Best foods for runners: Midsummer resolution

Kale- don't love it but I should.  Thx wiki for the pic.

A weekend full of Grand China Buffet and El Taco Tote left me feeling bloated and sluggish this morning, so I did what anyone would: drank a bucket of coffee and searched the web for "best foods for runners" and was consequently overwhelmed with the lists I found, and their disparity from what's getting into my belly (no frijoles refritos? wha??): 

22/29?  Not so bad!

I'm not doing too poorly on purchasing these recommended foods, but let's be honest, partaking of them is a different story.  I have a pretty substantial quinoa collection that I'm not eating too often because it tastes awful.  Why does the entire internet think quinoa is so transcendentally nutty and wonderful?  Yes it's as salubrious as beets (thanks Calvin and Hobbes) but it tastes like metallic yet flavorless and chewy warm fish eggs to me (no offense to fish eggs, I love you my salty sushi sprinkles). 

Evidence!  Some healthy food was removed from this picture at some point!

I still need to reconcile which foods are best vs what I like to eat best, but for lunch I ate a sweet potato with cottage cheese and cilantro, which seems to jive with a few of the internet lists and my tastebuds.  In any case, a step away from the Chinese buffet in any direction has got to be a good move :)

It's no secret, my running has been suffering as it loses out (on purpose) to more pressing things. The part of that I can control is what I eat in order to properly fuel myself (bye bye GCB and the Tote) and I hope to further clean up my food act a bit this summer.

Any thoughts on your favorite nutritious yet delicious foods?  Quite clearly I also need quinoa recipe suggestions :)