Running recipes: Apple with homemade pumpkin butter

I’ve been obsessed with squash lately, along with honeycrisp apples. I’ve also been obsessed with tinkering with my pre-run snacks, and figuring out what my sensitive stomach likes and what it doesn’t.

That led to the perfect marriage of the two: a honeycrisp apple and some quick, easy homemade pumpkin butter, which I’ve been making in batches of just a few servings in the microwave. Here’s how I make the weird (but delicious!) little concoction:

1 c canned pumpkin

1/2 c apple cider

Several packs Truvia or other sweetener (Most recipes require roughly 1/2 c sugar for the quantities of pumpkin and cider I use. I find it’s tasty with less, too)

Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice – to taste, or roughly 1 tsp.

Combine ingredients in a microwave-safe container. Microwave for two minutes, or until the mixture starts starts to thicken. Cool in the fridge, then mix again. Slice apple, and garnish with cinnamon and nutmeg.

What’s your go-to pre-run snack?

Speaking of sports nutrition, the editor in chief of Prevention magazine will unveil the magazine’s “400-calorie fix” on the Rachael Ray show today (read my Examiner.com post on the topic here). Regular Prevention readers know the magazine advocates eating four 400-calorie meals composed of produce, whole grains, lean protein and dairy, and monounsaturated fats throughout the day — the good stuff runners should be eating, anyway. Obviously, endurance athletes have drastically different calorie needs than the general population, but I love the idea of breaking one’s meals into small chunks, rather than suffering carbo-bloat from overdoing it pre-race or post-run. Rodale’s recipe-finder provides a portal to both Runner’s World and Prevention’s virtual recipe boxes.