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Protein Archives - Britt Fit

Simple Stovetop Granola

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Situation #1: You are staring into your bowl of smooth, tart, yogurt, wondering how you might be able to make your snack even better…

Situation #2: You just finished your sweaty 90-minute turbo session on the bike, and need a yummy carb-protein combo to boost your recovery.  You pour yourself some yogurt, reach for your box of Quaker granola (or other favorite crunchy cereal), and are absolutely mortified.  You are out of your fave yogurt topper.  This is a serious and probably life-threatening situation. Who can you call (besides Ghostbusters)?

The answer to these two dilemmas may be simpler than you think.  You (probably) don’t even need to go to the grocery store, or spend an hour waiting to take your own homemade yogurt topping out of the oven.  Nope.  You can mix up some crunchy, nutty, satisfying, granola oh so fast, sprinkle it on top of your otherwise-naked yogurt, and be enjoying a protein-packed-(healthy)oily-carb-o-licious snack in less than 10 minutes–with only a few ingredients from your cupboard!

Situations #1 & 2 pretty much happened to me one morning last week.  I got back from a morning of coaching + swimming, with a rumbly in my tumbly for a crunchy something to mix into my TJ’s Greek Honey Yogurt.  But, I live with a hungry man who loves crunchy cereals practically as much as I do, and we go through the stuff way too fast.  So, the three boxes of cereals/granola on our shelf (purchased about a week ago) had disappeared.  I could have given up on my dream to enjoy a bowl of crunchy, sweet, goodness right then and there.  But, this was one of those stubborn, intense, cravings.  So, I decided to make some granola on the stove.  It turned out just as good as the full granola recipe that I bake in the oven, but took like 0.156% of the time.

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Ingredients: (serves 1)

  • 1 T coconut oil (you could also use any cooking oil, or even butter…just be sure not to burn it)
  • 1/2 c. oats (I used a combo of whole rolled oats and steel cut)
  • nuts and/or seeds (I used chia seeds, almonds, and pecans) *other ideas: cashews, walnuts, macademia nuts, sunflower seeds
  • sweetener/seasonings (I added honey, cinnamon & sea salt) *other ideas: brown sugar, maple syrup, agave, nutmeg, cocoa, applesauce
  • extra things (e.g. coconut flakes, dried fruits, chocolate pieces) *add fruits/chocolate after cooking.

Directions:

  1. Heat the oil in a small skillet over low-to-medium heat, just to melt (doesn’t take long…don’t go anywhere!)
  2. Toss in oats, and stir to coat in oil
  3. Toss in nuts/seeds (and coconut flakes, if using)
  4. Allow ingredients to toast until lightly browned and fragrant, then remove from heat
  5. Stir in sweeteners, seasonings, etc, and stir.  Pour granola on top of your yogurt/milk, or snack on it by itself!

Go and have yourself a merry little bowl of yogurt and crunchies–no waiting necessary!

BrittFit (ReFuel) Bar

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Dearest athletes,

There is a new bar in town that wants to help you recover from your workouts!  Please welcome the new BrittFit (ReFuel) Bar- Peanut Butter Mocha.

Since the launch of our bars, many athletes here in SoCal–and beyond–have enjoyed the super-moist, whole foods-based, BrittFit (Fuel) Bars before workouts, during races, or just as a wholesome snack.  After tasting our original flavor, Apple Pie, athletes wanted “MORE FLAVORS, pretty please with a BrittFit Bar on top!” -Anonymous Athlete.  So, we created our next flavor: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie.  Taste buds everywhere were pleased, but still not satisfied.  “EVEN MORE FLAVORS,” was the outcry of hundreds of thousands of athlete tastebuds. [Did you know that each of us has up to 10,000 taste buds?]

So…we put on our thinking caps, exercised our creative muscles (and our spatulas), and tested and tested and tested.  Until…we discovered our favorite new flavor combination: Peanut Butter Mocha.  This is unlike our first two recipes in that it contains extra protein (from egg white).  You see, while our previous BrittFit (Fuel) Bars do provide excellent carbohydrate to fuel training,  racing, and other activities , we wanted to give athletes a more ideal all-in-one post-workout option.  We made some tweaks, including the addition of egg whites, to give athletes the perfect ratio (approximately 4:1) of glycogen replenishing carbohydrate to muscle rebuilding protein– all from quality, whole food, sources!  Based on feedback from our athletes, we wanted to include a bit of caffeine (which, in addition to adding yumminess, may aid in the recovery process by increasing glycogen uptake into depleted muscle cells), so we mixed in some fresh-pulled liquid espresso as well as some fine-ground espresso beans.

BrittFit (ReFuel) Bars– in our inaugural Peanut Butter Mocha flavor– will make their debut in January, 2015.   In the meantime, if you are looking to refuel and recover from winter training sessions, you can top your BrittFit (Fuel) Bar with a heaping spoonful of nut butter to reap the benefits of post-workout carbohydrate + protein consumption. Don’t forget to wash it down with a cup of coffee to refuel like a real pro!