swim. Yes, I juice almost daily and love my beets, greens, lemon, ginger, turmeric and pineapple blend best and it really is awesome before my workout sessions. But not an easy thing to carry with you. And if you miss your mouth….well, people will think you are bleeding….oops.
My latest concoction has been to try using raw ingredients and make my own gel but without the dates. So I took my previous flatbreads recipe and decided to try that. It was awesome and fits into a flask very nicely to make it very transportable. Here is what is in it:
Raw sweet potato plantain gel:
2 raw organic medium sized sweet potatoes, diced
2 very ripe plantains, peeled and sliced
1-2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup soaked flax seeds. Soaked in 3/4 cup water for 1-2 hours
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2- 1 tsp pumpkin spice (or combo of ground cloves, allspic, nutmeg and cinnamon)
sea salt to taste (forgot this last batch so it is optional)
1-2 tablespoons of water to help with consistency
I basically put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until it is a paste. If I add more water, I think I could get this to be more liquidy but then it might also be too runny. If I had a Vitamix blender, I could put it in there and it would blend better but I really don’t feel like taking this blended concoction and putting it into a blender. That would be two containers to clean! But maybe it would work in the blender??? That will be my experiment this week!!
Enjoy! and let me know if you made this Sweet potato plantain gel and how it worked for you. I usually fill a couple of flasks with this gel, and then spoon out the rest onto the teflon sheets of my dehydrator and make flatbreads. These are also a great portable snack when riding! Or a quick pre-exercise or recovery snack. So versatile…who knew?? And all real food, easy to digest and good for an even energy boost.
