Better than Ice Cream? Our Heritage Kulfi Review

There is no better feeling than having a half dozen pints of ice cream delivered to your door, especially when you live in New Orleans. With weeks of heat indexes over 110 degrees in our foreseeable future, we need refreshing treats to make it through the hard times. While I love the fatty goodness in Haagen Dazs, I can only eat so much of their coffee ice cream before bed. (I didn’t need to look up how to spell their name, I just know because I eat that much ice cream.) While a pint of Americone Dream by Ben & Jerry’s is my go-to cheat meal, it isn’t really ice cream. (It’s more of a sundae in a pint.) With trends pushing towards healthier options, there hasn’t been a lot of innovation for pure ice cream eaters that are willing to ignore counting calories, in order to consume that which tastes the best. Enter Heritage Kulfi!

Nov012021

Le Cafe Eblouir (Gretna, LA)

Hungry & Fit are typically on the wrong side of the Mississippi River when it comes to the fun, cute places to hang out and eat. New Orleans and even Metairie have most of those spots, with a few exceptions in Algiers. Fortunately, earlier this year, we received a covid-related blessing in disguise. A local pastry chef, who had worked in hotels, decided to open up her own cafe instead of fighting to find a job in the recently unpredictable hospitality industry. Feast your eyes on the treats inside Le Cafe Eblouir!

May262020

Easy S’mores, All Indoors

Happy Tuesday, or Wednesday depending on where you live in this big beautiful world.

If you’re currently experiencing summer, any anywhere near where we live in New Orleans, you’re probably being overrun by mosquitoes, Japanese beetles, and termites. It isn’t fun to spend time outside at night, even with all the fans and Citronella candles you can find in your barren-shelved grocery stores. Add the totally miserable stress of living during a very challenging time and being under quarantine doesn’t help one bit, as you earn to escape.

Mar152019

Celebrating Pi Day with the Best Pie Ever

March 14th aka 3/14 aka 3.14 aka Pi! There are so many new national days. National Pancake Day was earlier this week, although it feels as though we have a few of those every single year. Pi Day is one of those amazing “holidays” that you don’t get off work, but you still can celebrate by justifying the consumption of tons of pie. Pies are underrated and grossly under-appreciated. We typically, especially here in the United States, think of Apple Pie because it is All-American, but is apple pie even close to the best pie?

Mar092019

Whole-Wheat Banana Bread

Our typical uses of bananas include oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, and in peanut butter sandwiches. However, sometimes things come up or other meals fulfill us, and we are left with browning bananas. Do we throw them out? Absolutely not! How dare you suggest such blasphemy. There is so much you can do with bananas: you can make cookies, muffins, or…bread! You can still keep it healthy, even though you’re baking. This whole-wheat banana bread recipe is simple, quick, and delicious. The prep time is basically nothing, but you do have to wait in front of the oven like a starving kitten.

Nov222018

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread

You guessed it. MORE PUMPKIN. Winter isn’t here yet, so that means it’s still pumpkin’s spotlight! I had extra pumpkin leftover from those whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I searched for another healthy-ish recipe. I found the perfect one at Well Plated for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread. I also had two very ripe bananas just asking to be baked. And guess what, it was a natural pairing. This is a great recipe if you want to contribute something healthy to the Thanksgiving table. It’s fall-like because it has pumpkin and is sure to be a popular dessert!

This recipe uses little sugar, not much butter–I was surprised by how healthy it was. I changed a few things from the original recipes (such as taking out the nuts), but it still ended up great. The thing that makes this recipe take a little longer is that for best results, you should wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight! And beware, the texture is very pumpkin-y just in case you’re not into that.

Aug202018

The Shortcut to Making Mango Sticky Rice

If you’ve read our Jitlada review, you know we are a sucker for well-made mango sticky rice. What is mango sticky rice? It’s basically sweet sticky jasmine rice flavored with coconut with fresh mango on top. It’s simple, it’s sweet, it’s satisfying. It is especially satisfying after a spicy meal that you usually find at most Thai restaurants! Mangoes have been off-the-chain in season right now in California, meaning they are cheap and taking lots of room in our pantry. I’ve wanted to make my own mango sticky rice, but I was always too intimidated about the rice part. That is, until I found my hack.

Jet Tila is one of our favorite chefs and he came out with a stellar cookbook a few years ago called 101 Asian Dishes You Need to Cook Before You Die. And guess what was in there? Yup. Mango Sticky Rice. Still, I was nervous about the rice. I didn’t have a bamboo steaming basket and I had no sticky rice. So, I went to the grocery store and I got creative. I scoured the Asian foods aisle, hoping that some divine idea would strike from the florescent lights above. And it did! There it was. VeeTee microwavable Thai Jasmine Rice. Yes, yes, I know it’s not authentic, and it’s not nearly as good as doing it right, but I needed a shortcut and I found it. This isn’t a sponsored post for VeeTee, so really any Thai jasmine rice will work. And you know what, the dish turned out pretty dang good and took hours less time and fewer contraptions. Sometimes, I have time for long, intricate recipes, and sometimes, I, well, don’t.

Jul302018

Honey Spiced Cookies

Does it bother me that maybe there should be a hyphen in the title? Kinda. But I actually purposefully left it out to keep it vague and free. Anyhow. I bring you Honey Spiced Cookies based on the Honey Biscuits recipe from A Feast of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones cookbook for those of you who *scoff* didn’t read the books). This is an incredible cookbook! I can’t recommend enough. It’s all based on foods that George RR Martin wrote into the books, and it splits the recipes into the different regions of Westeros. I’ve made several recipes from this cookbook such as applecakes and bread (both recipes serving the faithful Night’s Watch at the Wall). This recipe comes from the South from Lord Caswell’s kitchen.

These honey spiced cookies are warm, soft, and wonderfully potent with spices like pumpkin and ginger. The recipe takes under fifteen minutes and does not have a long ingredient list (honestly, if it’s too complicated, I don’t even want to make it). This recipe is probably best suited for warmer months due to its fall/winter-like spices, but I made this in a California heat wave (90 degrees F, ya’ll), and we still finished all of them in 1.5 sittings between the two of us. I mean, who says no to cookies based on the season?! Get real.

Jul032018

5 Healthier Recipe Ideas for 4th of July

July 4th is literally tomorrow and I bet a good amount of you are going to some kind of event. Do all of you have the dish in mind that you will bring? If the answer is no, we are here for you! July 4th is for relaxing, catching up with family and friends, and usually consuming food and alcohol. At most of these events, be it party, BBQ, whatever, there will certainly be lots of food. And a good amount of it will not be healthy. And you know here at Hungry & Fit, we are fine with living it up. But what it’s all about is moderation.

So, we have come up with a list of 5 Hungry & Fit healthier (but still very tasty) recipes that you can whip up and bring to your event. Your friends and family will be impressed that you made it yourself and didn’t just buy from the store! We’ve brought you a mix of savory and sweet dishes perfect for this American holiday. You can thank me in advance for saving you some recipe-scouring time.

1. Cannoli Dip

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.