Brilliant breakfasts with Birmingham City Ladies

Following a great introduction to maple session earlier this season with Birmingham City Ladies Football Club, we hosted the first in our series of exclusive nutrition sessions with the players.

The girls dashed over to University College Birmingham after a morning training session to try their hand at cooking up some delicious breakfast dishes with UK chef ambassador, David Colcombe. Luckily we arrived with plenty of maple syrup, as The Blues were desperate for more samples after our first meeting!

On the menu was a breakfast burrito, baked eggs with spinach and maple, overnight oats and a maple-flavoured natural energy drink – recipes for each will be uploaded shortly!

The girls embraced the camaraderie of teamwork and were able to improve their cooking skills at the same time. Our intention is to make the task of fulfilling a professional footballer’s diet more fun with the added goodness of maple. We’re already seeing the girls’ skills improve – not just on the pitch either – with a number of them sharing photos of their own dishes via social media.

It was great to welcome manager Marc Skinner along for the first time, as well as Carl Green, who plays an important role in the nutrition aspect of the girls’ profession through his role as Sports Scientist. Our partnership is beginning to prove that time spent in the kitchen can be just as important as that on the training field to professional athletes.

Marc added: “They [the players] love the fact that maple can be a supplement to their healthy lifestyle so we’re really, really pleased to have Maple Products from Quebec on board with us.

“Our girls don’t just benefit from the sponsorship deal, but they benefit from maple products being real in their lives and I think they take a keen interest in that as well.”

Come the end of the season, we’re hoping to get to a stage where the team will cook their own food that will be naturally nutritious, shared and enjoyed at the training ground together. Over the coming months, we will be working with them to develop more sport-specific recipes and encourage The Blues to devise some of their own!

All of the recipes from the session will be available to view on our website soon www.maplefromcanada.co.uk/recipes and you can check out video highlights of the day here

Birmingham City Ladies Football Club with Chef Ambassador David Colcombe at University College Birmingham

Birmingham City Ladies Football Club and David Colcombe during their exclusive nutrition session

Using pure Canadian maple syrup in cooking

Birmingham City Ladies using maple syrup in their cooking

Birmingham City Ladies with their finished product

Did you know?

Québec exports its maple products to more than 50 countries

Everywhere it goes, consumers of all ages appreciate maple’s unique flavour.

Scientists are studying maple’s potential health benefits

Studies now underway include those on the antioxidant properties of the polyphenols naturally present in maple syrup, with a recent study indicating that maple syrup is better for cardiometabolic health than refined sugar.

Maple syrup can be used as a sugar substitute in most recipes

In cake and most dessert recipes, for each 250ml (1 cup) of syrup used, simply reduce the stipulated amount of liquid (water, milk, juice, etc.) by 60ml (1/4 cup).

A natural source of energy

Maple syrup is a natural source of energy. Check out our recipes for food and drinks before, during, and after exercise.