Beginning in March, Run Oregon bloggers were provided the Racing Weight Cookbook: Lean, Light Recipes for Athletes by Matt Fitzgerald. This series showcases our attempts at making some of the healthy and delicious recipes within the book’s pages.
Tomato and Beef Florentine Soup and some sourdough toast, so good.
How it went: It went great! I think this might be a new staple in our household. I really love soup, but usually want it fast. I really love how this cookbook is set up in three sections: the athlete who doesn’t cook, the athlete with some cooking experience, and the athlete who loves to cook. I have read quite a few “diet cookbooks” and regular cookbooks and I usually feel very lost in the material and not sure what to make. Everything looks good, but it doesn’t quite look accessible. The Racing Weight Cookbook is very accessible with real food and easy ingredients, I would highly recommend it to anyone that is wanting to learn about nutrition for optimal athletic prowess and that appreciates good, hearty meals that won’t require a lot of planning on your part.
The recipe I made is very simple and uses frozen spinach to pump up the plant content. My husband, who hates vegetables, even loved it. It was so easy to make, maybe took me 10-15 minutes and was a delicious tomato based soup with spinach and protein.
A view from the top. Don’t judge my food photography skills…
Cooking Expertise: I am a rare bird in the way that I can cook, at times I enjoy cooking, but usually I want nothing to do with it. My husband is the chef in the family and I just don’t get into cooking because I have a two year old that climbs and jumps off everything he sees. What we eat needs to be nutritious and easy – which is a hard balance to strike at times, even without a tiny tyrant.
Running & Athletic Expertise: I am a moderate runner, hitting about 15-25 miles per week and performing cross-training and some strength training in there. I don’t run enough to “eat whatever I want” so I try to make sure that I am pumping up the veggies wherever possible and keeping processed food as a treat that I eat minimally. I feel that when I eat lower complex carbs that my running is boosted and my recovery time is shortened, this cookbook agrees with that assertion – ideal!
———————
Racing Weight Cookbook: Lean, Light Recipes for Athletes delivers more than 100 flavorful, easy recipes that will help athletes hit their ideal weight without compromising performance. The book is the third in the best-selling Racing Weight Series™ and is now available in bookstores; bike, tri, and running shops; and online. Preview the book and try recipes at http://www.racingweightcookbook.com.
