It’s with heavy hearts and loaded pockets that we are announcing some major news. Last night, we finally closed a deal with a European Union Media Mogul in his acquisition of the Hungry & Fit blog. Now, in full transparency, the agreement did not include the Hungry & Fit LLC company that we created and registered both federally and through the state of Colorado. It simply included the domain name (for this website) and all of the contents/publications on the site.
Another blogger reached out to tell us how inspirational it was to see us continue to post well into our fifth year of blogging. (We started H&F in August 2012.) When we started as a personal blog, we had no idea where we’d end up, but we’ve probably excelled more in the Hungry part of Hungry & Fit. Sure, you might have seen Hungry’s personal trainer showcase for an international publication, but who knew people loved our cooking (or baking) more than our training?!?
So here I am, ready to deliver a three-star review to this ramen spot, Tatsu, when my partner-in-crime stops me and says… no. She demands I put five stars up so we settle for four and I’ll tell you why. She’s strictly judging the ramen, which is one of her favorites in LA. I’m judging the overall experience, which is always going to be lackluster on Sawtelle.
This place is PACKED to the point that it’s more than competitive with Tsujita. You get a lot more of the younger West LA crowd (middle/jr/high school) waiting outside here, so it’s hard to weave your way through even if it’s not your destination. This of course means wait times, so good luck dining in. I’ve only ever gotten take out and delivery. I give Tatsu credit for delivering the same product at their multiple locations. That consistency builds them a strong following because you know what to expect.
Ramen in LA is as common as concrete in K-town. It’s everywhere, and every single place, claims to be the best. Every single place has a cult following of people who will tell you the same. This happened when I went down to visit a friend who worked in Westchester and wanted to go to The Ramen Joint and I told her… this better be good.
My boss has a big bounty of a garden and he generously brings in lots of different kinds of fruits. One of these fruits in which he brings surplus of is passion fruit! Passion fruit is such a treat because it’s not very common. The abundant amount of rain Southern California has received lately has helped more fruit, well, come to fruit. Passion fruit has a certain tropical flavor. It also absolutely looks like an alien fruit: it has a purple shell and inside, there are a bunch of green slime covered seeds. Sounds appetizing, right? Well, it’s actually super tasty and they’re only about 15 calories a pop!
My boss had brought in a large amount this time and I had quite a few sitting in my fridge. I didn’t want them to go bad, so I looked up passion fruit recipes and found this one. I altered it a little to have less sugar. A passion fruit pudding cake…full of moisture and flavor without being too sweet. Those who know me know that I’m not a huge cake fan, but this recipe is a cross between a pudding and a cake so I like it. It may look a little intimidating, but it’s quite simple to do. I’ve already baked it twice because it’s so delicious. It’s perfect for a guilt-free dessert because it’s so light, but also hits the spot because of its flavor and texture.
We saw a really funny meme the other night. It showed someone’s meals logged throughout the day and the first 4-5 were all super healthy. The final one was a pint of ice cream and chocolate chips cookies and it’s sad, but true. We think that more people can relate to that than you might initially think, because it’s extremely hard to fight your sweet tooth the whole day.
One night, after a delicious supper of leftovers, Hungry and I were craving something else. We had a fridge full of goodies so the world was our oyster. What did we want for dessert? More than just a square of chocolate. What about making something? What about pairing Hungry’s cooking skills with Fit’s baking skills? Yes! Sounds like the right way to go. We had plenty of apples and I always like to add a topping, so we created an apple crumble dessert! This recipe was so fun, but also relatively un-intimidating and simple to do: we cooked on the stove and then baked to finish it in the oven. If you can, grab a partner to make this lovely dessert with you in the kitchen!
Even if you have a regular 9-5 office job, you still need to find something to get you through the day. And forget just getting through the day, why not power through the day?! Thus I bring to you….super-powered oatmeal: a recipe to give you a happy belly and charge you with energy for the day. It’s really quite simple and I use what ingredients I have in my pantry. It doesn’t take long and I find it’s a lovely way to start the day. Cooking is a form of creativity and creativity itself often lends energy to the creator. I like to cook this simple oatmeal recipe while sipping on fresh cold lemon water and a cup of tea. If you’re wary of cooking breakfast, this is a good recipe to start with: it’s hard to screw up.
We made it! We finally arrived after 12 hours of flying and another of customs. We’re a little groggy (Chris is actually sleeping on the couch right now), but we’ve made it! Just in case you wondered where we’ve run off to…we are here in New Zealand for two weeks for a cousin’s wedding and to explore both islands! Some of you know I’m half-Kiwi, meaning that my mum is from New Zealand. We are very excited for this trip. My mum, dad, brother, and his girlfriend will be arriving tomorrow. My aunt picked us up and we are just getting acclimated. This post is going to be picture-heavy. Just of things we did in California and things we’ve just done in New Zealand! Here goes…
In NZ at a park across the way!
Let’s start with Christmas in Santa Monica, California (my hometown). We arrived Christmas Eve and boy did it go fast. We saw lots of family and friends, ate tons of good food, and got in fun workouts. Christmas loot was incredible this year, some of the standouts were the Jawbone UP, a mixer, Star Wars CCG cards, Amazon gift cards, oh and…A GOPRO!!!!!! Yeah Chris went a little overboard this year in terms of presents, so so excited to use the GoPro in New Zealand. We actually got footage of us “surfing” (there were no waves that day), and you’ll see it once I learn how to edit it.
Just arrived in Cali
Star Wars cards…super rare!
Jawbone UP…records movement, sleeping, and eating. A wrist band.
GoPro!!
Joys of opening packs
This was at a delicious Christmas Eve party with my family…Chris eating children of course
Gotta love Santa Monica..
In N Out…
Bay Cities!!
Mum’s homemade breakfast
Japanese food with Sophie and Kai
Epic Tekka Don
Time to move onto workouts…we did some improvising home workouts
Some at the beach with friends…
Rope climbing!
He got all the way up
And don’t forget the surf!
Beautiful picture from the GoPro camera
The five days in California went by incredibly fast, but I’m not surprised. Then on Sunday night, we loaded our stuff into a car, Dad dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way to New Zealand! We arrived to New Zealand Tuesday @ 5:30am. Yes, Tuesday…we skipped Monday! 18 hour time difference plus 12 hour flight will do that to you I guess. Here’s a few pictures from the journey so far…
Mum and I with travel pillows
Had to get this journal for the trip
Food at LAX
Airplane food, not bad!
Little itty bitty beginning of sunrise
They don’t refrigerate eggs here!
Chris’ epic kiwi breakfast
Going for a walk
New Zealand is just pretty
We hope to update you as often as we can, depending on internet of course. Probably the hardest part of all of this is being away from the cats for so long, but it helps to know that they are in good hands in Boulder. We are in Auckland now but will soon be travelling south. So excited to be here with Chris and my huge kiwi family for this trip. We are going to have lots of great food and find fun creative ways to workout on the road. Happy New Years!! As always…stay hungry and fit!
Happy Birthday to us! Happy Birthday to us! Wow! We made it one whole year of posting and you actually listened to us that whole time! Starting and continuing this blog has been an absolutely treasure for us and we appreciate our followers so much for their support and willingness to try new things. I can’t believe a whole year of blogging has gone by already! Time flies when you’re busy and having fun.
We originally started this blog to share our food and fitness knowledge and to discuss our journey–all which we’ve done with flying colors I believe. When we first started this blog, we were broke and jobless–using the public library to get our blogging needs done. Now we’ve moved to a new apartment (bigger and nicer than previous), gotten several jobs and moved up the chain in those jobs, becoming directors and coordinators of departments.
Chris has Bell’s Palsy here…
Hungry and Fit! Our pose
We’ve been through some rough times and some great times and we’ve both grown in our first year here in Colorado. We’ve achieved great fitness goals and killer recipes. There was the point when we hit 1k followers, and now we’re up to 1,500! We’ve expanded a great deal with different social medias in our Hungry & Fit Nation. We’ve extended our services as personal trainers and become friends with other businesses. We get 400 views a day! Pretty good first year I’d say. And tons of “bonus kitty pics” (obviously the best part of our posts).
And let’s look at the very first post we wrote…”Welcome to Boulder“. Awww, isn’t that cute! It’s fun to look back and see our journey from Day 1 to where we are. Fresh out from college (me anyhow–Chris was one year out), living on our own, and creating a life together. Pretty exciting stuff to think about. We’ve now surpassed a half million views and we are ecstatic about how well our blog has taken off. We’ve gotten some attention from sponsors and ad agencies, but we do this for the love of creation and helping others. And we plan to keep it that way.
It’s a lot of work to blog every day (or so we try), but it’s something we think worth doing and we truly do enjoy it. You gotta do what you love and love what you do. But YOU guys help us keep going. So thank you so much for supporting us! And as always…stay hungry and fit!
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BONUS KITTY PIC
Sajah has become such a cuddle bug
