Two posts in a week! Success! Well, to be honest, I felt like I had to post today as we’re leaving on a road trip for the weekend, thus will be away from technology.
We’re heading down to Columbus, Ohio for the Arnold Sports Festival. It has one of, if not the, biggest fitness expos – the main reason we like to go. Basically every company involved in fitness and bodybuilding are there, meaning that it’s an absolute zoo. Warning: if you’re claustrophobic, you should probably skip this entire event. Last year we went with the plan of doing the expo on Saturday, and quickly learned our mistake. It was so packed, it took us about an hour to get down ONE AISLE! Add in the fact that strangers are constantly touching you and it’s really hot, and you’ve got a disaster zone for anyone who hates crowds. But, it’s amazing and fun if you’re into fitness at all. Lesson learned from last year – we’re leaving a day early to get the majority of our expo shopping done on Friday, when (we’re hoping) most people are still at work.
As is the case with any travelling we do, it means a night spent cooking and packing food for the duration of our trip. While it’s not negotiable for Kyle to do this at the moment, I could likely get away with skimping on this, but for two reasons I won’t. 1) I’m hungry all the time, so having food with me is the smartest thing to do, and 2) if I bought “outside” food for all the times I was hungry, it would be a really expensive weekend! Summary, I’m a pig and I’m cheap. LOL.
To help with this process, we’ve been cooking a little more throughout the week so tonight isn’t so much work, other than packing it all up, which is a science in it’s own right. To anyone who is competing, or thinking of competing, or just wanting to live a healthier lifestyle, I can’t stress how amazing the IsoBag is. It’s like your standard lunch cooler… but way better. They come with a bunch of containers of different sizes, and it has space for water / shaker bottles, ice packs, and a top compartment for silverware and miscellaneous items (Quest bars, supplements, PopTarts, whatever).
My super efficient packing list… written on a pink Christmas card envelope. At least it’s coordinated with my IsoBag…?
As an easily portable snack, I finally got around to making these Carrot Cake Protein Bars from Jamie Eason on Bodybuilding.com They turned out really well, so I figured I’d share it with you all. The exact recipe is:
- 1 cup oat flour
- 2 scoops vanilla protein powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- 4 egg whites
- 3/4 cup Stevia or other sweetener
- 8 oz carrot baby food (one small jar)
- 4 oz water
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Combine all wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry.
- Spray a pan with non-stick spray and pour batter in.
- Bake for 20 – 30 minutes.
Carrot cake protein bar
Changes – I used gluten free flour because I had it on hand; I used pumpkin pie spice instead of nutmeg and allspice (it’s the same); I didn’t measure the cinnamon or spice because I’m lazy; I used just under 1/4 cup of Stevia.
Future changes – next time I’ll try adding a mashed ripe banana to the wet ingredients for a bit more moisture / flavour, and I’ll use even less Stevia. Also, it would likely be really good with chopped walnuts and/or raisins baked into it.
Give them a try! From start to finish it took me about 40 minutes (and almost 30 of that was when they were baking).
PS – I don’t know the macros because I don’t track those…. sorry!
Iron Forged Fitness 