Energy flapjack recipe

I've been experimenting a bit trying to create something that is tasty and, hopefully, healthy.  There are some delicious energy bars available for sale but they're fairly expensive so I wanted to be able to make my own alternatives.

I'm going to include some shopping links to those of the ingredients that are mixes - these are purely for information, I don't make anything out of directing you to shopping websites. It's just so you can see what the mixes consist of - you can easily replace these ingredients with different variations on the mixes, it's a fairly flexible recipe.

For my latest version I used the following:

1 banana
3 medium apples
2 small pears (the kiddies lunchbox size ones)
1tsp lemongrass paste
2 desertspoons of coconut oil (I've noticed you can buy this in Tesco now - Yay!)
2 desertspoons of lemon or lime juice (or a bit of each)
100-125g of linseed and Goji berry mix I got mine from good old Aldi :-)
75g Omega Seed mix
1 desertspoon caraway seeds
50g chia seeds
Chopped crystallized ginger
150g mixed dried fruit
100g porridge oats
Ground cinnamon - for taste and supposed to be good for stabilising blood sugar levels
Ground ginger - for taste and supposed to be good for indigestion
Sea salt

This makes a large baking sheet of flapjacks - they won't keep for much more than a week so you might want to make a smaller batch if you're not going to share them !

Firstly, I peeled, cored and chopped the apples and pears and microwaved the apples in a covered dish with a touch of lemon juice to soften them up (about three minutes), then used a hand-blender to blend them with the banana, coconut oil, lime or lemon juice and lemongrass paste to form  a liquid.  This mixture tastes divine, would be just gorgeous with some Malibu chucked in......

I put all the dry ingredients except the porridge oats into a large mixing bowl with the mixed fruit and chopped ginger. Add cinnamon and ground ginger to taste. I like to add salt for a slightly savoury edge but that's just personal taste. The caraway seeds are just for taste too so increase or decrease as you prefer. Pour in the blended fruits and mix everything together.

Grease the baking tray using coconut oil.

I then add the porridge oats a bit at a time until the mixture is a consistency that can be pressed into the baking tray with the back of a spoon, not too sticky or sloppy. The mix should stick together but not stick to the back of the spoon.

You can vary the quantities of the different seed and fruit mixes to suit your preference and then the quantity of oats can be adjusted to suit. You can also vary the mix of blended fruit depending on what you prefer or what needs using up - I mix it in a 500ml jug and have 400-450ml of liquid after blending the fruit and coconut oil.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes at about 180 celsius/350 fahrenheit/Gas mark 4 - keep an eye on it, the cooking time may vary depending on any variations you have made to the mix.  I turn the baking sheet out on to a chopping board while still hot and cut the mixture into small pieces then leave to cool.

This should be a fairly easy recipe to adapt - the chopped crystallized ginger was a bit of an indulgence. If you don't like ginger, you could replace it with dried banana chips/apple chips/pear chips etc. If you don't like dried fruits, you could replace it with chopped nuts. Or just miss it out.  I like the idea of doing a version with a citrus and chilli theme....

For my next challenge.....

..the 2014 5x50 Challenge starts tomorrow.  For me, it will start with a six mile run in the morning, a nice steady run as it will be just a week to go until my first marathon (but more about that later).  The 5x50 Challenge is a fantastic event where you sign up to do 5km of running, walking, cycling, swimming every day for 50 days, or you can do 30 minutes of an alternative exercise. Last year, I mainly ran or cycled and changed by target partway through and decided to aim for an average of 10km a day. I achieved this target and finished the challenge by celebrating with a seven mile off-road race, followed by a seven mile cycle ride home on a very hot day.  It was a huge boost to my confidence and, although my running hadn't been great during the challenge, I did see improvements afterwards and felt able to take on my first HM a few weeks later. Previously, I had started training for the 2012 Birmingham HM  and the 2013 Ironbridge HM and both times had to drop out due to injury.

This year, my impending marathon means I'll have to be more imaginative and adaptable with my exercise on the 5x50 Challenge - I need to be careful not to overdo it beforehand so I'll be alternating running with yoga and/or pilates (luckily my BH bought me books on both these subjects for Christmas so I can work through those). Afterwards, I have no idea how soon I'll want or be able to run so the first week will probably bring more of the same mixed with some time on the cross trainer.  After that, I want to start cycling to work at least twice a week (8 miles each way) and to re-start the Julia Buckley Fat Burn Revolution . I did try this alongside marathon training and managed the first week before being struck down with a nasty cough and sinusitis that put me out of action for a good couple of weeks. Afterwards, I decided I was probably better sticking to the one goal for now and then concentrate on TFBR afterwards.

I'm also quite keen to find different activities for my 5km/30 minutes a day - ideas that have been discussed so far on the C25Kers on Facebook page are skipping, space-hoppering, tandem-cycling, trampolining.....I fancy trying unicycling but I'm mainly hampered by not having any money to spend on a unicycle so that may be one for a later date.  I'm hoping to be able to organise some sort of get together both for the local 5x50 challengers and for some of the mighty NHS C25K team.

As I mentioned above, I will be running my first marathon next Sunday.  I'll be running the Brighton marathon and hopefully raising more funds for the MS Society.  I chose a marathon training plan from George Anderson at Intelligent Running. His plan appealed because I've learned that I need to stick to three, sometimes four, runs a week or I start getting injured.   I also need to avoid overdoing it and wearing myself out and he emphasises the importance of not over-training.

In spite of my good intentions, it would be stretching a point to say I've stuck to the plan.  In the first couple of weeks, I missed a few runs as my son ended up in hospital; January is always a nightmare for me at work so that was a challenge in itself.  I built my runs up to 15 miles, and was surprised how good I felt the next day. Then came an easy week and I did 10 miles with three at threshold pace (more than I should have done) and was feeling happy with the way training was going.  The following week I was struck down with a really nasty cough and sinusitis that stopped me running for two weeks.  I managed 9 miles for my comeback run - they felt ok at the time but it took me far longer to recover than it had taken after the 15 miles.  I stuck to steady runs for the rest of the week, figuring the best thing was to move regularly so it didn't hurt so much next time.  This seemed to work as I then comfortably managed a long run of 19.1 miles, averaging a few seconds per mile slower than target marathon pace.  That took me up to taper time. Stupidly, I made a decision to run parkrun on the grounds that I "only" had to do 10 miles the next day.  The morning of parkrun, I noticed I was coughing a bit again but not badly.  I set off too quickly, weaving in and out of other runners, and had to make myself slow down a little but I was making good time and on course for a PB.  At about 2.5 miles though, my chest felt bad and I had to stop to cough and cough and cough. I turned my Garmin off and decided to give up but then decided to start again but take it easy as I had to get back to the finish en route to my car anyway.  I think I'd stopped for a minute or so and my official time was 30:17 so I'd like to think that had it not been for the cough I'd have got that PB. I felt terrible at the end though, coughing had given me a banging headache and lightheadedness. What shocked me more though was how much it had taken out of me for my run the next morning - I found it so tough that I decided early on to call it a day when my friends stopped, rather than carry on up to 10 miles. I'd forgotten how much it affects my Sunday run if I push myself hard at parkrun. A lesson learned (will try not to forget it again).

It also seemed to have aggravated my chest and cough and I ended up back at the doctors this week.  I was relieved to be told it wasn't the infection hitting me again but just residual inflammation.  I was prescribed an inhaler to use before running and as required thereafter - it seems to work but I'm sticking to steady runs for now. I'm thinking along the lines of rest and damage limitation ! I suppose I am a bit worried that I'm under-trained for the marathon but I haven't given up on the idea of aiming for my original time target. I have back up plans in case it becomes obvious that I'm not ready but as long as there are no crises between now and the big day I'm still focused on plan A.  If it doesn't go to plan (and even if it does, to be honest) I'm already thinking ahead to which marathon I should do next......either to do it properly because I haven't got the result I want, or just to see what happens if I get to follow the training plan more closely.