No Meat Athlete Cookbook by Matt Frazier and Stepfanie Romine

I am not a vegetarian, but I do like to include meatless dinners about once a week. My daughter in law IS a vegetarian, so when her and my son come for dinner I like to try different recipes and see what she thinks.

Last year I shared with you a recipe from this book, French Onion Stew with Mushrooms. It was really great! The cashew cream alone is amazing. I’ve tried other vegan dairy substitutions (like nutritional yeast in the place of cheese), but this stuff was amazing. They use it as a substitute for the cheesy bread that goes atop french onion soup. It was a delicious snack all by itself.

“Extra’s”

The first two chapters talk about being an athlete and adopting a no-meat mentality/lifestyle. They go into how to stock your kitchen, what to eat to be healthy, along with other snippets of information. There are a lot of vegan/vegetarian athletes, and there is a healthy way to do it.

I like books like this that not only provide recipe’s, but go beyond that to the philosophy behind the scenes. Especially for those of us who are active, we need to fuel correctly.

The stocking the kitchen section talks about everything from pots and pans, to cooking methods, to ingredients.

Fueling

Chapter 7 is all about fueling before, after, and during workouts with real food. Something that I am all about.

There are quite a few homemade sports drink recipes in this book! I don’t think many people realize you can make your own sports drink (and apparently there is a shortage right now of the commercial stuff). It’s funny how marketing can make us think that this or that supplement is going to be better for our athlete bodies than mother nature!

There is even a section on homemade protein powders!

Books for the Athlete

I have been purchasing and reading a lot of books lately on training, fueling, etc. It is amazing that I have been running for so many years without some of the knowledge that I have gained through coaching certification and research.

I highly recommend that besides scrolling on the internet, if you are interested in becoming a better runner all around you research and find some books on the subject that you can physically mark up and sticky note. I am so glad I started doing that. It has helped me immensely to become a better runner.

The No Meat Athlete Cookbook is a great source for vegans/vegetarians and carnivores. Having a source for different sports drinks and fuel options for workouts is worth it.