Friday Food: The Athlete’s Plate

I’m just back from (another) long haul business trip and super excited to see that my contribution to the Cook Train Eat Race series “The Athlete’s Plate by The Athlete” is now up!  Head on over to the site to see Jason’s take on a day in the life of my eating.

That day is pretty typical for me, and involved a lot of “cook it yourself” as well as “kitchen experimentation” with some new toys.  Can I say once again how much I love cooking and eating well?  For me, the kitchen really is my happy place…

New Recipes

I made Jamie Oliver’s fish pie on the day featured.  The recipe was super easy, and I highly recommend it.  Copied here for your convenience.

 

Ingredients

An assortment of fish and shellfish (no bones or shells) – about 900 grams worth (a pound and a half), cubed into biggish pieces
2 small carrots (or 1 large), grated
2 stalks of celery, grated
1 or 2 tomatoes, cubed roughly
Swiss chard or spinach, roughly cut discarding stems
1 finely chopped red chili pepper (or dried chili flakes)
a handful of chopped parsely
about 5 medium/large sized potatoes, peeled and diced into small cubes for boiling
150g of grated cheddar cheese

 

Instructions

1.  Heat the oven to 200C/400F
2.  Peel the potatoes, boil.  When soft, drain and then mash them up, adding olive oil (no butter or milk in this mash!)
3.  Combine the fish/shellfish pieces, cheese, carrots, celery, olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper (to taste), red chili flakes, tomatoes, greens (spinach or chard), in a baking dish.
4.  Cover the pie filling with the mash.
5.  Bake for about 40 minutes or until piping hot and cooked through
6.  Enjoy!

Note:  I did not cook this with added salt or pepper as I prefer to add after I cook, to taste.  The dish may have benefited from salt when cooking.  Instead of adding salt, we served with Worcestershire sauce which was great.  I also think it is a bit all the same colour – Jason suggested using mashed sweet potatoes as an option.  This may be a nice twist on the traditional fish pie!

New Toys

I have a couple of new machines in my kitchen which I am playing with – a Vitamix, as well as an Ice Cream Maker.  More motivation to embrace the “if I want it I’ll make it myself” philosophy I try to have when it comes to food.

 

Vitamix Experiments

I made a green fruit cocktail following a gym session – kiwis, apple, frozen pineapple water.  It was okay, although not the best ever fruit smoothie.

Jason suggested adding a source of protein to the juices.  My nutritionist Vicki Edgson gave me a jar of flaxseed which I should have remembered to add, that would have been perfect.  Jason also suggested peanut butter, although I must admit I am not a nut butter addict (I do have a jar of Justin’s Honey Almond lurking in the cupboard though that I will remember about in the future).  I like Jason’s tip of trying to remember a 3 to 1 ratio for smoothies – 3 parts fruit, 1 part protein.

Do you have any smoothie tips to share?  Let me know, and I will try them out and post them here!

 

Ice Cream Experiments

I have long wanted an ice cream machine.  I am an ice cream lover – I admit it.  But keeping ice cream in the freezer is a big trap for me – if it is there, it is so easy to just reach for an eat!  My motivation for buying the machine was to move more into the “I’ll only eat it if I make it” way of thinking, forcing me to plan ahead and to not just have a treat readily available.

For my first experiment I made David Lebovitz’s amazing salted butter caramel ice cream.  Oh. My. God.  This was SO GOOD.  There is a reason why it is the first on the list when you google “salted caramel ice cream” grin

Since this first experiment I have also tried my hand at Lemon Sorbet, and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Jason comments that with ice cream you need to be careful about portion size.  I had a single scoop. 

I can safely say that making ice cream has opened my eyes to what I really eat when I eat ice cream.  Why?

  • The salted caramel I made had 300g of sugar (that’s 10 ounces, or about 2/3 of a pound) in it.  And this count excludes the crumbled hard caramel on top!
  • The lemon sorbet?  350 grams (a bit more than 12 ounces, or three quarters of a pound!)…
  • And the vanilla?  150 grams (a bit over 5 ounces or just shy of a third of a pound). 
  • Not to mention the eggs, cream and milk in the salted caramel and vanilla.  6 egg yolks each!

 

Making my own has really made me aware of what exactly it means to eat a whole container of ice cream!

What things have you learned by cooking at home and embracing the “if I want it I’ll make it” philosophy?



One response to “Friday Food: The Athlete’s Plate”

  1. “if I want it, I’ll make it” in my house definitely applies to bread and ice cream. Last year my husband bought be a stand mixer for my Birthday. I don’t know how I ever lived without it! The first accessory I bought for my mixer was the ice cream maker smile

    I would rather eat my home made cream, sugar and egg yolk laden ice creams than anything else. Knowing exactly what goes into it makes me eat smaller portions, but enjoy it even more. The list of ingredients on most commercial brands it’s pretty horrifying (and mostly unrecognizable).

    As for smoothies, I am a huge kale fan and love this recipe: 2 cups loosely packed kale, 1 banana, 1 cup soy milk and 1/4cup ice. Serve with 1/4 cup raw almonds.

    It’s my go-to breakfast smoothie after a morning run. Yum!

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