Pre-workout

The goal here is to provide your body with energy for the workout as well as create within
your body an environment that minimizes protein (your muscle) breakdown.  The energy
aspect will come most efficiently from carbohydrates.  The number of grams of
carbohydrates and amount of time consumed before your workout will vary but I'll give you
a good rule-of-thumb suggestion:
-30-50 calories from simple carbohydrates, 30-45 minutes before your workout.
-10-20 grams of protein, 45 minutes to 1 hour before your workout. 

Post-workout

The goal here is to provide the nutrition to your body to capitalize on the 'anabolic window'
characterized by the approximate 3-times-greater-than-normal rate of protein resynthesis
that takes place in your body immediately after your workout.  This window closes about an
hour after your workout ends.

How do you best take advantage of this?

You best take advantage of this by getting a protein/carbohydrate mix in to your stomach
and further to the areas of rebuilding (your muscles) as quickly as possible.  Further aiding
this is the composition of the protein and carbohydrate sources.  The two times really that I
as a fitness professional recommend non-complex carbohydrates are here and pre-
workout.  You don't want your body spending a lot of time breaking down the nutrition. 
You want the macros easy to be broken down so they can pass though the walls of your GI
tract and get to where they need to go.

Protein: 20-40 grams, whey is a fast-digesting and available at most stores form.
Carbohydrates: 30-50 grams, simple source like chocolate syrup or table sugar.

This recommendations will take you are far as you would like to go in terms of pre- and
post-workout nutrition advice.  Follow them and you will have success in addition to not
having to worry whether or not you are doing the right thing for your body to prepare for
and recover from your workouts.