As you’ll no doubt know if you’ve been reading our emails or have been frequenting our socials, this time last month we were over in Athens as James was running from Athens to Sparta in the historic Spartathlon race – 153 miles on foot in less than 36 hours.
Before and after (and possibly during) the run, Jason couldn’t help but stick his head into the kitchen of every restaurant we visited to chat to the chefs about where they were getting their food from, what methods they were using and what ingredients they had access to.
A couple of things we noted were the access to absolutely fresh, super local ingredients, the abundance of dried rather than fresh herbs used, and the use of a saganaki – a traditional two-handled pan – for sauteeing many dishes.
We’ve taken those concepts and added them to two Elevated saganaki dishes for this month. More on these below!
Quick simple and super tasty and drawing on our Tomato Fondue Brilliant Base, this dish is super high in protein and omega III fats while retaining a real show stopping look when served to the table, especially if steaming in the pot. Even better, it is ready literally in minutes. A great, warming dish perfect for an early winter’s evening served with a nice chunk of sourdough.
In this dish, we’ve called on the absolute original Greek fried cheese dish in that two-handled saganaki pan. Traditionally this is done with more of a hard cheese with a high melting point, but we’ve elevated it with manouri – a close relative of feta that is a little softer but with less salt and still high in protein. We’ve then enhanced the flavours with deep red and blue fruits and vegetables – packed with antioxidant anthocyanins – to enhance flavours, textures and nutritional values, all of which cook down beautifully. And there are some walnuts in there for an extra boost of heart-healthy omega IIIs too. This is another dish that’s ready in minutes, super simple and super tasty.
Another challenge in Greece was trying to keep James at optimum levels of nutrition and hydration while not putting too big of a strain on his good – that all-important blood flow needed to he headed towards his limbs instead of his digestive tract. One solution we came up with and used quite a lot was to use super smoothies with a small handheld USB-powered high sheer blender.
The base of these was James’s six steps to a super smoothie formula which we’ve included below. This tells you all about the ingredients and portion sizes of each you need to create your own smoothie bespoke to your tastes.
We’ve also provided subscribers with two of our own recipes and we’ll add more of these over the coming months.
Some of our articles are FREE to view and we now have a free recipes section if you want to try us out. But if you’d like access to our Premium Recipes, Nutrition and Lifestyle management videos, you can get them free for your first month. To find out more see here. It’s then less than the price of three store-bought coffees to access our Premium content. And Elevated is miles better for you!
Rather than just provide you with 100’s of delicious recipes, you get a whole lot more from Elevated. We are a nutrition focussed recipe subscription. This means all of the recipes we offer are absolutely packed with health-boosting ingredients that will help you live life better.