My previous attempts at DIY energy bars had all ended at the grocery store. I would walk in with a long list of ingredients, and walk out with a half-dozen pre-packaged, healthy-enough snacks from the aisle full of options. Baking bars had been high on my should-do list for years, but why spend time cooking something I could buy so easily?
My go to training food when I'm in mid-season intense training is a peanut butter and honey slathered rice cake, inhaled, in seconds, over the kitchen sick. But on these cold December off-season training days, I feel like I deserve a little variety and more substance.
This past month of training has been all about rehab. As much as I'd like to be training like crazy with Laurel, recovering from major abdominal surgery takes time and needs to be done properly. I've been carefully working my way back to fitness under the watchful eye of physical therapist/athletic trainer/all-around guru Carolyn Mazur.
This is kind of hard to admit, but I've been downing rice cakes like they were homemade bread for going on 2 years now. I always chalked rice cakes up to being too dietetic, but since I started eating a gluten-free diet, these crumbly mess-makers have become a staple in my pantry. I've found that they are the most convenient and cost effective vessels for the standard peanut butter pre-workout snack.
My husband John, has spent every free moment planning a late-spring ski tour to the Swiss Alps. One morning he looked up from the whirlwind of trip-related emails, phone calls, route maps, and gear lists and asked me to recreate the hearty muesli he ate daily on last year’s ski tour. 
We eat a huge amount of granola. We sprinkle it over oatmeal for extra calories before a big ride. We pour it onto yogurt for a post-workout second breakfast. We spoon it on ice cream for dessert. And we always pack a batch (double-bagged) in our gear duffle when we go abroad to race, so we’re sure to have a familiar food on hand.
