Jun082018

Remembering Anthony Bourdain

There truly are only a handful of individuals in the culinary world that truly brought something new to the table. One of those individuals, Anthony Bourdain, has left the table, and with that, a seat that will be extremely hard to fill.

While I enjoyed cartoons and sports growing up like every other kid, I watched more food television than most kids my age. For Christmas, I’d ask my mom for microplanes, honey dippers, and other obscure cooking utensils to feel more like the chefs that I idolized on television. She’d let me help with food prep in the kitchen and might even let me make my own dish from time to time, knowing full well that it’d end up being inedible. (Note, I was VERY young when this started.) My fixation for in-the-kitchen cooking shows like Emeril Live, Good Eats, Two Fat Ladies and many others, over different channels, never completely faded, but after watching these for years and years, I need new inspiration.

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Jun062018

Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

What do you do when you have over-ripe bananas to be used? Bake, of course! But what to bake? Normally I would make these sweet banana cookies, but we are all out of oats! So I browsed the internet hard to find me something on the healthier side that featured bananas. And…drum roll, please…I came up with whole-wheat chocolate chip banana bars (found it from a great blogger’s site)! Banana bars? Sound weird? They’re not. It’s basically brownie-shaped banana bread with chocolate chips. Yeah, they’re good. Hungry brought them to work and he got major points from his coworkers.

The texture of the banana bars are cake-like rather than brownie-like, light and fluffy. Some hybrid of banana bread and cake. It’s yum. What makes this recipe healthier? Whole-wheat flour, no butter, and not too much sugar. Yeah, there are chocolate chips in it, but I mean, you got to live a little. Some baking recipes are complicated. This one is not. It’s basically mix together, put into sheet pan, and bake. And you know I love easy recipes. Alright, let’s make these delicious banana bars.

Jun042018

Is Body Fat Percentage Important?

Yesterday was a rest day, but it started with a relatively in-depth test called a DXA Scan. This seven minute x-ray gives you more detail about your body composition than calipers, scales and hand-held devices and while it costs $45, there are massive benefits to using it. While we generally don’t find it necessary to track every rep and count every calorie, measuring your progress and results are often crucial to success. When you consider someone who is extremely fit, you might think of an Olympic decathlete. Whether they’re throwing, jumping or running, the world’s best measure every inch and second, because that allows them to improve.

‘Measurables’ hold us accountable and therefore allow us to get better every single session. If you lifted 10 lbs for 10 reps one day with a certain technique, you wouldn’t necessarily be very happy if you used that same technique and only lifted 10 lbs for 9 reps the next time you performed. You’d want to either lift 11 lbs for 10 reps or 10 lbs for 11 reps, if you’re maintaining all of the other factors taken into consideration while exercising, such as rest intervals and technique based numbers such as eccentric/concentric timing, etc.

Jun032018

Hungry Got a New Job

Hungry & Fit started as a personal blog before it transformed into a food & fitness blog. We used it to document our cross-country trip to find a new life in a place we’d never been, but we’ve actually kept you in the dark about a lot of our own personal projects. Recently, Hungry started a new job, however, working for one of the most impactful animal welfare organizations in the world.

If you’ve been following him on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a whole lot of pictures of new dogs. These are shelter dogs from the adoption center where he works. Before, he was a manager for a feral kitten rescue, but now Hungry has the opportunity to work with both dogs and cats, of all ages, breeds and conditions. We’re talking about a lot of unique personalities here.

Jun022018

The Best Food in Ireland

Wow, what a way to highlight the seafood available in Ireland. It is an island, after all.

Americans have a less than favorable perception of food from Northern and Eastern Europe. That includes Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway and every other nation in between. Greece, France, Spain and Italy are given much more love when it comes to highlighting their cuisine in the US, but is that a fair assumption for us to make.

During our recent trip to Iceland, Ireland and Northern Ireland (the UK, technically) we finally had the opportunity to more fairly judge the quality of their food. As a whole, it wasn’t anywhere near as flavorful as Chinese or Mexican food, but it wasn’t terribly bland and it certainly wasn’t lacking in freshness.

May312018

Moy River Bed & Breakfast

We recently went on a grand adventure to and through Ireland. We went all about the country and stayed at all different kind of places: hotel chains, B&Bs, fancy hotels, and hostels. We got a great taste of it all, but one place that we stayed at stood out above and beyond: Moy River Bed & Breakfast. It’s in County Sligo, nestled up against the Ox Mountains and Moy River. We would recommend this Bed & Breakfast to any person traveling Ireland (except perhaps a big family with lots of little ones). It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

It’s charming, beautiful, and very Irish, but most importantly, it has the best hosts. Pat McCarrick and Rita Normanly own this lovely bed & breakfast and I say it’s lovely because they are lovely. We arrived quite late to the B&B due to some car issues, but both of them were awake to greet us and show us our room. More than that, they insisted on giving us tea and some treats after a long drive despite how late it was. We sat around their fireplace and got to know each other. We learned more about Ireland, about the local area, and about them. It was such a nice time and it still stands out in my mind.

May302018

Lunch Break Meditation

Hooray! It’s lunch time! Or even if it’s not, hopefully you have some break throughout your day for a bite to eat and a breather. You might have five minutes, thirty minutes, or an hour. Use some of that time to nourish your body with filling, healthy food. On top of that, I’m challenging you to also nourish your soul with a lunch break meditation. The day’s event can sweep you up into a tide of stress and imbalance. Maybe you haven’t really taken a second to step back and catch your breath or allow your shoulders to lower from your ear lobes.

Whatever your day is–work or not–it’s important to take a break. And one of the most productive breaks you can take is a meditation break. It will refresh mind and body. You don’t need to sit in the middle of your office floor, legs crossed, shoes off, and be humming an ‘om.’ You just need a quiet place where you won’t be bothered for a few minutes. Maybe that’s your desk, a conference room, a table outside, even the bathroom. Find a spot. You don’t even have to be seated. If it’s loud around you and you can’t escape the sound, listen to some calming music. I have a “yoga” Spotify playlist that has some wonderfully soothing tracks (such as Home Again by Drala). Try to block out the outside noise, but don’t stress if you can’t. This will only take a few minutes, but try to give it your full attention.

Nature is always a great place to find some peace

May292018

Easy Chickpea Curry

Watch out, another “Indian” recipe! This time from Martha Stewart (ha!). Though nobody would venture to say Martha Stewart is Indian, I also think nobody would say she’s a poor cook. She’s legendary. I’ve wanted to involve more chickpeas in my diet for a while, but laziness prevented me from actually looking up recipes and finding ways to use them. Sure, I could use them in salads, but what about cooked recipes? I did a quick search and came up with Martha Stewart’s EASY chickpea curry. Like really easy. Like just throw spices and cook chickpeas together easy.

I altered Martha’s recipe into my own easy chickpea curry that would fit my needs and–more importantly–my ingredients. This recipe is a great whip-up-at-home-quickly-after-work dish when you don’t have a lot of time but would like to have something tasty and nutritious. I felt great about eating it! And curry is a heavy word for this dish, it’s really just stewing chickpeas in spices and liquid. Let’s get cooking.

May272018

Easy Mushroom Coconut Curry

Yeah, I’ve been on an Indian food kick lately. I mean, I’m always on one as a consumer, but in the past week, I made three different Indian dishes. Hopefully, you already saw the delightfully easy and delicious naan recipe I put out. And today…I bring you a delicious mushroom coconut curry! I really really enjoyed it. We received Vegetarian India (a cookbook) by Madhur Jaffrey, a well-known Indian chef and cookbook author, as a wedding present. I’m really loving this cookbook and can’t wait to try more from it.

This recipe is based off of her recipe called “Kodava Mushroom Curry with Coconut,” though I deviated quite a bit. Get her cookbook if you want the exact recipe–she’s a genius! Apparently, this dish comes from a more meat-eating region in India and thus she was fascinated by their vegetarian dishes. It’s rich, scrumptious, and filling. She suggests to have it with rice, but we had it with quinoa. I think it would go well with anything–rice, quinoa, naan, paratha, you name it!

May262018

How to Make Naan to Be Proud of

Here at Hungry & Fit, we are BIG Indian food fans. It competes with pizza for our most-delivered food. We love the flavors, the complexity, and the comfort it brings. I’ve always wanted to cook more Indian food since we love it so much, but I was intimidated by the many ingredients you usually need. Naan, however, seemed to have less ingredients and it is probably my favorite “bread” product on the planet. So one day, I find this wonderfully simple naan recipe from Jo Cooks and I committed myself to trying it. I tweaked the recipe slightly because I’m usually too lazy to get the exact ingredients that the original recipe uses. I can proudly say I now know how to make naan!

I was nervous to try it. I’m bad with tedious things and sometimes recipes that call for rolling and cutting dough are just that. I don’t even have a rolling pin! Naan is one of my favorite things to eat and I wanted to do it right. Feeling creative and ambitious one night, I set out to make my very first naan. And guess what, it turned out great if I do say so myself! And don’t be nervous, it’s honestly incredibly simple.