My wife and son are away for a weeks holiday next week which leaves me free to eat what I want. I'm doing a lot of riding at the moment, I commute 40 miles a day on the bike most days but have ridden every day this week and will do the same next week, plus weekend riding. So I need energy.

Now I know when they are away I should be eating only pizza and drinking lots of beer but I'd rather not so anyone care to recommend me some healthy meals for the week that'll give me lots of energy for riding.

Something that’s fairly quick to make would be a bonus too as I don't want to spend ages cooking when I get home from work.

I'm thinking grilled chicken breast, pasta, etc but welcome ideas. Thanks.

Get some chilli in (dried or in a jar) and a few other herbs, buy lots of rice and pasta, get some fish and chicken in and you have the basis of many meals.

Make risottos (just need a simple stock using bouillion and also risotto rice), nice pasta dishes (use oregano, tomatoes, garlic and some of the chicken), kedgeree (smoked fish, hard boiled eggs and rice – it's VERY nice) and all sorts of other stuff.

how about a chicken breast cook it then cut it up put it into a bowl add a bit of fresh lemon mixin some herds add a bit of mayo and east with a nice salad lots of energy not very fattin, not heavy on your stomach and tastes nice

Chicken fajitas with wholemeal wraps.

You can make up 3 or 4 portions of it and then just quickly heat them up when you need them.

Fry some spring onions in a little oil with some cumin and canela (cinnamon??), add 90g quinoa,90g raisins and 250ml chicken stock. Heat to boiling and then cover and simmer until stock has been absorbed, takes about 15mins. I often add a fried chicken breast. I love it.

Carbonara is tasty and easy.

Fry off some pancetta (or smoked streaky bacon if you must).
In a bowl mix 2 or 2 egg yolks, a good grating of parmesan and lots of seasoning.
Boil some fresh pasta for a couple of mins.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, take it off the heat and add the panceta and egg mix. Mix quickly and servce with some more grated parmesan and black pepper. DO NOT leave the pan on the heat once the mix has been added!

Simple, fast and tasty.

Some good meals here, carbonara is great but I add some onion and garlic to the pancetta.

dalesboyz, not much energy in that meal, no carbohydrates.

Just exercise more, dieting is no fun.

I've just sat down to:
1/2 packet of supermarket own brand tortellini (cooks in two minutes)
four chopped cherry tomatoes
handful of rocket
grated cheese
freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon with equal quantity of olive oil
salt and black pepper

nomnomnom

Chicken and pasta slop ,easy and foolproof

Dice a couple of chicken breasts
Dice an onion
Fry until the meat is cooked through (about 10 mins)
Boil a pan of water
Add pasta until cooked
Drain pasta
chuck in chicken and onion
Add passata (pureed tomato)
Add tin of spicey mixed beans
Stir well and serve

I'm not dieting, I just have an opportunity to eat very healthily and se if it makes any big performance difference.

Cougar's Leek & Potato Soup

Serves two hungry people. Multiply / divide accordingly per person, or make extra and freeze what you don't use.

Ingredients

1tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic
250g leeks (one good-sized leek per person for shopping purposes)
250g potatoes (again, one good-sized spud per person)
1 onion
500ml veggie stock (3x veggie OXO cubes will do)
black pepper
115ml milk

Method

Chop and wash the leeks. The easiest way I've found to chop them is to lop the dark green leafy bits off and then slice them lengthways twice, not quite to the end of the root. Then cut into 1cm pieces crossways. You need to wash the leeks as they tend to hold soil inside the layers, and you're not making leek and dirt soup. Peel and dice the onion, and finely chop or crush the garlic.

Melt the butter in a big pan on a medium heat. Add the onion / leek / garlic and fry gently for about ten minutes until the leeks are soft and buttery. Stir regularly, you don't want the oniony mix to stick or brown.

Whilst the leeks are cooking, peel and dice the spuds, about 1cm cubes is good. I've got a chip-making gadget which makes dicing a breeze.

When the leeks are softened, pour in the stock and add the spuds. Give it a generous twist of black pepper. Don't be shy, the nuttiness of the pepper is pretty much essential to this recipe. I don't believe it needs additional salt as the stock cubes are pretty salty in themselves, but if you're using different stock then you might need salt at the stage. Use common sense here, you can add more salt when serving but if there's too much you can't take it out again.

Turn up the heat to bring the soup up to simmering point, then reduce it so that it's simmering gently rather than boiling like mad. Leave it to simmer for about 20-30 minutes, till the spuds are softened through. Stir regularly so that it cooks evenly and doesn't stick.

A couple of minutes before it's done, add the milk. If you're going to freeze some, remove what you're freezing before this point and then add the milk later when you reheat. If you're using creamy milk you might need to let it cool a little first to avoid it curdling; I use skimmed so it's never been a problem to just slap it in. Bring it back up to temperature, stirring to avoid a skin forming, then serve with warm crusty bread.

If you want to pretty it up then you can add chopped chives, parsley of a swirl of cream to each bowl when serving. It doesn't need it though, I think it's fine without further faffing about.

Nom.

Most of the suggestions so far don't sound very healthy for the chicken. 🙁

mushrooms
onions
peppers
sweetcorn
tinned tomatoes
cashew nuts
basil
in one pan

wholewheat pasta
in another

When they are both cooked, stir them up in to one.

you know you want to

If you don't fancy spending ages cooking, surely there's only one answer

Can't be bettered after an evenings riding. chilli sauce? 🙂

free pacemaker included

Most of the suggestions so far don't sound very healthy for the chicken.

mushrooms
onions
peppers
sweetcorn
tinned tomatoes
cashew nuts
basil
in one pan

wholewheat pasta
in another

When they are both cooked, stir them up in to one.

Excellent idea – feed up the chicken with the above and it'll be really tasty.

i agree the chicken will taste nice but the time it will take to feed/kill/pluck the bird he wife will be back

Porridge … a big bowl of it.

Just stick to poultry and fish or eggs, which are easy to digest.

Make some sauces with what ever vegetables and herbs / spices you like, try to add some green vegies and use rice or pasta. Avoid chips and red meat or the wrong kind of oils.