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Recipes for Stay-at-Home Cyclists – Training Snacks

By Jiri Kaloc

You can use your new home cooking skills for the usual three meals of the day as well as for making the food you will eat on the bike. Energy bars and electrolyte drinks can be just as effective when you make them at home and you can even choose the flavours and healthy ingredients.

Cashew energy bar

Learning this recipe will come in handy for any indoor or outdoor training session as well as hiking or just long travels. It turns out you can make a healthier and tastier energy bar at home. And it’s not even that complicated, the prep itself only takes a few minutes and then you just wait till they solidify in the fridge or freezer. This recipe yields 4 bars, each carrying about 48 g of carbs and 415 total kcal, which means that two of these bars can easily fuel over 4 hours of cycling. Also, keep in mind you can choose almost any type of nut as long as you keep the quantity. You can also replace up to half of the dates with different dried fruit to change up the flavour.

Macros per one 100-g bar – 48 g carbs, 6 g of protein, 19 g of fat, 6 g of fibre, 396 kcal

Ingredients

1½ cup dates
½ cup cashews (or a mix of nuts)
½ cup coconut flakes
1 tbsp. coconut oil

Instructions

1. Chop the dates and nuts. Put into a blender and mix.
2. Add coconut oil and flakes and create a more or less homogenous dough.
3. Shape the dough into a brick, cover in foil, and freeze for 30 minutes.
4. Take out of the freezer, cut into bars of your preferred size and cover in foil again.
5. Store in a cold place. Transport in sealed containers.

Coconut electrolyte drink

With the energy bars safely in your pocket, the only thing that’s missing is an electrolyte drink. These drinks can get quite expensive, especially if you ride in warm weather a lot or you tend to sweat heavily. Thankfully, you can create something just as effective at replenishing lost minerals and fluids easily at home. The electrolyte drinks in the following recipe contain a medium amount of carbohydrates, which helps fluid uptake and a little bit of salt and coconut, which makes them a good source of sodium and potassium, the most important electrolytes.

Macros per 500 ml of drink – 28 g carbs, 1 g protein, 116 kcal

Ingredients

Tropical Blend
2 ½ cups water
1 cup coconut water
¼ cup coconut sugar (or your preferred sweetener)
¼ tsp salt
Taste of Honey
3 ½ cups water
¼ cup pineapple juice
2 tbsp coconut sugar (or your preferred sweetener)
1 tbsp honey
¼ tsp salt

Directions

1. Pour all ingredients into a blender or a shaker.
2. Mix well and serve into a glass or straight to your bidon.