A healthy addiction to avocados

Along with making sure that you get enough rest and recovery, one of the best ways to help ensure that you get the most benefit from the hard work of your training (while also staying fit and healthy) is by maintaining a healthy and nutritious diet. Eating and drinking the right things means that you can be better fuelled up and prepared for your workouts, and that your body can repair itself and become stronger as a result of the training. Carbohydrate and protein are very important for the fuelling and repair processes, but a certain amount of fat is also critical for a healthy endurance athlete's diet. Gram for gram, fat contains twice the calories of carbohydrates and can therefore help to ensure that an adequate amount of energy is taken on board during periods of high volume training. The best types of fat to consume are unsaturated fats, as found in nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and fish. These contain essential fatty acids, which our bodies need to stay healthy and which they can't manufacture.
I eat at least a portion of nuts every day, but another of my favourite sources of 'good' fat is avocados. I'm always experimenting and looking out for ideas for different ways to use avocados, and was particularly excited a few months ago when I discovered this recipe for rather tasty avocado truffles. Recently, a glut caused by some over-enthusiastic avocado purchasing led to me investigating the addition of avocados to my post-workout stack of breakfast pancake. They got the thumbs up from my husband, so I've put the recipe below for anyone who fancies giving them a try.

Avocado Banana Pancakes

 120g wholemeal flour
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp baking powder
1 small avocado (the flesh of mine weighed 90g)
1 small banana (mine weighed 110g peeled)
Juice of half an orange
200mL milk
1 egg
50g yoghurt

• In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
• In another bowl, mash together the avocado and banana into a purée.
• Add orange juice, milk, egg, and yoghurt to the avocado/banana purée and beat together with a fork.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until combined. Depending on how thin you like your pancakes, you may wish to add a little more milk at this point.
• Heat a large flat-based frying pan/griddle on medium and brush with a little bit of oil.
• Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto the preheated pan and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip pancakes and cook other side until browned.
• Transfer pancakes to a plate and keep in a warm oven while you cook up the rest of the batter.
• Serve with fresh fruit/honey/syrup/yoghurt.