Whoever Said Bread = Bad Was Full Of It. Try this Healthy Strawberry Bread Recipe

We're primed to hack it on the race course after a helluva long year. Are you? Sure, true to your unstoppable grit, determination, and perseverance, you've done your best to stay OCR-ready while sheltering at home. But with Spartan races back in full swing, it's time to clean up your nutrition program and ditch poor pandemic habits once and for all. In partnership with Renaissance Periodization, we created a four-part MACROS 101 series to optimize your nutrition so you can get faster, stronger, and prevent injury. Download the free nutrition plan and use these healthy recipes to inspire your next meal. We've got you covered for your most EPIC return to racing ever. AROO!

When you're training heavily, your body needs extra carbohydrates to make it through intense workouts and avoid the fatigue wall. Enter: this epic, athlete-friendly healthy strawberry bread recipe.

Screw what the diet books say. When done right (cooked by you, sans preservatives and other junk) bread becomes a useful carbo-loading tool in your kitchen regimen. If you need creative ideas or you're new to baking bread, try this simple recipe, a favorite of Nick Shaw, co-founder of Renaissance Periodization and nutrition coach to OCR elites, CrossFit champions, UFC fighters, Navy SEALs, and Olympians, featured in RP's book Big Flavor, Zero Fat.

Make it once, and there's no doubt you'll have trouble keeping it in stock. "It's so moist and absolutely exploding with fresh strawberries," says Shaw. "I’d serve this to anyone without apology. This is NOT a 'diet food'—this is your new 'I make this every week to carbo load in a smart way' amazing strawberry bread."

strawberry bread ingredients

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray; put down a layer of parchment, then spray again.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt to combine.
Combine yogurt, beet sugar, egg whites, orange zest, vanilla and applesauce in a separate mixing bowl.
Stir flour mixture into liquid mixture.
Lightly coat strawberries with reserved flour, then fold into the batter.
Bake for at least 1 hour. Cool for 10min in the pan on a cooling rack, then use parchment to remove from pan. Cool for at least another 10 minutes on cooling rack before slicing to serve.