Many endurance athletes, myself included, find ourselves stuck in ruts when it comes to recipes and meals. We tend to have our staples that provide the nutrients we need to sustain our training, but those staples can get boring and overdone. The challenge to seek out new recipes is good, but searching a foreign region’s menu, was an extra, albeit fun, challenge.

With the mission of choosing a recipe from a specific country in the Mediterranean, a small geography lesson was first required. I think many of us don’t realize that the Mediterranean is more than a portion of Italy and the country of Greece. There are 21 countries that comprise the region. They all share similar ingredients in their recipes, yet they all deliver a unique flair to the table. I got the joy of researching the recipes of Egypt.

The first step was just familiarizing myself with the cuisine of the country. True to Mediterranean food, there were many minced meats, shish kabobs with sides of tahini and pita. Some less common foods included grilled pigeon, fried perch and tuna, and stewed beans for breakfast. While runners need protein, pigeon was not a source I was opting for this time.
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By Abra Pappa for NutritiousAmerica.com

What is more delicious than warm chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven? Not much I tell ya, not much. We all should have a reliable, delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe in our back pocket to wow impromptu guests and convince our kids that we are, indeed, super mom.

Trouble is most cookie recipes begin with ingredients that need..well.. pimping! I encourage you to push beyond your baking comfort zone to try this nutrient dense, crazy delicious treat. The ingredients here should easily be added to your arsenal of real food, health promoting pantry staples.

So let’s pimp that recipe!
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If almonds are your favorite snack but you’re conscious of eating too many for calories’ sake, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition may provide some relief. Scientists now believe almonds contain fewer calories than we originally thought. 

As reported by NPR, the study was conducted by USDA food scientists who found that almonds contain fewer calories than were previously calculated.

Findings determined that there was close to a 30 percent margin of error when it came to the calories in this popular nut. USDA researcher David Baer said he and his team were just as surprised as anyone about the findings.

To conduct the study, researchers split 18 healthy participants into three groups and tracked their diets for 18 days. One group was put on a controlled diet that included 84 grams of almonds per day, another was prescribed 42 grams of almonds per day, and another was instructed to eat a diet completely free of nuts.
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When I was little, I used to sit by my dad while watching TV and he’d always be crunching away on handfuls of raw almonds. I’d asked for one or two every once in a while out of curiosity, and remember never liking the things. Their bland taste just did me wrong. It would literally take me one full minute to gnaw on a single almond before getting it down. 

But these days it’s a whole other story. I eat almonds on a daily basis and have for years. I love their texture, earthy flavor, health benefits and how versatile they are. Almonds are not only delicious, but they’re also a great food for dieters as they’re a good source of protein which can help squelch hunger.

What are almonds? Almonds are the seed of the almond tree, which is native to the Middle East and South Asia. The seed or “nut” portion of the almond is what we actually consume, while the outer hull is removed before packaging.
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Though many people don’t realize it, stress symptoms have a negative impact on your health. In the short-term, stress can cause fatigue, gastrointestinal discomfort and headaches, among other ailments. Over the long-term, stress can make you susceptible to more severe conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease and even some cancers.

While stress management is a powerful thing, not everyone has time to devote to techniques that have been proven to help, like yoga and meditation. Luckily, you can manage some of your stress with what you eat. When people think of eating to combat stress, they often think of comfort foods that are not typically very nutritious: ice cream, macaroni and cheese and calorie-laden mashed potatoes.

Luckily, there are a variety of healthy foods – even super foods – that can help your body manage your stress levels and help you prevent feeling the stress – physically and mentally.

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