Great Healthy Pre-Workout Meal
A few years ago my friend introduced me to Pho (No idea how to type the proper accent over the "o", but it’s not the same as in "phone". Bah, anyhow…) It’s a traditional Vietnamese dish and extremely healthy. Maybe a bit high in sodium, but really that’s only if you down all the broth. It’s a beef dish, my personal favorite is using any combination of rare steak, well-done brisket/flank, and meatball. For those of you questioning the rare meat, lemme explain. The soup is assembled with rice noodles and the meat on top. Add a couple garnishes, such as thin sliced onion, and the broth. The broth is served hot enough that it actually cooks the meat (also thin sliced) in about 15 seconds or less. Add the remaining garnishes (in my case a lot of bean sprouts!) to flavor, like lime, basil, etc. So nothing is fried, breaded, etc. You get all good carbs from the rice noodes and the meat’s fresh and typically very lean, aside from maybe a little fat on the brisket depending on the quality of the cut. The sodium also stays low if you don’t consume all the broth, too. Plus, the best part, is you can usually get it for $6-$8 for a plenty large portion! Most recipes online will say to use beef broth, unless you have an asian market to go to and get the actual ingredients needed to make the broth. So if you have a Pho shop around and have never tried it, I highly suggest it! If you don’t, here’s a good recipe that I found that’s about as close as you’ll probably get to the real thing. Just make sure to use good rice noodles, not cheap Maruchan ramen ones! It always hits the spot and gives you some good fuel to run on before the gym.
http://www.metrokc.gov/health/nutrition/recipes/pho.htm
