Avocado chocolate pudding?  Before you click the “dislike” button in your mind, hear me out.  In the world of foodie blogs, there’s recently been a lot of chatter, pinning, and reposting of Chocolate Pudding recipes made with avocados.  And yes, it’s delicious.  It’s whole-food, velvety smooth, super-chocolaty, relatively low sugar, and very easy to make.  But how does that help you with cycling?  By adding protein to it, it just happens to make a perfect recovery snack.

This week, we can have our chocolate and eat it too.

Recipe of the week:  Dark Chocolate Avocado RECOVERY Pudding

(adapted from http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/03/raw-chocolate-pudding.html)

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados, peeled and scooped
• ¼ cup organic honey
• 3 Tbsp organic coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup raw cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 2 cups fat-free Greek-style yogurt

Instructions:

Blend all ingredients except yogurt in a blender or food processor until thoroughly mixed and smooth.  Stir in yogurt until mixed.  Chill at least 30 minutes.  Enjoy as a recovery snack with a large glass of water.  Makes 4 servings.

Comments:

What makes a perfect recovery?  In a nutshell, I believe optimal recovery components include adequate calories, efficient energy sources like carbohydrates and medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), protein, electrolytes, antioxidants, and healthy bacteria.  Preferably, from whole-food sources that provide quick AND long-lasting nutrition.  Here’s why:

Adequate calories and efficient energy sources:  Your body continues to burn calories at a higher-than-normal rate long after you’ve completed your workout.  If you don’t give it calories from efficient fuel sources like carbs and MCTs, you 1) will begin to breakdown and burn muscle, and 2) won’t replenish glycogen stores properly.

When you give your body carbs after your workout, it will first replenish glycogen stores.  In fact, the enzymes responsible for replenishing these carbs stored in muscles continue to work overtime immediately after training.  Then, the additional calories from healthy fats like the MCTs found in organic coconut oil (fast-acting) and mono-unsaturated fats in avocados (slow-acting) will continue to provide your body with energy so that it doesn’t have to break down muscle.

Protein: After working and straining your muscles during training, your body can use some extra protein to repair muscles, increase glycogen storage by increasing insulin output, and spare muscles from breakdown.

Electrolytes: After sweating away fluid, sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes, it’s important to replenish them so that the body regains balance.  With this recovery mousse, you’ll get good amounts of sodium (123 mg), potassium (356 mg), calcium (110 mg), and magnesium (20 mg).

Antioxidants and Healthy Bacteria: When you train, your body goes through many more chemical reactions than it does in a sedentary state.  In aerobic endurance training, you take in and use a lot of oxygen.  All this oxygen and extra chemical reactions leads to a lot of extra “charged” molecules in the body, or free radicals.  While the exercise is great for our heart and bodies, the free radicals, in the absence of anti-oxidants, can cause harm to our cells.  To fight them, immediately flood your body with antioxidants from foods like honey, cocoa, fruits, and vegetables.  As a bonus, healthy bacteria from yogurts and fermented foods increase the amount of antioxidants your body absorbs, even in the short term.

Caution! A word on recovery and weight loss: If your primary goal is to lose weight, don’t add in extra calories with an independent recovery snack.  Rather, “time” your subsequent meal or snack to act as your recovery after you train.  One serving of this chocolate mousse actually makes a balanced, healthy meal, or a half-serving will work as a snack.

For more information on the health benefits of each of the ingredients in this week’s Loving The Bite recipe, see avocados, organic coconut oil, cocoa, and plain yogurt.

Make a healthy recovery snack a consistent habit; you will feel good, have steady energy, and be ready to go hard again tomorrow.  Fail to recover well after hard workouts and you may drag through the rest of the day feeling fatigued and famished, only to go out and have heavy legs on the bike tomorrow.

Fuel Your Ride.  Nourish Your Body.

Top photo c/o Forgiving Martha

Bored with the same-old out-of-new-ideas dinner?  Let’s liven it up with a meal that’s company-worthy, compliments-guaranteed, and a change of pace from the usual grilled chicken.  Even better, it’s sure to benefit your heart, your arteries, your lungs, and your energy production – basically everything you need besides a bamboo bike to ride better, right (wink)?  Surely, you don’t need any more reasons to make:

Recipe of the week: Cashew-Encrusted Chicken

Ingredients:

• Four 6-ounce Chicken Breasts or Thighs (organic, boneless & skinless)
• 4 Tbsp any kind Flour
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• ½ Cups finely ground or chopped cashews (or Pecans or Macadamia nuts)
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• ¼ cup Greek yogurt
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tsp whole-grain mustard
• 1 tsp ground ginger

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle 6 oz. chicken breast with salt & pepper, coat with flour, dip into beaten egg, and coat with ground nuts.

Heat olive oil in large skillet over med. heat. Cook chicken in oil until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side.  Place in baking dish, bake 35-40 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

While chicken is baking, prepare ginger aioli by:  Combining Greek yogurt, lemon juice, mustard, and ground ginger.  Store in refrigerator.  Dollop over chicken to serve.

*If short on time (outcome not quite as fantastic, but close) – stir fry plain chicken (do not coat with nuts) in olive oil.  When almost cooked through, chop chicken into bite size piece using spatula.  Then, add salt/pepper and nuts.  Continue to stir-fry until cooked through, stirring ground nuts to coat chicken.  While chicken is cooking, prepare ginger aioli as above.

Comments on Cashews:

Nuts about cashews?  I am.  Great snack, awesome nut butter (just process with a small amount of peanut or olive oil in food processor until smooth), and tasty ingredient.  Although cashews do not receive the nutrition recognition of almonds and walnuts, they are absolutely a great source of nutrients and flavor.  I believe you simply can’t go wrong with nuts and cashews are no exception.  Here are the reasons I want to catch you with cashews:

1)  They are loaded with monounsaturated fats (MUFAs).  In fact, their specific MUFAs, the cleats and oleic acid (same as found in olive oil) are great for helping improve good cholesterol while reducing bad cholesterol.

2)  Antioxidants: The antioxidants found in cashews promote heart health and healthy cells – our cells constantly deal with oxidative stress, and we need all the antioxidants we can get!

3)  Copper: Few foods give us this essential mineral component of many enzymes that contribute to physiological processes such as iron utilization, elimination of free radicals, development of bone and connective tissue, and the production of the skin and hair pigment called melanin. Actually, for all you science buffs out there, copper is an essential component of the enzyme, superoxide dismutase, which is important in energy production and antioxidant defenses.

Better energy production?  Yes, please.

It’s also necessary for the activity of lysyl oxidase, an enzyme involved in cross-linking collagen and elastin, both of which provide the ground substance and flexibility in blood vessels, bones and joints.  Remember, when you’re cycling, you want arteries that a healthy enough to accommodate the increased amounts of blood pulsing through your body.  Stiff arteries = increased blood pressure.

What’s more, numerous health problems can develop when copper intake is inadequate, including iron deficiency anemia, ruptured blood vessels, osteoporosis, joint problems such as rheumatoid arthritis, brain disturbances, elevated LDL (bad) cholesterol and reduced HDL (good) cholesterol levels, irregular heartbeat, and increased susceptibility to infections. No thank you!

4)     Magnesium: Another underrated nutrient…It’s vital for healthy bones, helps regulate nerve and muscle tone (by balancing calcium), and reduces risk of gallstones.  When it’s too low, there’s an increased risk for high blood pressure, muscle spasms (including spasms of the heart muscle or the spasms of the airways symptomatic of asthma), and migraine headaches, as well as muscle cramps, tension, soreness and fatigue. Just a quarter-cup of cashews provides 22.3% of the daily value for magnesium.

Cashew.  No, I didn’t sneeze, but thanks.  Just remember to add ‘em to your salad (move over unhealthy croutons), your smoothies (yum), your sandwich (nothing beats cashew butter and honey) and your dinner.   They’re great, along with some carbs, as a post-workout recovery snack.  They may be loaded with fat, but it’s all heart healthy, metabolism healthy, blood-sugar healthy fat.  They’ll give you minerals, antioxidants, and something to tell your friends about (and sound really smart while doing so).  Go nuts.

Fuel your Ride.  Nourish you body.