Nuttzo Omege 3 Multi-Nut Butter

i usually don't like to post the same information on the Vo2 Maxxed that I do on my racing and training blog but I think this is worthy and is relevant to both. check it out...

a couple month's i came across a new product at jimbo's: Nuttzo. it's a an omega 3 multi-nut butter made from valencia peanuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds. i was way into it after one taste... same with beth. anybody who knows us knows we like our nut butters. we ALWAYS have at least 3 to 4 jars in our fridge, it's usually a couple different kinds almond butter, peanut butter, and recently sunflower seed butter. so Nuttzo was perfect!

after trying Nuttzo I found out it was local company and got in contact with the owner, Danielle (in the video below). I told how much we liked Nutzzo and how I had been using it my pre/post race meals and snacks... it's awesome right out of the jar. We worked out a sponsorship agreement and I couldn't be more stoked. So beth and I will be fueling with and representing Nutzzo out at the races this year.

Check out the Nuttzo site for more information and also check out the incredible things they are doing with The Project Left Behind Foundation. Danielle's off to Nepal next week!

Nuttzo on a banana before the the Santa Barbara Bike Fest XC race.
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Jaakko's Oat Power Cookies.

Here's a guest post from out Favorite Finnish triathlete, Jaakko Hiekkarana. He races and trains in some pretty harsh conditions but has more dedication and desire than most. I am trying to get him out to California for a training camp... and to introduce him to some of the ladies!

Here's the recipe straight from Jaakko in Finland (check out original post on his blog):

G'day!

Ok here's a quick recipe for making your own powercookies. These are great for snacks, training nutrition or in-hurry breakfast with some fruit to go with.

ingredients for 15 cookies:

- 7-8dl oats
- 2 tbls sugar-free cocoa powder
- 1 scoop whey protein
- 1 egg
- 2dl water

Mix all of the above in a bowl. Preheat the oven to 225C. Shape the mass in to cookies on a sheet. Put it in to the oven for 7-8 minutes and Voilà! Delicious, energious, healthy, easy and cheap. You can add sugar if you want more sweetness but that'd somewhat lessen the health-factor.

Matisse & Jacks Cranberry Pumpkin Power Snacks

Just in time for the holidays... a healthy bar. Perfect for your pre-Thanksgiving day ride or run... or a good way to sneak a healthy snack on to the table during the holidays.


Last week before the 12 hour mountain bike race I baked 5 batches of Matisse & Jacks bars and tried a little something different with each one. The one that turned out the best and the ones that got eaten the fastest were the Chocolate Chip Power Snacks that I added Pumpkin and Agave Nectar too.

So last night I made another batch, but this time I used the Cranberry power snacks to make it more of a Holiday/Thanksgiving bar. Here's the recipe... super simple. I think it took about 5 minutes to mix up and get in the oven.

1 box of Matisse & Jack Cranberry Power Snacks
1 heaping cup of pumpkin (all natural)
2 tbsp of Agave Nectar (i put in the microwave for 15 seconds before mixing it in.
4 tbsp water
Pumpkin Spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) to taste

Put it in an 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. When it's done let it cool for 20-30 minutes before ripping into them.

Matisse & Jack's Cranberry Power Snacks

once again we have been lagging on the Vo2 Maxxed blog front, but we have been busy. Beth has been racing a lot and also putting a lot of mileage in preparation for the Las Vegas marathon. I have been busy with racing and training also. Last weekend I raced the Xterra USA Championships and now I am getting ready for worlds at the end of the month.

I mentioned on my blog that I recently picked up a new sponsor, Matisse & Jacks. They make killer bake-at-home snacks that are perfect pre or post workout or whenever you just want a healthy snack. On of the best parts of the mixes is that hey are easy to customize and you can create your own concoctions based on what you like.

Here is a version I made just before heading up to Tahoe.

I started with the standard Matisse & Jacks Cranberry Power Snacks mix. The mix makes 9 bars. Here's the nutrition info per bar without any additions to mix.

mix (per bar)
160 cals
4.5g f
22g carbs
- 10 sugar
- 3 fiber
9g protein

The bars are killer made just following the instructions but occasionally I like to add some more protein, nuts, or try some random flavor. Here's what I added to this batch.

3 tbsp PB2. This is defatted peanut powder. You can mix it with water and make peanut butter without the fat but I just like adding it to yogurt or cottage cheese for some peanut butter flavor. They have a regular peanut butter flavor and a chocolate peanut butter flavor. Check it out... kind of weird but definitely good.


1 cup TJ's Greek yogurt 0% & 2 tsp of vanilla extract. This is my favorite yogurt and it's loaded with protein.


1 scoop Any Whey from Optimum Nutrition. The protein powder is made to be used when cooking and I have it's definitely the best any thing that's hot. It's completely flavorless.


I just poured the mix into a bowl and added all the ingredients. It couldn't be easier.


then into an 8x8 pan.


and then 30 minutes later... booyah! Killer bar for before, during, or after a workout.


here's the nutritional info for my bars.
195 cals
5g fat
24g carbs
14g protein

ride snacks and a recipe

tri bloggers don't just ride, they eat and ride and tell you about it. personally, i like to hear about the snacks even more than the rides.
here's some of the latest:

paul's been cooking up some red potatoes in la jolla for his long rides. i guess if you live in la jolla you are spending all your money on your house (or diapers :)...just kidding. i am totally trying this soon.

james brought along a smuckers whole wheat peanut butter 'n honey on his last ride. i stole a bite, it was amazing. throw that thing in the freezer and stick it in the jersey pocket...210 calories with 26 grams of carbs...perfect

i tried to bring some sweet and salty chex mix with me on my last long ride. bad call. it was like sand when i pulled it out. not sure how i crushed it, but i managed somehow. if i could have a ride snack fairy to bring me something special, i would request that she make me a couple of these rice krispie sushi wonders by kerrie (see pictures 3&4)

oh and to drink, i have been loving putting Gatorade G2 in my bottles. electrolyte love. and has anyone tried that new propel with caffeine? it's goooooood (just what i need for my sleep problem, right?)

last week, when i rode with bethany, she ate a homemade gluten free PB&J, half a snicker's charged and a ring pop and then pulled the group for 40 miles....hmmm...maybe she's onto something.

and before his rides, moonpie cooks up some steel cut oats n nuts n berries that put our frozen trader joe's version to shame. if you click on his blo, please disregard the trans-fat-a-licious confection decorating the upper right corner of his page.
any other favorites out there?


now the recipe...

this one comes as a guest post from my way-cooler-than-a-step-mom-step-mom marsha. she is the best cook around and specialized in "three pile meals" (meat, starch, veg), anything barefoot contessa or jamie oliver, and soup soup soup. i steal all of her recipes and tell james i made them up. as for soup, she makes killer turkey chili, potato leek, butternut squash, carrot curry, and like this chicken chili she made while i was home....yum...
but this recipe is not about chicken chili, its CIOPPINO! fish soup....protein power so we can swim like fishees! click on that cioppino link for the history of the stuff. interesting. i like how it was originally just a pot of whatever remained from the catch of the day. that's like most soup thouh i guess. i think one day i want to do an unannounced soup challenge and get people to make a soup from ONLY what is in their house at that moment, especially things that need to be used up. could get some interesting recipes

okay, from the kitchen of marsha gerdes:
CIOPPINO
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes,
¼ tomato paste
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 ½ dry white wine
5 cups of fish stock or combination fish stock and vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
1 pound manila clams
1 pound mussels,
1 pound uncooked large shrimp
1 ½ pound assorted firm fleshed fish fillets such as halibut


Heat oil in a very large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, shallots, and salt and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and ¾ teaspoon of red pepper flakes and sauté 2 minutes, Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and fish. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open. (Discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Remove bay leaf. Season the soup to taste.

and here's her photo! (i love it, the fam is now "into" the food picture things and she sends me meal pics from her iphone)
o-mega-good.

muffins for those who dont want muffin tops

i've been on a muffin rampage. bakin' up a storm over here in san diego. today i made these after my trainer session and run. i ran in the house like a crazy person and started mixing stuff up super fast. You would have thought it was T1 or something the way i was iron-cheffing because i wanted to get outside by the pool (75 and sunny!) to do some studying (gotta love grad school). James' roomate's gf was like, "are you going to use a recipe?". i told her no, because i vaguely know some sort of basic muffiny base (flour+sweetener+egg+applesauce+baking soda) and i just put in fruits, nuts, vegetables and spices that i like to flavor it up. sometimes this means that my concoctions suck, but i usually like them even when other people don't (hey, i like all the ingredients on their own, they must be good mixed up!). MORE FOR ME! and healthy tastes great, right?
today i made what i call:

CARROT CAKE PUMPKIN PIE MUFFINS
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup splenda (or your sweetener of choice- good ole cane, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, HFCS if you want to slowly kill yourself)
1 cup shredded carrots
1 can canned pumpkin (NOT p. pie mix)
1/2 cup egg whites (or you can whole egg it up, make it the omega fortified kind)
1/2 cup no sugar added applesauce
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or just more cinnamon and some nutmeg)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

heat oven to 350 degrees. mix dry ingredients. mix in wet ingredients. actually, i just mix it all up at the same time but this is how they typically tell you to do it. spoon into muffin pans (like a 1/3 cup mix in each) and bake away. i think mine took 40 minutes, but it may take less. James' oven is wack (who says wack? sorry). just bake them until an inserted knife is dry-ish.
i made half the recipe as shown above, and in the other half of the mix, i threw in a cup of wheat bran and a 1/3 cup of blueberries and a little extra egg white to make some fiber bomb muffins..the blueberries and the egg were to balance the extra dry fiber (just balance out the wet/dry stuff when you bake and it should be good to go)

i think they came out pretty good. kind of like chewy pumpkin pie carrot cake which is what i was going for (see recipe name). they don't get too cake-y, they are more sponge-y and that's because if you look at the recipe, for every muffin, at least 3/4 of it is straight up fruits and veggies and nuts. just a little flour and egg glue to hold it all together.

last week. i made pretty much the same muffins but instead of pumpkin, carrot & raisin, i substituted 1 1/2 cups (or 3 whole) bananas...banana walnut goodness.

last night for dinner james made grilled swordfish steaks with avacado corn salsa fresca. and kitchen sink 2-pound salads as usual (last night they had sprouts, spinach, tomatoes, pickles, artichoke hearts, broccoli, carrots, red onion (which rachel ray thinks should be renamed purple onion and she tells you in EVERY show), red and yellow bell peppers, sugar snap peas, mushrooms and i think that's it). with some awesome miso dressing that we love. oh, and i put fiber one "croutons" on my salad. yes, i am a weirdo with fiber. can't get enough. maybe i am writing this so that james will post a picture from dinner and review all the wine he drank this week. wine is like rocket fuel for james. oh, and post about our favorite new breakfast-y find from trader joes too! please! i'll be nice and make you muffins...oh, wait...