Hungry Meets Healthy – Guest Post

Hi everyone! I’m Christina, from Hungry Meets Healthy.I was honored to be asked by Lea to write a guest post! Isn’t she the sweetest? Not to mention, she has the cutest clothes! 🙂

So who doesn’t love a vacation? I know I do! As a self-proclaimed foodie, I admit that new restaurants and foods are my favorite things about vacation. Because of this, I tend to choose locations that are well known for good food. Back in 2009, my boyfriend (at the time) and I decided to go to Italy! We went from December 26, 2009 to January 6, 2010 and visited Florence and Rome. Yes, we left the day after Christmas and it was awesome. Spending New Years Eve there was also pretty fun.

The first leg of our vacation was spent in Florence. Like any touristy city, you will have both good and bad restaurants. We quickly learned that it was best to walk to the outer city limits to find the good stuff!

Another thing I love about vacations is the freedom to eat out of my norm. I am a huge fan of trying new foods, and I always make myself sample something crazy whenever I can. We had heard about something called tripa, or stomach lining. We were nuts to try it, but we did. I know, it isn’t pretty.
Brandon took a bite and I could tell he was struggling to get it down. Based on his face alone, I initially refused to try it. He convinced me that I would regret not trying it and wasn’t letting me leave the market until I at least took a bite. That jerk won, and I took a bite.

It wasn’t good. It was chewy. It smelled bad. I was very excited to throw it out.

Luckily, the rest of the vacation, we had DELICIOUS food, and a lot of it. Here are some of my favorites from Florence:

Arancini – fried rice ball with cheese, tomato, and peas:

Fresh gnocchi with zucchini in a lemon mint sauce:

Spinach and Carrot Souffles, both topped with fresh mozzarella:

  
Here are some favorites from Rome:

Cacio e Pepe (salt and pepper), my favorite pasta dish!

An antipasto plate with a ricotta stuffed squash flower, ricotta and cinnamon stuffed pineapple, ham with ricotta, roasted red peppers, salmon,  tomatoes, mozzarella, and rocket. This was fabulous.

Pizza with ricotta, basil, and ham. Best pizza ever!

And because there are NO RULES when I go on vacation, I ate a toooooooon of desserts.
My favorite was this calzone stuffed with ricotta and Nutella with powdered sugar and cocoa on top!

We devoured it.

We had gelato every day, and even 3 times on the last day!

I couldn’t get enough!

Well, I hope I’ve made you drool. I believe everyone deserves a vacation in Italy! You should go go go!

If you’d like, feel free to check out my blog as well! Depending on the day, you may stumble on a recipe, something fitness related, or me just being silly! Actually, it’s always silly. Thanks for reading!!