Crustless Cranberry Pie Cake

This one is an interesting recipe. It’s technically called a “pie” as per this recipe, but I think it’s more along the lines of a cake. It’s texture is much more akin to a cranberry cake, it has some body to hold the cranberries within the batter. This was one of the easiest recipes of Thanksgiving and the theme of cranberries will certainly carry on to Christmas as well. This is a simple dessert that makes cranberries the star. The cranberries are put whole into the pie-cake and, when baked, they melt into tart-y goodness. I tried to minimize the sugar and butter in an attempt to healthify this. If you’re running last minute on a dish you need to bring to a party, choose this one–not much prep involved!

Dec302015

Birch Paper Goods [GIVEAWAY]

A card. Good for literally any occasion. However, what are the chances you’ll actually find a great card? Not a good one, a great one. One made with good materials with beautiful artwork like it was crafted rather than simply printed from a machine. Not only should it look nice, but the words should be spot on too. Nothing cheesy, embarrassing, or just bad–make it fun, bright, and clever. That’s where Birch Paper Goods makes an entrance. Their tagline is literally: Fun, Whimsical Greeting Cards, Yay!

Birch Paper Goods makes cards that are clever, whimsical, and heartwarming. They make you smile. They make you giggle. They make you appreciate the art. When’s the last time you appreciated art from a card? I certainly can’t remember the last time. These cards make you want to proudly display them, say, on the fridge or somewhere where the public in your home can see.

To boot, they are affordable! you go to stores and they don’t have a card you want, but end up settling on a decent one. And then you turn it around and you see it’s a $15 card. Welp… At Birch Paper Goods, a single card costs $4 and a pack of 8 for $15. With the quality of these cards, I’d say that’s a steal.

One we have

Birch Paper Goods is also getting started on rolling out more designs throughout this coming new year (2016). I can’t wait to see what they have in store! I really love the creativity and cleverness of each design. I highly suggest you poke around the website and see what design you like most!

GIVEAWAY: Yes, we are doing a giveaway for this awesome company! What you can win:

A box of 8 cards (you pick)

In order to be considered for this giveaway, you must:

Look on the Birch Paper Goods website and pick out your favorite card set. This is what you will win if you are chosen. Comment below with your favorite card set and why it’s your favorite
Like the Birch Paper Goods Facebook page

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you enjoy what you see because we certainly do. And as always, stay hungry and fit!

Dec292015

Getting Back At It

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and every night you have a holiday party booked. An ugly sweater here, a kiss under the mistletoe there, and one too many glasses of eggnog everywhere. As we look towards making resolutions for 2016, let’s try to survive 2015 first and as we’re shoving endless calories and drinks down our throats, let’s try to balance that with something to help us recover.

Dec252015

Hungry & Fit’s Christmas Lists

Hungry and Fit aren’t big on birthdays, the 4th of July, Easter, or most holidays that fall outside of the last three months of the year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are definitely the most celebrated in our household. Since we’re sticking to the holiday season theme for a lot of our posts recently, we thought we’d add another fun one and hope, in turn, to learn some more about you, our readers.

Last year’s loot

Dec212015

The Best Holiday Movies

It’s that time of the year and at this point, you’re already three weeks into ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas. There are the classics like A Christmas Story, Home Alone, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Miracle on 34th Street. There are amazing animations including The Polar Express and The Year Without a Santa Clause. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a staple in almost every home and some people even share a laugh over Jingle All the Way and Fred Claus. Then you have those people whose favorite Christmas movie is Batman Returns or Harry Potter just because of the short scenes that time of the year in Gotham or at Hogwarts. Let’s not forget about Die Hard either.

Dec162015

Five Last Minute Gifts for Him

Christmas is right around the corner, so that’s why we got your back for gifts! We know you may be busy, y’know, with a full-time job and a family or something, so we’ve created a little list. This list is easy last-minute gifts ideal for “him”! We hope this makes your holiday shopping a little easier. Whether he’s an athlete, a handyman, or an organizer, there’s something here for him!

1. TRYM II – There’s no need to have a big set of hair clippers and an overly large groomer. This has attachments that allow you to cut your hair, face, or body the way you want. It has a convenient vertical charging stand that doesn’t take up much space, looks good, and doesn’t use batteries. $30, Amazon Prime.

Nov302015

Our Thanksgiving Weekend in Pictures

We took mum to Disneyland for her birthday!

Nov232015

Our Weekend in Pictures

Hungry’s brother is visiting so we’ve been out and about!

Making friends…

Oct302015

LA Residents: Workout with Hungry into 2016!

Every year since 2013, the Westside Family YMCA (in the Sawtelle neighborhood of West Los Angeles) has had a three-month program to help individuals make it through the most challenging time of year for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The holidays present all kinds of travel issues such as staying at hotels, going out to eat a lot, huge meals with your family where saying no might be impolite, and just overall craziness. In this chaos, it’s hard to maintain balance, but we know that consistency is the key to success. Whether you’re trying to gain muscle mass, cut body fat, or just become stronger, you need to have a realistic and smart nutrition and exercise plan to accomplish these goals.

Dec102014

Our December Goals

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… and the end of the year! 2015 is right around the corner and even though you might be working on those New Year Resolutions, we all need to realize we have three more weeks of quality time that shouldn’t be wasted! So let’s brainstorm… think of five REALISTIC goals for December. These will help keep you focused during the frenzy of the holiday season. They will also get the ball rolling so you have some momentum moving into January. It’s hard to go full throttle the first of the year, so build some steam in December by creating and achieving these reasonable goals.

Hungry’s Goals

1. Train every day! For what? Life! I don’t have any fitness related goals right now but after skipping the last six days of November, I’ve trained every day of December. Let’s keep it going since consistency is key for progress.

2. Perfect work attendance! Since starting at my new Y in October, I haven’t missed a shift. I want to stay healthy, or tough, enough to keep those paychecks flowing and build other’s trust in my abilities at my new workplace.

3. Bring all meals to work! Every time I forget to pack lunch or go grocery shopping, I end up spending an average of $10 on a meal. I can eat healthier and save crucial money by preparing simple meals once a week.

4. Continuing Education Rush! I did a TRX GSTC on Sunday and have loads of YMCA training courses lined up for December. Still, let’s push the envelope and finish one more I didn’t plan to do! I have some ideas so stay posted.

5. Celebrate Christmas! I love Christmas. I love presents. I love the holidays, the decorations, the music, the meals with the family. And if I’ve done 1-4, you better believe I’ll be celebrating such a great month and year.

Fit’s Goals

1. Train six days a week. This means either lifting, cardio, yoga, OR all three! There’s always room for something. I’m letting myself have one day off, but I’ll always be doing with my walks with Noke at the very least.

2. Bake once a week. This was my jam every week back in Boulder, where everything was simpler and easier. I’ve baked only a few times since living here in LA, whether due to lack of time, lack of ingredients, or just laziness or tiredness. No more! Getting back on that baking…plus it’s great therapy.

3. Cook legit meals at least three times a week. This doesn’t mean I’m eating out the other times, but Hungry and I have what we call “lazy meals” which we’ve been thriving on lately. This means quick microwaving, or fridge food. I want to get creative and into cooking more and come up and try out new recipes! My work provides my lunch so I just have to cover breakfast and dinner!

4. Meditate every day. Oh this horse I have fallen so far off of! Yesterday, I was thinking how badly I need to get into meditation. It creates such a healthy impact on my life and I crave it especially during these stressful times.

5. Go through my emails every day. Boring one? Most certainly, but for me–necessary. I used to be good at keeping up, categorizing, etc with every single email, but during these hectic times, I just throw my hands up. Every day, I want to have my inbox organized by the end of the day. This doesn’t mean every email is taken care of, but at least it’s starred or in the proper folder. Even though it’s slightly more work, it will alleviate stress in the long-term.

For December, there be our goals. I’m excited for us to start this tradition every month. It’s always good to set goals. It keeps you motivated, it keeps you focused, it keeps you grounded while you dream. Remember to make them (or at least most of them) realistic so that you can reach it! It’s good to set standards high, but you want them completable so that you can feel good about yourself at the end of the month. Encourage yourself and those around you to create at least 3 monthly goals. It should help keep you in line ;). Make goals to stay hungry and fit!