Hungry & Fit’s Go-To Healthy Snacks

Here at Hungry & Fit we eat…a lot. We have different styles, but there is always a lot of food involved. Hungry is more of the wolf-type; he will eat an inane amount of food and then be good for a while. Fit is more deer-like, grazing across the day. She eats small snacks and meals…every hour or so. So yes, a lot of food is consumed in the Hungry & Fit household. That means we have to be stacked when it comes to food options. Fit will usually gravitate toward smaller meals or snacks. It’s very important for us to have healthy snack options available at all times so we don’t go down a bad road.

May292017

5 Healthy Snacks to Have at Home

Here at the Hungry & Fit household, we know that what you put in your pantry is what you will put in your stomach. That’s why we typically don’t stock junk in the house. However, we are HUNGRY and Fit, and let me tell you, I get hungry very often. So, instead of yelling hangrily at Hungry, we always have a healthy stock of snacks at home. We go through lots of different snacks, but here are some of our favorites:

Snacks for the whole family!

Nov082016

No-Bake Pumpkin Protein Balls

We haven’t made recipes in way too long here at Hungry & Fit. We pledge to post more recipes and more fitness advice! Getting back to our roots. Lately, we’ve committed ourselves to stick to a budget. We used to spend WAY too much money on food (think above $500 each) per month so we made a goal of eating in most of the time. We’ve made true of that commitment so far, eating in for almost every meal! We’ve gotten to cook more and fatten up our wallets. We also feel better since we know what we’re putting down our throats. Yay for budgets and eating well!

I’ve been wanting to get back into the kitchen for a while. I saw Carrots ‘n’ Cake’s recipe and decided to do my own spin on it. It’s no-bake pumpkin protein balls–an incredibly simple recipe with very few ingredients. This recipe also has that canvas for being creative. Try putting different wet and dry ingredients in! I went with pumpkin since…’tis the season after all!

Aug272013

The How-To Guide to Smart Snacking

I’m pretty sure all of us have fallen into the trap of mindless snacking. It’s one of the biggest road blocks in achieving our goals. We get home from a long day of work, our stomachs grumbling, but our feet are tired and so our minds. Instead of whipping up a snack, we go into the fridge or pantry and just mindlessly stuff our gobs until we somehow feel full. But usually we go past the point of being full, to where the point of not eating a good dinner because of that. And what does that lead to? MORE mindless snacking after “dinner.” If you can’t tell, this is a bad cycle. So how do we stop it?

Fruit protein smoothies: stopping mindless snacking since its creation

Snack with a purpose. I can’t emphasize this enough so I’m writing a whole post about it. This is the best defense against the mindless zombie eating that can plague us all. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of “oh, I’ll just snack on a few crackers while I think of a food plan—oops there goes the entire package.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve done this (yikes), but I’ve learned now, how to beat that back with a stick. A well-planned and satisfying stick.

Popcorn, cheese & crackers,

What exactly is snacking with a purpose? It’s the opposite of mindless eating and I can’t tell you how much more satisfying it is than just stuffing your face. If you snack with a purpose, you have a plan. A plan to satisfy your hunger without going overboard and getting some nutrients to boot! It may take a LITTLE more time (and I mean little), but that is also a way that makes it that much more satisfying. Just like growing your own vegetables, when you snack with a purpose, you feel good.

Egg on top of avocado

Snacking with a purpose means you don’t go straight for the chip bag. Instead, you have something in mind for a snack. Yesterday, I was craving something cold and refreshing. I wanted to go grab an iced mocha latte or something, but didn’t want to spend money and drink a bunch of sugar. So I bit the bullet, went home, had some chocolate milk beside a Van’s waffle topped with greek yogurt. Perfect snack for after work or after school. You have some sugar in the waffle and milk to pick you up, the protein in the greek yogurt to keep you going, and the cold chocolate milk to refresh you. It’s well-rounded, simple, and took less than 5 minutes to make.

A little more extravagant version of my example

Starting to get it now? Snacking with a purpose means sitting down and eating something to keep that body and mind of yours going. It means slowing down for 10-15 minutes, making yourself some cheese, apples, and crackers or popcorn or an egg on toast to satisfy hunger and give the body what it needs. And the mind. You think your mind is happy when you shovel crap down your throat? Absolutely not. One of the reasons why we love eating is because it is pleasurable. So why skimp out on that just because it’s a snack? Make something nice for yourself, sit down, and enjoy a snack. Your body, your weight, your fitness, and your mind will thank you. Snack with a purpose to stay hungry and fit!

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah trying to blend in

Jul032013

2-Ingredient Healthy Energy Rounds

Some of you may know that we are travelling to Iowa tonight (yes, we’re driving over night, 7pm-9am probably) for a 4th of July family reunion. Some may run screaming at the words, “family reunion,” but I always look forward to the chaos of it all…and the delicious food of course. I love family! And many of you know that I’m currently prepping for contest so I’m doing very clean eating. My meals mostly contain tuna, other fish, vegetables like spinach and peppers, almonds, oatmeal and brown rice. Sounds boring, but I’m alright with it (especially with hot sauce). OKAY GET TO THE POINT–I need healthy, clean food for the road trip there for my attempt to stay awake. Luckily I stumbled upon this blog for the idea.

Of course, we’re bringing fruit and fiber cereal to snack on, but I wanted to bake a little something so here we are. Basically, 2-ingredient rounds full of energy and electrolytes! I can’t even tell you how easy this was to make. Perfect and delicious for snacks on the go.

Simple and delicious

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Baking Time: 12-15 minutes

Ingredients

1.5 cup oats
2 bananas (mashed)
almonds (optional)
cinnamon (optional)

Directions

You’re probably saying, “That’s IT?” to the above. Yep. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
To start off, mash up your bananas really well, get it nice and smooth.

mash mash mash

I had some almonds I wanted to use, so I decided to add it into the mix. Again, you don’t have to do anything more than oatmeal and bananers. If you want to use almonds, cut or grind them up.

Pathetic amount of almonds (I HATE cutting them)

Now you want to mix it all together in a big bowl. Start with a base of oats and almonds and then add the mashed bananas in and stir.

Mixed up!

Make sure you mix it all up really well. I added cinnamon to it because I LOVE cinnamon and put it in everything. Now line up a baking sheet with wax paper or you can use a cooking spray/oil. Plop those rounds on there. Should make about 12.

Ready to bake

Bake for about 12-15 minutes (mine took 13). Let cool and then EAT.

Ready to be EATEN

They are so easy and delicious, it’s the perfect energy snack for on-the-go. And it is HEALTHY. No crap in it! And I’d imagine they’d be lovely with milk. Again, this takes no time at all, I did it while packing to show that it’s easy. Enjoy this quick, delicious, nutritious recipe to stay hungry and fit!

Simple and delicious

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BONUS KITTY PIC

Sajah sleeps for EVERY kitty pic…sigh

Dec142012

Midnight Showing Review: The Hobbit

If you know us, or if you’ve read this post, you know we are huge Tolkien/Middle Earth fans. So, obviously, we were at the midnight premiere of The Hobbit by the wonderful Peter Jackson & Co. Although we didn’t dress up (sigh), we were brimming with excitement. Finally! It’s out! So I was expecting to leave about 9:30/10PM to wait in line, my cousin said that there won’t be crazy lines. You never know, coming from Los Angeles and New York, we’ve both waited in hefty lines for big movies like this. So we left at 11 (took us ten minutes to get to the theatre).

We packed into the car and got there–no line. Yes! We didn’t have to wait in the cold. Plus, if we paid an extra $1 per ticket, we would get a free t-shirt. Uh, duh. So we got our shirts, our tickets, my smuggled popcorn and sat down for a 3D Dolby Atmos viewing.

Eventually, the movie started. Now with this insane amazing sound system, our ears kind of hurt. And it wasn’t just mine (I have sensitive ears, Chris calls me “wolf ears”), everyone’s was kind of ringing after. Especially battle scenes. The 3D was good, immersive, and not that silly “pop-out” kind of 3D that I hate. And for the picture…I believe it was a much faster frame rate. Now this was distracting. It looked like a filmed play, it was too realistic, and not theatrical enough. If you have an HD tv, sometime you can see this in certain shows. However, the action was pretty incredible and had a good flow. But…onto the story!

The story was pretty accurate to the book, though I haven’t read it in awhile. And he obviously split it up. I would give the Best Acting Awards to Martin Freeman (Bilbo), Ian McKellen (Gandalf), and Richard Armitage (Thorin). And of course, to Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, and Christopher Lee, though small roles in this movie they played. One thing I wished is that they made Thorin look more like a Dwarf and less like a Man. I know people were nervous about Martin Freeman playing Bilbo, but let me tell you, he was spot on. Seriously. And of course there’s Andy Serkis as Gollum who really just brings the caliber up. The riddle scene between Bilbo and Gollum was absolutely brilliant.

I started off unsure about it, how I felt, because it takes a little while to get rolling. There’s good humor with the dwarves and it’s fun to see Bilbo before he was an adventurer. By the end, after all the lore (which we love to see), fight scenes, troll scenes, and excellent dialog, I was happy. I want to see it again when it’s not 12 AM. Perhaps during Christmas week with the family.

Lastly…Howard Shore. What would the Lord of the Rings trilogy be without those held-close-to-heart themes that you know as soon as you hear them…the Shire…the Trio…Gollum’s music…It’s all Howard Shore. And he brings it back just as well this time. When we see the Shire, that familiar light-of-heart music comes on and you can’t help but smile. When Gollum comes creeping into the movie, so does his eerie music. And, with this new story (or old, if we’re talking timeline wise), he created a brilliant sound bit for the new adventure gang.