On Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at 8:00:37 PM UTC-7, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Tue, 26 May 2020 13:58:38 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

What are people's preferences for on-bike snacks?

When we lived in New York, and all my rides were mostly rural, I
carried High Calorie Muffins: one cup of sunflower seeds, one cup of
raisins, one cup of self-rising mixed edible powder, enough something
or the other to make a batter. Over-ripe bananas were good.

I soon got tired of dividing the dough into fifteen muffin cups (or
was it two dozen?), but baking it as a cake made crumbly slices.
Eventually I realized that I needed to bake it in a *big* pan, so that
the bottom crust could hold the bars together.

When fresh Stanley prunes were in season, I left a trail of plum pits
on many a tour. Stanley prunes were just big enough to take in one
bite, and prunes don't shrink much when dried, so the fresh prunes
were chock full of sugar. I haven't seen fresh prunes of any breed in
a couple of decades.

I also made pocket cookies: "flour" one's hand with sesame seed when
forming Oatmeal Crispies into long rolls, and make the rolls very
thin. Freeze, cut quarter-inch slices, and bake. Being small, they
didn't go to crumbs in my pocket; being essentially oatmeal glued
together with butter and brown sugar, they were good fuel. And they
were tasty enough to delay a tandem team who were catching up to a
tandem ridden by a couple of friends -- who had been likewise delayed.

Here, back when I was allowed to ride*, I liked to stop for fuel along
the way. It's amusing that gas stations are often the most-convenient
places to do that. There's a bar over the Barbee Hotel that has
excellent single-serving pizza, and I enjoyed eating at Stacy's Sports
Bar before it caught fire. They rebuilt, but the food was always a
bit heavy -- sometimes I took home supper for two -- and there are two
gas stations nearby.

So an emergency food bar can be carried around for weeks or months
before it's eaten, so I buy "protein bars" (candy bars) and "fruit and
grain bars" (cookies) at Aldi. I forgot them once, thought I could
buy some comparatively-expensive bars at Kroger, and was in full
despair before I realized that I could buy bananas.

A banana and a snack bag of nuts makes a nice lunch.

Sometimes I carried a dried-beef sandwich and a fresh tomato to slice
onto it. On one memorable occasion, I carried a can of potted meat
(or maybe it was chicken salad) and sandwich makings. I didn't think
I needed a can opener because the meat was in a wrench-and-flip can,
but I cut my finger on the microserrated edge wrenchflipping leaves,
and bled like a stuck pig. It's really, really hard to open a
first-aid kit with one hand raised high above your head with the thumb
firmly pressed on the index finger! I did finally manage to get a
band-aid on it.

---------------------------------

*I managed to keep in something resembling shape all winter, then
suddenly there was nowhere to go, then I gleefully read that one of my
favorite destinations had curb service, but before I could take
advantage, my doctor ordered me to refrain from bending -- for two
days, lying flat was too strenuous. I saw him today: I can resume
sciatica exercises if I'm very, very careful, but no showers and no
bike riding -- and I didn't even tell them I have a road bike in
addition to the pedestrian accellerator she was probably thinking of
when I asked.

I see him again in eight days, to get the dressing off my nose.
Please, get that dressing off my nose!

As you demonstrate the idea is to have easily digested carbohydrates. I can tell how long it takes me to begin real digestion by feeling better. On centuries when I force myself to stop and eat at the rest stops I never get to the point where I need refueling.