#TRAINWITHGRAINS RECIPE: DOUBLE BREAKFAST
Blog post by CRS Community Leader Steve Layton.
This year we’re teaming up with the Grain Farmers of Ontario to bring you the best pre- and post-run recipes to fuel your marathon training! Each week we’ll feature a new and unique recipe from one of our CRS Community Leader Ambassadors. For today’s recipe, Steve Layton serves up a double breakfast for those long run days where you need to fuel both before and after your run. A hearty bowl of oatmeal before and a stack of delicious pancakes for after! Do you have a recipe you’d like to share? Share a photo on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #TrainWithGrains for your chance to win a “Good in Every Grain” Prize Pack valued at $50!
So you know the drill by now, it’s long run day! You’re going to get up early, you’re going to fuel up and you’ll pound the pavement for hours on end until you hit the mileage required to know you got it in the bag when race day comes.
For me, this part of training early on was not necessarily a pleasant one, I commonly found myself running out of steam mid run when only relying on gels and sports drinks and then was ravenous for food the rest of the day.
To remedy this I did some research (and trial and error) to determine a solid fix, and thus my long run double breakfast program was born!
Breakfast 1: Oatmeal Bowl of Champions!
I know what you’re thinking, oatmeal, super original right? Well it gets the job done providing a solid base of slow burning carbs in your stomach for when you head out on a long effort, and you can have a little fun with it.
What to do:
Make 1/2 cup of instant oats by mixing about 1 cup of water in a bowl with the oats and put that in the microwave for about 1 minute or until they oats are puffing up in the bowl.
Now that was hard I know, we have oatmeal! Now the fun part!
Add the following to oatmeal while it’s piping hot so it melts in to it!
2 Tablespoons of chunky peanut butter (or whatever nut butter you got handy)
1 Tablespoon of honey because if it’s good enough for bee’s it’s good enough for me!
Then stir all that together and you’re ready to add some toppings.
1/4 Cup of Almonds and Raisins if you’re in to that sort of thing!
1/4 Cup of granola on the top cause why not add some more crunch!
That’s it! Consume this blend of slow burning energy about 30-40 minutes before you head out the door and you should have a solid power base to run for the next few hours.
Breakfast 2: Long Run Done GIVE ME ALL THE FOOD!
We know the post long run breakfast should be a well balanced meal to aid in recovery of tired muscles but all we can think at this point is “GIVE ME ALL THE FOOD!”.
You know what, that’s fine too because this second breakfast fits that bill with a combination of carbs, protein and sugars to get you fixed up in the recovery department while taking away those short-term “OMG I’m tired, hungry and wolves are after me” feelings you have right now.
To meet this need we will once again be looking to instant oats, but this time they will be transformed into delicious oatmeal pancakes (yes I know, oats again, what can I say I like oatmeal.
This recipe is a little more tricky than the oats in a bowl so you might want to make the batter in advance of your long run so you can pour and go when you get back.
Oatmeal Pancakes:
3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk, divided
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1 Super soft old banana
What to do:
Start by microwaving 3/4 cup milk until you gotsome warm to hot milk.
Pour the oats in with the warm milk and stir in the honey to hot mix and let it soak for about 10 minutes allowing the oats to hydrate as much as you might need to after a run.
In a larger bowl you need to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk that all together.
Stir the egg, butter, brown sugar and a cold 3/4 cup of milk and the now fully hydrated oat mixture and mash in the soft banana in its own bowl, then mix that with the dry ingredients.
Whisk that until it’s smooth like Lionel Richie. Feel free to listen to “Say You, Say Me” if it helps your process! You can also add more milk, or as I like to do add coconut milk, to get the consistency of the batter to where you like it.
Now all you have to do is pour pancakes any size you like in to a medium heated frying pan that was greased with a little butter and off you go.
Personally I then like to toss a few eggs and some bacon on the side of these cakes and a liberal does of real maple syrup for the perfect post run solution to Runger. Enjoy!
* Share your favourite pre or post run snack or meal on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #TrainWithGrains for your chance to win a $50 “Good In Every Grain” prize pack!