Kids on (Blender) Bikes

Two days after the Pro Cycling Challenge, the Flying Carrot was requested to participate in the Kids on Bikes Festival at America the Beautiful Park. We jumped at the opportunity to teach whole foods sport nutrition to active kids! Our set-up was similar to the Pro Challenge and we again offered mixed berry-beet recovery smoothies, peach salsa, and grilled corn salsa. The blender bike was again a HUGE hit and an excellent platform for teaching about the importance of recovery nutrition after a hard session on the bike or on the sports field. We also used the healthy plate art project to educate about proper fueling for sport and introduce the concept of nutrient balance (in a fun way, of course!)

Another awesome event in a truly beautiful setting! Coming soon to the blog... our mixed berry-beet recovery smoothie recipe! You don't want to miss it.

Sport Nutrition Recovery Tip: Nutritional recovery begins immediately after your training session or an event (especially if you compete multiple times). Optimal recovery is both immediate and prolonged over the course of 3 to 4 hours. Follow the blog to learn more about how to fuel up to recover fast.

The Flying Carrot Hits the Big Time! Pro Cycling Challenge 2012

The Flying Carrot was fortunate enough to be a vendor at the Pro Cycling Challenge Finish Festival in downtown Colorado Springs. This being the first really big event for the bus, we wanted to show up with an exhibit that could not be ignored. Given the popularity of the event, we knew that we would have the opportunity to spread our nutrition message to hundreds of people of all ages. Since most attendants were cycling enthusiasts, we placed a major focus on sports nutrition as a platform for promoting whole foods nutrition and eating local and in-season. The blender bike made its debut and was an instant hit among all who stopped by our booth. Volunteers whipped up mixed berry beet recovery smoothies and we heard many exclamations of "There's beet in this? I don't like beets, but this tastes sooo good!" This presented an excellent opportunity to teach people about how beets may enhance sports performance as well as about how to cook and where to find locally grown beets (ours came from Harlan Wolfe Ranch). 

This time of year, Colorado farms are laden with ripe, delicious produce. To highlight this seasonal and local bounty we prepared a peach salsa (featuring Colorado peaches, cilantro, and jalapeno) and a grilled corn salsa (featuring Colorado tomatoes, corn, basil, and jalapeno) for sampling. We also introduced "veggie cards," a series of educational cards that discuss the history and health benefits of individual vegetables or fruits that grow in Colorado and provide advice on planting/growing and cooking. Other activities included a vegetable identification challenge (a timed game that required participants to gather as many veggies in their arms as possible then identify the ones they recognized and learn about those they did not recognize) and the healthy plate art project. 

The event was a huge success and created great exposure for the Flying Carrot nutrition education project! 

I have many more photos to share, but for now I'll leave you with one last shot. Don't you just love how food brings people together??

Carnival Fun at Meadows Park

On Thursday, July 26, The Flying Carrot participated in a health "carnival" for kids at Meadows Park Community Center (MPCC) organized by the student nurses of the Beth-El College of Nursing. MPCC provides the underserved Stratmoor Hills neighborhood with a safe and healthy environment for providing free and affordable programs and resources for everyone. There were booths set up for hydration, exercise, sun protection, and dental health. The Flying Carrot served as the booth for nutrition. Check out the sign the kids made for the bus.

About 50 kids were gathered and given "passports" that were stamped after completion of the activity at each station. The kids were free to roam between stations and before I knew it my station was swarming!! The kids were eager to get started on the healthy plate art project. One thing I learned from this event is that education about the healthy plate would best be delivered before passing out the plates, because once the plates started being distributed all pandemonium broke out (in a fun way)! Let me tell you dried beans and lentils were flying! 

While it seemed many of the kids got the main educational message of the project, others were too distracted with getting started on painting, pasting, and coloring. To remedy this, I did my best to look at each child's finished plate and ask them questions about what made their plate healthy. The other educational piece was taste testing of fresh veggies from Venetucci Farm. There were purple and orange carrots, kohlrabi, cucumbers, and yellow wax beans. Much to my surprise, the kids gobbled up the veggies and had no qualms about not having anything to dip them into (i.e. the ever popular ranch dressing). It is absolutely not true that kids don't like vegetables! Kohlrabi was a particular favorite. Although initially wrongly identified as a beet or a radish, by the end of the event all the kids were raving about that strange looking vegetable that tasted so good, exclaiming "I love it!"  Peaches are currently in season, so I made a peach purée (using peaches from Palisade,CO) and mixed it with plain yogurt and a touch of honey. Being that it was a hot day, many of the kids enjoyed the cool treat. 

Take a look at the beautiful plates created by the kids. Their creativity blew me away.

One of the student nurses was able to secure boxes of food from Care and Share, which each child (or siblings) got to take home with them at the end of the event. Overall, this was an excellent event for the Flying Carrot and the start of what we hope will be a long relationship with MPCC. How privileged I felt to teach such bright kids!

Spring Recipes

In case you're interested in making those tasty recipes I mentioned in my previous post, I've posted them here.

Arugula Walnut Pesto

Ingredients:

 4 cups arugula, packed

 ½ cup shelled, chopped walnuts 

 6-8 garlic scapes, tender part only, chopped*

 ½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

 ½ to 1 lemon, squeezed

 ½ cup extra virgin olive oil or more as needed

   salt and pepper, to taste

• tender scapes can be used raw, tougher scapes should be tossed with olive oil and roasted in the oven to tenderize.

Instructions:

Over medium-high heat, toast the walnuts in a saucepan until fragrant, about 3-5 minutes. You can alternately toast them on a baking sheet in an oven heated to 350° F. 

In a food processor, combine the arugula, walnuts, and garlic scapes. Pulse while drizzling in the olive oil until the mixture forms a smooth paste. Remove the pesto from the food processor and put into a bowl. Stir in parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and a big squeeze of lemon to taste.

Recipe by Shelly Guzman

Thyme Crackers

Ingredients:

 500 grams (about 2 cups) whole wheat flour

 ½ cup olive oil

 1 cup water

 2 tsp salt

 2-3 tbsp dried thyme

 1 tbsp agave nectar

  2 tbsp olive oil

   salt and pepper

   fresh thyme

Instructions:

Mix whole wheat flour, olive oil, water, salt, dried thyme, and agave nectar together. Roll out dough until it is very thin (about ¼ inch). Cut into squares or long flat sticks. Add salt and pepper to olive oil. Brush each cracker with olive oil mixture. Press fresh thyme leaves into each cracker. Bake on a cookie sheet for 12 to15 minutes at 325°F

For a softer flatbread, roll out dough a bit thicker and pan fry in olive oil for 3 minutes each side.

Recipe by Nanna Meyer

The Big Debut

On Saturday, June 23, The Flying Carrot project made its big (well big-ish) debut at Bob's Bash 5K, 9K, and 20-mile race. The race was held at Aspen Valley Ranch in Woodland Park. After many trials at finding the right location to position the bus, we found the perfect shady spot. From there set-up began as we decked out the inside of the bus with educational artwork created by students from the Food, Culture, Community and Health class at UCCS. While the bus remains unpainted for now, we printed a large poster of The Flying Carrot logo to add pizzaz to the outside of the bus. 

The interactive educational piece included a taste testing of fresh, seasonal produce (peas, broccoli, turnips, beets, garlic scapes) from Venetucci Farm and arugula walnut pesto made with arugula and garlic scapes from Harlan Wolfe Ranch. Homemade thyme crackers (made with thyme from my own garden) made a tasty accompaniment to the pesto and served as a salty treat for the 20-mile runners. Recipes for the pesto and crackers were provided as well. Another activity involved something called the healthy plate, which is a guide to how to eat to support optimal health. Depending on your level of activity, there are 3 options: the healthy plate for those who are only lightly active or focusing on weight management, the fitness plate for those who are moderately active, and the performance plate for athletes who regularly train and compete at a high level. We provided paper plates and a variety of art supplies with the idea that people (mainly children) would create their own healthy plate. Hard to tell if this activity is a total success yet because there were only 2 children at the event and I could only convince one to participate. :) Nonetheless, she seemed to have a great time! My favorite part of her plate was when she used watercolors to represent her favorite fruits and vegetables (i.e. a stripe of red for strawberries, a splash of purple for eggplant, and green for salad). Additionally, there was a colorful handout on how to identify a whole food. 

While we knew the event was going to be small, it was even smaller than expected. This was partly due to the Waldo Canyon Fire that started just before the race, creating less than ideal conditions for the runners in addition to the already challenging elevation, heat, and difficulty of the course. Despite the low turnout, we took advantage of the few spectators we had and shared the purpose of the Flying Carrot project and got ideas for future events. The feedback seemed positive (the event photographer particularly liked the crackers and pesto)! Overall, it was a great place to start as we prepare for bigger events. 

Drumroll please... the "Veggie Bus" has a new name!

After many months of brainstorming and debate, the bus has a new name! Drumroll please... "The Flying Carrot" 


Check out the new logo. What do you think? Pretty fun if you ask me! 

Artwork by Nanna Meyer. 

Putt Puttin' Along

The progress of the "Veggie Bus" has been slow rolling this month, but good news... the project will launch June 23 at the Inaugural Bob's Bash 5K, 9K, and 20-mile trail race at Aspen Valley Ranch. A perfect event to discuss the athlete's plate and how to fuel for peak sports performance. The blender bike will be on hand to whip up fresh recovery smoothies!

There is much to do still to get the bus ready. We are close to choosing a new name. The paint job is on temporary hold until we find a fabulous artist to really make her pop! Until then we'll use magnets and a chalkboard to fancy up the exterior. In the next couple weeks, she'll be outfitted with shelves, tables, and stairs out the back (thanks to Joe at Aspen Valley Ranch who will hopefully be able to put my unskilled self to work helping him with the construction). All the necessary materials (coolers, display baskets, camp stove, etc.) will also get ordered in the next week or so. While the project has only been putt puttin' along during the month of May, it's really going to get rolling in the month of June and through the summer. We are scheduling many events, which I will share here soon...