Eat like a Boomer

Deakin’s Melbourne Boomers know which foods taste great after a big training session and now they’re keen to share their favourite recipes with Deakin staff.

Teaming up with Deakin nutrition students this month, the Boomers spent a day in the kitchen learning how to adapt recipes for different stages and volumes of activity, and improving their kitchen confidence.

Nutritional Science lecturer Dominique Condo APD explained that understanding nutrition and healthy eating is a key part of every athlete’s life. Dominique and her students have run two sessions with the Boomers over the last year and produced a cook book of tasty and nutritious recipes.

From beef and lentil burgers to meatballs and san choi bao, Boomers basketballer Maddie Garrick said she was looking forward to cooking large batches of the recipes and freezing them for quick post-training meals. The team also learned about how to adapt recipes for different situations.

“We’re learning that it’s better to eat meals with carbs before a match and have more protein after a match for recovery. It’s better to have the white (banana) smoothie for breakfast and the pink and green smoothies at any time of day.”

Wearing her specially-designed Boomers apron, point guard Rebecca Cole said the classes were giving her more confidence in the kitchen. 

Dominique said this year’s cooking session introduced new recipes that provided a convenient boost between matches such as protein and muesli bars. 

“We’ve also used mince in our savoury dishes because its cheap and convenient. We’re showing them how to do the basics then how to mix it up using herbs and spices.”

“We wanted to demonstrate to the players that easy recipes can be prepared ahead of time and how they can modify the recipes depending on their requirements and training loads,” Dominique said. 

Learn more about how Deakin supports female athletes