Feed Zone Cookbook (Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes): by Dr. Allen Lim and Biju Thomas

As promised, here is the book review... 
(Do cookbooks even count for book reviews?  These days don't allow much time for reading real books- only true priority reading like US Weekly.  Heck, I'm still on page 3 of The Hunger Games and I already saw the movie.)  

Anyways, there was a lot of hype surrounding this cookbook from triathletes and cyclists around the world.  From the beginning, I was intrigued by Dr. Lim's views on utilizing sodium citrate in his sports drinks versus sodium chloride (a common ingredient in many sports drinks).  He hypothesized that the citrate byproduct could be utilized back into the Kreb's cycle for energy, instead of building up as chloride and contributing to "gut rot."  It sounds complicated and scientific, and he's Asian for goodness' sake, so I'll take his word on this one.


I was drawn to this cookbook because it utilized simple ingredients for time-crunched athletes, and had been tested on the cyclists of the Tour de France.  Pro cyclists would secretly fill their bottles with Dr. Lim's "secret drink mix" instead of their sponsors' sports drinks since it worked better, and Skratch Labs was born.  Dr. Lim teamed up with chef Biju Thomas to create real food recipes to feed the cyclists, and The Feed Zone Cookbook is a result of this.  The 160 recipes are unique in the sense that they have an Asian and Indian twist to them and complement each other well. [I'm deliberately biting my tongue from saying anything else about other Asian/Indian fusions that didn't quite work out.]


I decided to test out Dr. Allen Lim's famous rice cakes- the chicken apple sausage version that Levi Leipheimer loves (the original rice cakes have bacon which Levi and I are not too fond of).

The ingredients are simple:

Calrose rice works best- it's sticky.
I know all you diabetics are gasping, but white rice = no GI distress

Scramble yo eggs yo, yolks and all.
 I know all you cardiac peeps are gasping, but choline is your friend!

Chicken apple sausage, cooked with brown sugar and soy sauce.
For all your non-Asians, brown sugar + soy sauce = teriyaki flavor.

After cooking the chicken apple sausage with brown sugar/soy sauce and scrambling the eggs, mix them together with the rice.

Press the mixture firmly into a rectangular pan and let it cool for around 20 minutes.

Afterwards, cut the rice into rectangles and wrap with foil-lined parchment paper, or Martha Wrap.

I am aware that these are different sizes-
the top 2 are 'boy servings' and the bottom one is a 'girl serving.'

These fit nicely into the back pockets of jerseys, and are ready-to-eat.  

Or you can make your fellow rider hold all of your rice cakes, saving precious cargo space
in your jersey pockets for essentials like shimmery lip gloss and a Starbuck's card

For those inquiring about the food safety component, the authors write that the rice cakes are prepared normally at 7am, wrapped and left unrefrigerated in the van, and the cyclists eat them anywhere from 12pm-5pm without having food safety issues.  Also, you can store extras in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

These rice cakes were a nice change from the sugary gels and gummies, and my tastebuds and stomach were happy during my long bike ride.  I actually looked forward to eating “real food” to fuel my muscles while riding and did not have any G.I. issues.  Next time, I will probably use snack-size sandwich bags instead of aluminum foil, to make it easier to unwrap with one hand while riding.

I also just made a batch of Biju's oatmeal muesli and love it.  These recipes are so easy that you can prepare them, blog, Facebook, listen to music, text message, and pack your bags for your upcoming workout, all at the same time.  

Packing up my new Lululemon bag for my run after work tomorrow with Wendy!

The authors know that we are all time-crunched and hungry, and need good fuel fast.  So two enthusiastic thumbs up from this corner, with sticky calrose rice on each!