If you love training, you’ll know that there’s nothing more important than the food you put in your mouth. What fuels you matters.
However, if you’re serious about getting fit, you can’t just chow down on empty calories and expect that to get you to where you want to be. Instead, you must eat consciously, providing your body with the nutrients that it needs to rest and repair after training.
The problem is this: most pre- and post-workout meals focus too much on macros, and too little on taste. And there’s no real reason for it. In fact, many of the ingredients that make food taste great are also highly beneficial for your health. Take herbs, like basil and parsley for instance. There’s no reason why you can’t add them to your meals for flavour. Not only do they taste great, but they also support your recovery too.
As a rule, recipes for fuelling your workouts must follow some basic criteria. These include:
- Being quick to make
- Containing enough energy to help you recover from training
- Taste delicious
- Use a variety of ingredients so you don’t get bored
- Easily eaten the next day
Check out the recipe ideas below.
Roasted Chicken And Veg In A Pan
Roasting isn’t something you should reserve for Sundays only. Instead, you want to be doing it every day of the week – or as much as is convenient to you.
Why is roasting so good? Two main reasons: first it makes food taste great. And second, it’s easy. You just chop up some meat and veg and throw it in a pan.
The veg you choose is also something that you can vary from day to day and season to season. Mixing things up a little helps to keep it interesting. Roasted veg tastes good reheated in the microwave, retaining all its rich flavours the next day.
Chickpea And Vegetable Stew
If you’re looking to make a quick recipe that will provide multiple meals, then look no further than chickpea and vegetable stew.
This dish contains both beans and greens and, again, allows you to experiment. The basics are always the same: curry powder, stock and chickpeas. It’s then up to you which vegetables to add to it. Practically any veggies will do, particularly cauliflower, spinach and potato. If you want it to taste more like Indian authentic curry, add garlic and onion.
Wholewheat Gnocchi And Mushrooms
You might find it challenging to locate wholewheat gnocchi at the store. But if you can, you’re in luck. It’s one of the most delicious foods out there, particularly when you combine it with the right ingredients.
Mushrooms are a great food to eat while you’re training because of their high protein content. Fungi are different from regular veg and offer an alternative protein source to meat.
To make gnocchi with mushrooms, begin by boiling the gnocchi in water. Then fry mushrooms in butter and combine in a bowl with fresh chopped basil, capers, fresh chopped parsley, olive oil, salt and Parmesan shavings.
Stir Fried Tempeh With Peanut
Continuing the veggie theme, we have stir-fried tempeh with peanut sauce. Again, this is something that’s incredibly easy to make and, if you store it correctly, actually tastes better the next day.
Start with a big block of tempeh – which is just packed, fermented soybeans. Chop it into cubes and cook it in the pan over a medium heat until you warm it through. Then add any other vegetables you want to eat with the dish – pak choi, sugar snap peas, broccoli, cabbage, bell pepper – and anything else you think that you might need.
Then move onto making the peanut sauce. The trick to making a great peanut sauce is to include all the essential elements – sweetness, fat, acid and salt.
To do this in a healthy manner, combine dates, peanut butter, rice wine vinegar and miso in a high-powered blender with some water. Chop all of the ingredients finely until they create a sauce. Then simply boil some noodles and rice, and serve.
Steak Fajitas With Chilli And Lime
If you’re looking to tone up but also need plenty of protein to fuel your workouts, then you’ll want to try delicious chili and lime fajitas.
Start with a beef joint and pop it in the oven for the required time (based on the weight). When, once it finishes cooking, take a sharp knife and cut it into slices, with the middle hopefully being a delicious shade of pink. Then fry some peppers and onions with lime and chilli and serve in tortillas with a sauce of your choice.
Mushroom And Asparagus Tofu Pie
If you currently take Saxenda, this mushroom and asparagus tofu pie is your friend. Unlike conventional pies, it doesn't contain large globs of fat. Instead, the bulk of the pie is just bean curd from soy.
Making this type of pie is incredibly simple and something that anyone can do. Start with a wholemeal pie crust base and fold it into your pie tin. Then put your tofu in a blender until you break it down into chunks that you can spread. Add mushrooms and asparagus shoots to the base already in the tin and then cover with the tofu mixture. Cook in the oven until golden brown.
Greek Pasta Salad
Greek food is delicious. But it is also a great cuisine for using up all your leftovers.
To make a Greek pasta salad, take all the opened olive, pepper and sundried tomato jars from your pantry and cut up these ingredients. Then find any cooked pasta you might have lying around and put it in a bowl. Mix all of the ingredients together, adding herbs where appropriate. You can also add little pieces of chopped meats, including chicken and beef. Then drizzle with olive oil and crumble feta cheese on top.
Baked Sweet Potatoes With Chickpea Filling
Baked potatoes and beans are a classic lunchtime staple – easy for practically anyone to make in a few minutes. Unfortunately, it’s not super high in nutrition. The beans provide protein, but other than that, it is somewhat lacking.
The trick here is to keep the same easy format, but slightly change the ingredients. Swap out the regular white potato for a sweet potato instead. These offer more vitamins, minerals and nutrients, and have a lower impact on blood sugar levels. Also, get rid of the tinned beans in sugary tomato sauce and replace them with chickpeas in a homemade tomato sauce instead. It’s incredibly easy to make and guaranteed to power you through even the most gruelling workouts.
Slow-Cooked Casseroles
If you work during the day, it can sometimes be challenging to prepare meals from scratch when you get home in the evening. There’s so much chopping and washing up to do.
Fortunately, you can get around this by putting your ingredients in a slow cooker in the morning before you go to work. By the time you get home, you’ll have a delicious meal waiting for you.
Slow-cooked casseroles are easy to serve up. You can either put potatoes in with the meat and vegetables, or you can bake them separately once you get home.
If you decide to slow cook, don’t forget to use a good stock. You might also want to add some butter to keep it rich and delicious. Herbs can help infuse the gravy and make the dish taste even better when served.
So, which of these recipes will you use to fuel your workouts? You can try these gummies too.
Let me know in the comments section below 🙂
Lee
