January 18, 2021
Laura Mahony, Performance Nutritionist, delivered a cracking cook-a-long as part of our Stay In Stay Well webinar series. In case you missed it, we have all the key details below, but you can also watch the full episode back on Swim Ireland's YouTube.
Sports people are busy, so when you’re in the kitchen we want you to be as productive as possible with your time. In the space of half an hour you can easily get these three different snacks ready to go.
First step is to get your Egg Muffins in the oven.
Egg Muffins – Makes 9
These egg muffins can be used for breakfast, as part of lunch, or post-training snacks. Some examples of how to use them are: two with a banana or chocolate milk for post-training or 1 with a sandwich for lunch.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
Half cup shredded cooked chicken*
Handful chopped cherry tomatoes*
Handful chopped mushrooms*
Some grated cheese
*Use whatever you want here, remembering to include protein, veg, and carbs. You don’t have to add meat as there is plenty of protein in your eggs already.
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a muffin tray with nine muffin cases.
2. Whisk eggs with a splash of milk, then add fillings, season with salt, pepper, and chilli flakes.
3. Pour into muffin cases, sprinkle some cheese on top. Bake in oven for 15 minutes.
4. Allow to cook and store in the fridge in tinfoil or an airtight container. These also freeze, just remember to put in fridge the night before you want to use them.
Once these are in the oven baking, get on to getting your energy balls mixed and rolled.
Energy Balls – Makes 10-12
Minutes to prepare, ready to go in the fridge for days and the freezer for months!
Ingredients:
48 nuts of choice
12 dates
6 heaped tbsp dessicated coconut
Method:
- Blend until it resembles bread crumbs
- Pour on to a plate, then roll into balls about the size of a golf ball
- Store in fridge if using this week. Store in freezer (for up to 6mths in air-tight container) if not, and transfer as needed to fridge night before you want to use.
With those balls rolled and stored, you can move on to making the easiest of our recipes: Overnight Oats.
Overnight Oats – Makes 1
With these ready to go, you never have to leave the house to go to training without breakfast or a recovery snack.
Ingredients:
1 empty jar
1-1.5 cups porridge oats
Just enough milk to cover the oats
2 heaped tbsp yogurt
Toppings and flavourings are your choice, but I go for: Sprinkle of cinnamon, large spoon of honey, handful of blueberries
Method:
- Add oats to jar, then cover with milk and stir in yogurt
- Store in fridge for breakfast or a post-training snack
So with that in the fridge, the egg muffins should be coming out of the oven, and that is your half an hour of snack-making done and dusted.
To see these recipes made live by Laura, head to Swim Ireland YouTube, where she will also give lots more tips for making snacks.
You can also get all sorts of useful recipes and nutrition tips from the Sport Ireland Institute, where they have a Smoothie Builder and Wrap Builder guides, among a wealth of resources.
