This is the food review for Unscripted Part 1 with a focus on getting enough protein and fibre. If you would like to see the bike and gear review, please see my previous post.
Because I don’t like meat all that much, and it’s not something you should eat every day, there is a need to have some plant protein sources along the way that travel well in a pannier. Mixed, raw nuts and ground peanuts (natural peanut butter) are my main sources.
But I also added red lentils to pretty much all of my meals. If paired with rice or another grain, you then have a complete protein source. I also took along unflavoured pea protein powder and added this to my cooked oats. Lentils are easy on your guts but still provide significant protein and fibre.
I also need a place to access some protein ball recipes on the road, so the website is a good spot to stick them. This also means I can share some good recipes with you, too, if you are looking for ways to maintain protein and fibre levels on the road. As a bonus, all of these recipes are gluten and dairy free. They can easily be vegan, too.
I did not bake the bread or cookies on the road, but I did experiment with these while visiting my parents in 2022. I needed a way to use up all the leftover ingredients I had purchased to make the protein balls. My parents really enjoyed the cookie and bread recipes and wouldn’t have known they were gluten and dairy free if they hadn’t known my dietary restrictions. Coconut flour is very high in fibre, but be aware that it really sucks up moisture, so you might occasionally need to add a bit of water or nut milk to a recipe to get it to a good level of stickiness.
So enjoy the stuff below, and give them a try.
I was able to carry veg with me (usually carrot, zukes, mushrooms and bottoms of baby buk choy travelled well) for about a week at a time on the first part of the tour. They didn’t go bad because I was basically riding around in fridge temps! Part 2 is going to be more of a challenge, but I got plenty of veg in the first part of the tour. I also had salads on the ‘wait-out-the-weather days’.
Rice noodles, Massell beef stock, the red lentils, rolled oats, LSA mix, peanut butter, rice crackers, mixed raw nuts, bananas and whatever veg I sourced were my main meal ingredients. This was all pretty filling and nutritionally okay. I’ll continue with this in Part 2. I also used some rice packets here and there. You do have to be a little creative with whatever you can find from tiny town general stores sometimes.
Now for some not super healthy but too unhealthy recipes……
GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE PEANUT BUTTER CHOC CHIP COOKIES
½ C all natural peanut butter (get the stuff that is simply ground nuts with no additions)
2 T coconut or olive oil
½ C brown sugar
2 large eggs (I use flaxseed eggs in place of chicken eggs – see recipe below)
1.5 t vanilla
½ t baking soda
¼ to ½ t cinnamon
¼ t salt
½ coconut flour
½ C organic, dark choc chips (you could also use cacao nibs for a healthier option or if not avoiding dairy you could get chips made with milk)
Preheat oven to 350F (about 180C). Mix the wet ingredients as you would for normal cookies. Mix the dry ingredients separately. Then slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet mix. Then fold in the choc chips. Roll choc chips into balls and place on a greased or lined baking tray. Bake for 7 min.
TO MAKE FLAXSEED EGGS
Add 5 T water to 2 T ground flaxseed. Stir and then let sit five minutes.
DAIRY AND GLUTEN FREE SQUASH BREAD
1 C ripe and mashed banana
1 C mashed, cooked squash (use butternut pumpkin for a sweet pumpkin bread. I used yellow summer squash and it was still very nice. You could also use zucchini, I think).
¼ C olive oil
¼ C honey (you could use other liquid sweeteners to make it vegan)
½ T vanilla
2 eggs (again I used flaxseed eggs – chicken eggs are high in sulfur which I need to avoid)
2.5 C coconut flour
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking powder (get a gluten free kind, not all are)
½ t baking soda
¼ t salt
Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Mix wet ingredients as you would for any cake-like bread. Mix together cry ingredients and fold into wet ingredients. Don’t overmix. Grease and line a bread pan. Pour bread mix into pan and bake for 45 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (You can also add in choc chips to this mix – as I did – and that is very nice, too).
PROTEIN BALLS
Here are a bunch of protein ball recipes I tried out. In the end, I kinda mix and match these, but this gives a lot of good ideas. I didn’t make these on the road as much as I thought I would, but I will likely do this a lot for day rides in the future when I have a home again.
For all of these recipes, mix all the ingredients together, starting with the wet. You want the mixture to be pretty sticky but not so much that it gets your hands all mucky. You want the balls to be wet enough to stick together (soft and pliable) but not so wet they just stick to your hands.
After you roll them, stick them in the fridge or freezer to firm.
½ C peanut butter
3 T honey
¼ pea protein powder
¼ C flaxseed meal
1 T chia seeds
2-3 T almond milk
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⅓ C peanutbutter
2 T honey
¼ C mashed banana
½ t vanlla
⅛ t salt
2 C rolled oats
¼ C chopped nuts
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180g peanut butter
60g pea protein powder
80ml honey
15 g coconut flour
80g dark choc, roughly chopped (melt the choc and then use toothpicks to pick up rolled balls and then dip in the choc. Shake off excess and put on baking paper to set).
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240g pumpkin or banana mashed
120g peanut butter
2-4 T honey
3T water
60g cacao powder
15g pea protein powder
¼ t baking soda
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2 C quick oats
1.5 scoops pea protein powder (80-90 grams)
¼ C ground flaxseed
1 C peanut butter
½ C honey