Meal Prep 24 Jun 13

My lunch was totally prepped on sunday. I will be posting the recipe for the Broccoli and Cheddar soup which is in the contianer on the bottom of the stack. The middle is spinach salad with chick peas, cheese, and broccoli. Then the top is just cut up watermelon with some salt. Then a nectarine, apple, and banana. This is another award winning lunch. Love it! How do you meal prep?

My Smoothie Drinking Her-story

Screw History (His-story) this is my Hertory (Her-story).

This is a post that really is meant for chitter and chatter. It is more like the her-story of my smoothie drinking life. Do you still want to continue?

 

 

Once upon a time I made a huge move all by my lonesome to the great big state of Texas (which is not bigger than the state of ALASKA (just saying)). I was following a boy that I met after my second deployment. He was, or I thought he was, the best man for me. He wasn't. I am getting a divorce. Long story short:

 

While I lived in Texas I found it hard to make friends or just have a good friendship with someone. So I went onto Craigslist.org to look for platonic friends. Who would have thought that I meant the most amazing woman that still holds a special part of my heart. When we first met I thought she was so out there with her vegan, vegetarian, raw, smoothie ways. Her youngest child at the time was stark naked and later became my girlfriend just like her mother had become in my life. She taught me things about food I never knew before and allowed me to stay with her for like 2 or 3 months in her home while her husband deployed. It felt like forever. She was one that introduced me to the Vitamix.

Every morning before work we made smoothies and went for our morning runs. When I moved out I was saddened because I didn't have a vitamix (I also didn't have my red-headed hippie friend either) so I had to replace it with a crappy blender and a juicer. Gross. I searched far and wide for a vitamixer on ebay since I was way to cheap to pay $425.00 for a brand new one.

I waited, and waited, and waited. I waited 4 years till I purchased my first ever Vitamixer from ebay. I was so excited because I got if for $170 even though it was used I knew I was going to love it.

I started making smoothies the day the package came in the mail. I was so excited that I went to the store to get some fruits and veggies. Mixed it up in the blender and took my first taste. Let me tell you now, that was one disgusting smoothie. I don't even know what I mixed but I wasn't ready for how green and gross it had tasted. Do you think that put a stop to the smoothie making? Hell NO!

I decided about a week after I got my Vitamix that I would do a smoothie detox. Everyday for a week I drank smoothies for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner was well dinner not smoothie. I felt week, tired, grumpy, and in shock. I was shocked how much my body wanted sugars and carbs. Those feelings lasted three days and then after the week of the blessed torture I craved fruits and veggies. Imagine that. After that I read a book about food, and became a clean eating fanatic.

Now clean eating is a different story and this one is about smoothies. I make a breakfast smoothie everyday except Saturdays. That is the day I go to the coffee house and enjoy a hand made breakfast with some hot tea and a good book. It is my alone time. I am thankful for being introduced to the Vitamix and smoothie making. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be eating the best foods for my body and I would be stuck in sugar/carb hell.

Thanks for reading this super long Her-story of my smoothie drinking/making adventures. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you read it, if not I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



My Cancer Fighting Happiness filled Smoothie

Today's Smoothie was super yummy.

Did you know that eating an Apple will help you avoid Alzheimer's, protect against Parkinson's, curb cancer, reduce cholesterol, beat constipation, boost your immune system and many other benefits.

Eating Carrots help provide eye health, prevent cancer, protects your heart, is a natural detox, among other benefits.

Eating Watermelon helps keep your heart healthy, prevents cancer, helps stir sexual juices, reduces infections, cleans the liver, and many other benefits.

Eating Spinach helps ward off cancer, is an anti-inflammatory, contains loads of antioxidants, provides eye health, is a skin healthier, creates stronger bones, and many more benefits.

Eating Pumpkin Seeds protects the prostate, improves bladder functions, is effective against depression, treats parasites, prevents cancer, and many other benefits.


Fruits and veggies are so amazing. They are made with only one ingredient and their benefits are quite amazing for our bodies, yet we eat all that dirty food. The food with labels that have weird "monster" words for this fake food. Look up the benefits for your favorite dirty food and see what it really does to your body. I am a big lover of clean eating since it really follows my blood type the best.

Research, Read, and Empower.

Candy's Ham and Green Bean Soup

This is a super easy soup to make when you have no time or energy.

There is a lot of about's when it comes to measurements for this recipe. Why you ask? Well I add what I like and if I like it a lot (ahem GARLIC), I will add a lot of it. That's why I love this recipe it can be tweaked just for your taste buds!

 

Ingredients:

About 3 cups of cup fresh green beans
2 cans of low-sodium chicken broth
2 cups of water
about 1 1/2 cups of Quinoa noodles
About 1 cup of roughly chopped onions
5 huge garlic gloves chopped
About 2 1/2 cups of chopped ham
Salt and Pepper for taste
Spinach and Herb mix from Tastefully Simple

Boil the water and chicken broth. Once boiling lower to a simmer and add the quinoa noodles. While the noodles are cooking chop up the onion, green beans, ham, and garlic. Rinse off mushrooms. Once the noodles are 'al dente' (soft and hard at the same time) add the chopped and rinsed goodies to the soup. Cook on simmer for about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and tastefully simple's spinach and herb mix. Spoon into a bowl and ENJOY! So easy your husband can do it.


 

Green Smoothie: Spinach Time

It's Spinach time Smoothie:
One banana
one apple
handful of baby organic carrots
lots of spinach
one tablespoon Greek yogurt
handful of frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon bee pollen
1 teaspoon Vitacost whole food shake
1 teaspoon chia seeds
About 1 quart of Rice Milk and 1 quart of Water

Blend all ingredients in Vitamix or blender. Pour and enjoy. I couldn't stop drinking this smoothie it was sweet and tart. I had to remind myself to take a photo and as you can tell this was the photo you got. SO DARN GOOD!

Meal Prep: Potato Soup with Shrimp

Let me tell you first off this soup is so tasty and amazing. I tweeked a few of the ingredients from recipe since it was written by Paula Deen from foodnetwork.com.

I decided that I wanted seafood for lunches this week. So glad I found this recipe and decided to give it a try.

Potato Soup with Shrimp

Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter
1 small onion diced (I used a medium purple onion)
2 medium carrots diced
5 cloves of garlic chopped (I added this because you can not have soup or shrimp without GARLIC)
2 tablespoons flour.
8 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed (I used 3 medium/large potatoes)
4 cups milk (I used Hood Milk)
1/2 cup Chicken Broth (instead of 2 chicken bouillon cubes)
1 cup half and half (I actually mixed 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup chicken broth)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 lb of cooked, peeled, and cut in half shirmp
crumbled bacon for garnish
grated sharp cheddar cheese for garnish

Directions:
In a 4 quart saucepan, melt the butter. While the butter is melting saute the onion, carrots, and garlic until they are slightly tender. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Add the milk, chicken broth, and potatoes. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the 1/2 heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Add the shrimp to the soup and stir well. Serve soup sprinkled  with bacon bits and grated cheese.

Paula says you can add corn instead of shrimp.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe and the special tweeks I did to it. Have a great one and keep it healthy!

Meal Prep Sunday 15 Apr 13

 

On Saturday I was sitting cruising facebook trying to decide how much my body wanted to do since it was hit hard with a cold or as my co-worker likes to call it: The Bionic Plague. I was really deciding to take a long hard nap when my phone rang. Picked up that damn phone to find out that the Cooking Class I signed up for started and I was tardy. So I brushed my teeth and headed out the door sickness and all. Heck, I paid twenty dollars to get my cooking on. Boy, am I glad I went because one of the recipes we learned because my Meal Prep for the whole week. It is called 'Salad in a Jar' and the recipe is by  Kelly Wisner. Who is an amazing woman. She is so passionate about food and the bees that we get along quite well. If you haven't had a chance to do any of the classes then let me tell you, you are missing out. Check them out here. You won't be disappointed and you will learn how to cook vegan and raw foods!

 

 

Salad in a Jar
by Kelly Wisner

Dressing Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Tahini Butter (or any nut butter)
1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinager
1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
1/2 tablespoon of Soy Sauce (next I will be using Miso)
Ginger to taste

Salad Ingredients:
Snap Peas
Tomatoes
Beans
Red Pepper
Red Onion
Feta Cheese

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a blender. Chop all the veggies or fruits that you want in your salad. I actually chopped up all the ingredients listed in the salad ingredients section. Then leave over night in the fridge or use that day. Just pour over some greens and you have a meal fit for a Green Goddess!

HINT: Freeze your ginger and then just grate it. It comes out like powder and stays fresher longer.



 

Meal Prep Sunday

I had to do an easy meal prep on Sunday. I really had limited time with drills this weekend and loads of orders to process out from my small cosmetics business. I had to think of something till about Thursday. I decided to make a soup and salad combo for  the week!

I heated the stove and started to boil water for eggs. I love me some hard boiled eggs in my salad or mixed with greek yogurt and mustard on a tortilla wrap.

While I waited for the eggs to boil for 30 minutes I then proceeded to chop up zucchini and garlic.

 I started my other burner to make some quinoa quick. Once the quinoa was cooked. I placed the zucchini, garlic, and quinoa into little plastic 'soup bowls'.

 

Here is the quick and easy part of the meal prep. I didn't make the soup base by hand instead I whipped out my trusty Trader's Joe soup in a box mix. I only have a few left since Trader Joes is about a 2 hour drive away from where I currently live.

 

I poured the soup into the little 'soup bowls' I had and BAM I have soup for the next 4 days!

 

 

Now that is super fast meal prepping for the about 4 days. I will figure out what I will do for the 5th day of work.

 

I also cut the eggs and place them in my salad with sesame seeds and sweet pepper and a side of mangoes. I actually can't wait to eat lunch today!

 

 

 

Candy





 

Shakeology vs. Green Smoothie vs. Vitacost Whole Food Shake

How many of you have had some great Beachbody Coach suggest to add Shakeology to your green smoothies? I receive questions and comments all the time about buying or why I don't use shakeology. I am tired of it. I don't use it because it cost too much. I also feel that my green smoothies are just enough. Have you ever why Beachbody Coaches are the ones that are always pestering you?

Here is the answer: THEY GET PAID WHEN YOU BUY THE PRODUCT. They are trained to sell sell sell. Just like any great marketing gimmick will ever tell you. You as the customer WANTS this so very bad in your life. This product offers 70 ingredients and well apparently saves you money on buying foods. It is supposed to help suppress your appetite, lose weight, make you green like a leprechaun. Okay the later of that isn't true. I do have to agree the ingredients are good. You can find all the ingredients here.

The real issue I have with this product is the COST. It runs about $129.99 a pop and that is just for a 30 day supply. Which comes to 4.33 a day. Trust me I know the daily price because those awesome coaches (which I have met some awesome coaches) need to sell you this product. They need to get paid. That to me is not even worth it. I don't even spend that much on my SEAWEED and I love seaweed. That price is about what my grocery bill is for a month. Hmm... to buy shakeology and never eat real food again or to buy food and never drink shakeology. I LOVE to eat, hence the blog name. I also love my green smoothies and would choose that over any of that shakeology stuff. My green smoothies are more real to me than that green powder stuff.

I did lots of research as to finding a "dupe" for this shakeology because I will not pay that price for something that will give me more energy and help me lose weight. I am not looking for a diet pill or plan. I am not looking for that magic weightloss tool. I am looking to be healthy and awesome. I searched far and wide on this thing we call the internet. After about 3 monthes of research and taste tests I finally found my so called "dupe". Here it is:

It is so simple and sweet. It doesn't really have a taste when I add it to my smoothies. It does have a light vanilla scent. Thank you Vitacost for making this Whole Food Shake. This product runs about 13 to 15 dollars depending on the deals that Vitacost is having. The ingredients are almost the same as Shakeology they are missing a few ingredients. A FEW so few it really doesn't matter. Check out the ingredients here. I love this product so much. First of all I make it last 2 months because I add only half the scoop that they provide in this product. If you drink this everday for 30 days it will cost you .50 cents. Oh man this product is just right in my price range. There are no hard sellers or coaches telling you that there is another option, NO they want you money they want to get paid.

So now I add only half of one scoop into my REAL fruit and veggie smoothies. I doesn't change the flavor of the smoothie. It doesn't even have a chalky taste to it. It is like I stated before one of the best things I have tasted in my smoothie. I want to taste my fruits and veggies not a flavored shake mix. Blah.

What do you think? Are there Beachbody Coaches hating me for blogging about this? Are you going to tell me that your product is so much better, you hard seller you. I know how it is to hard sell to folks and as long as you sound like you believe that product you can SELL it. <--- Look at that I just gave you a little hint on how to sell.

I do love beachbody videos. I love P90X, Instanity, and Yoga Booty Ballet. I love how easy and intense they are. If you follow the program you will see change. So note that I am not hating on the great products that can be life changing just the price of shakeology.

Thanks for reading. Leave a comment and tell me your feelings if you dare. I am going to drink my awesome green smoothie which isn't good enough without some shakeology mixed in it.

You NO good Green Smoothie you.

 

Candy Sparks 3 Apr 2013