"Holy Sweet Balls, Batman!" Recipe

I can see myself screaming, "Holy Sweet Balls, Batman!", hence how the name came to be. If you don't know me then you wouldn't understand my love for the Batman. These balls are super easy to make and they are sweet to the taste. Did I mention that they are actually healthy for you?

 

Recipe:

6 Dates

6 Dried Figs

3 to 4 tablespoons water

3/4 cup of Almond Meal

3/4 cup of Almond butter or Peanut butter

1 cup of coconut flakes

3 table spoons of Steel cut oats

2 Carob chips

 

 

Take your dates and figs and soak them in a jar over night in your refrigerator. The next day, place the dates and figs in your blender. Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of the juice the dates/figs were soaking in. Blend. Add coconut to blender and blend. It will have a gritty smooth texture. Leave this mixture in the blender as you grab a medium bowl for the rest of the ingredients. Add almond meal and almond butter in the bowl. Mix with a spoon or hands. I actually had to mix with my hands. Beware: they are sticky! Add the mixture of the blender to the bowl and continue to mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. After they are fully mixed start to roll them into balls. Place into a container and let them chill for 2 hours or eat them right away. Whatever toots your boat!

 

Beware: these are quite addicting!

 



 

"Diabetes Killer" Green Smoothie 8 Jul 13

Green Smoothie Ingredients:
One Apple
One Banana
Half a lemon
Half a cucumber
1 cup of Black Grapes
2 leaves of Kale
2 cups of Watermelon
1 teaspoon bee pollen
1 teaspoon chia seeds
Hazelnut milk

Blend, pour, and Enjoy!

Benefits of eating Black Grapes: improved regulation of insulin, can drastically reduce heart disease risks, improves brain function, and many other great benefits.

Benefits of eating Cucumber: strengthens immunity,reduce risk of Diabetes Type I ,reduce stress, and many other benefits.

 

"Disease fighting Lung Cleasner" Smoothie 24 Jun 13

Blend all the ingredients together, Pour into a cup, and Enjoy!

Benefits of eating/consuming blueberries: Wards off disease, Reduces belly fat, Protects your vision, and many other benefits.

Benefits of consuming nectarines: Fights cancer, Helps reduce asthma, Destroys kidney stones, and many other benefits.

Benefits of consuming lemons: Boost your immune system, Fight fatigue, Improves circulation, and many other benefits.

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.

Banana Breakfast Cookie

This was one of those recipes that you find roaming its way all around facebook. Your friends and their friends have been re-posting this recipe and yet no one has tried to cook it. I saw this floating around and printed off the recipe. It was perfect timing because I had 3 very ripe bananas and this recipe required just that. I tweaked this recipe like I normally do when it comes to recipe. I added extra cinnamon, vanilla, and almonds. I used rice milk because I didn't have almond milk.

This photo is copyrighted to ME!

 

Banana Breakfast Cookies

 

3 mashed ripe bananas

1/3 cup of apple sauce

2 cuts of oats

1/4 cup of rice milk

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1/2 cups of chopped almonds (I add this ingredient)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla (I also added the 1/2 tsp)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I also added the extra 1/2 tsp)

1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup (I added this ingredient)

 

Mix all ingredients together. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Let cool on a paper bag.

 

 

 

One of my favorite ways of eating this is warming up oat milk, peanut butter, and a bit of maple syrup. Place 2 cookies in a bowl and pour the warm mixture in bowl. Enjoy. Eat it plain it is awesome.



I need something sweet and good for my body

I have been feening for something sweet lately and looking at making good for the good alternatives. Today has to be one of the best sweet foods I have made in a while besides those amazing energy balls. This was super easy to make as well. Are you ready for your sweet taste buds to be satisfied?

Easy Now Sweetie: 

1 1/3 cups of halved strawberries
1 1/2 tablespoon of ricotta cheese
and 1 teaspoon of maple syrup

Cut the strawberries in half as stated above. Place into a container. Then add the ricotta cheese and maple syrup. I shake the container gentle when the lid was on to mix the ingredients. That's it. Enjoy!

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

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

 

This Lady Eats Green Smoothies

I am in love with green smoothies and my Vitamix loves them just as much. What is your blending tool when it comes to smoothies? I post a lot of my smoothie's on instagram since there is a huge Vitamix community on there. They give me ideas on what to create in this awesome blender.

This Lady Eats "This Green Fruit Smoothie" :

Ingredients:
1 Apple cubed
1 Banana peeled
1 Kiwi peeled
5 Strawberries
1 Orange
Handful of Kale
Handful of Spinach
1 teaspoon Chia Seeds
1 teaspoon local Bee Pollen
1 teaspoon of Vitacost's Whole Food Shake
Water

Place all the Ingredients in your blender. Blend for 20 seconds. Taste. Add honey or Agave if need be. This smoothie is so nicely sweetened by the strawberries I didn't need to use any. Once fully blended pour into your mason jar (or whatever cup you have) and enjoy!
 

This Lady Eats Roasted Asparagus Soup

I am the soup queen. If you follow this blog you will see a lot of homemade soups that were just inspired by my creative brain. I am on an adventure into eating what my body needs for energy and to heal it's self. We are not prefect when eating foods in this world but I can at least try to be and hopefully this will inspire you to be just as healthy. This was my lunch yesterday. I have had many requests for the recipe so I thought I would create a blog to be able to share recipes of my good eats!

This Lady Eats Roasted Asparagus Soup:

Ingredients:

2 bushels of asparagus
1 whole yellow onion
1 package of portabella mushrooms
3 huge garlic cloves
4 slices of pickled jalapenos
1/3 cup of unflavored almond milk
1 can of chicken stock
1/3 cup of yellow onion
Salt and pepper to taste
3 thick slices of ham

 
Heat oven to 350 degrees; Place asparagus, onion and mushrooms on two trays for the oven. Drizzle Olive oil on top and roasted for about 35 minutes. Beware your mushrooms will sweat so placing them on their own tray is idea.

 
Once the asparagus, onion, and mushrooms let them cool; Place the onions, mushrooms, and diced ham in a pot. Put your roasted asparagus in your Vitamix, Blendtec, or blender of your choice. I used my Vitamix which I love dearly! Add, the 1/3 cup of raw onion, 3 garlic cloves, 4 slices of pickled jalapenos, 1/3 cup of unflavored almond milk, and pour the can of chicken stock into the blender. BLEND until smooth or the consistence that you want. Pour the GREEN liquid into the pot and heat to eat tonight or store them in plastic containers for lunch the next few days! Freezes well! Add salt and pepper for taste.

 
This recipe only took me about 15 minutes to whip up since the roasted produce was done 2 days ago. :D All I had to was pop everything in the Vitamix and place the ham, roasted onions, and roasted mushrooms in my little plastic containers!

Enjoy this flavor filled soup! Follow me on instagram: LadyCandySparks