We’re pretty excited for Sunday! We’ve been stocking our fridges with veggies, beans and coconut milk. We’re pinning away lots of fabulous recipes on our new Pinterest board! Check it out for healthy inspiration for our healthy eating challenge!

In your planning, make sure to pick up a jar of natural almond butter. Almonds are such a great treat because they are full of healthy fats and protein. Almonds can help lower bad cholesterol and even help with weight loss. The best benefit is that almond butter yields irresistible creamy treats! The recipe you’re about to see is compliant with any personal health goals you have for this month, including being gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan!

As you begin eating cleaner during this challenge, you will notice your tastes and cravings changing. You may be surprised at how strong you are at resisting sugar. You may also find that some healthy foods sound very appetizing. You might actually crave healthy foods!

We are promoting better eating habits this month but we also can enjoy healthy foods in a sweeter way!  These chewy, sweet, almond truffles will hit the spot even though they are filled with natural almond butter, flax and nutritional yeast. We’re telling you right now, after a few days of clean eating, they taste just like a dense cookie dough and they are divine!

NOTE: If you are battling candida or a sugar addiction, these bites may be best to enjoy after a sugar break without any “desserts” to break those habits. We all know those routines: eating 5 cookies while we watch TV or eating that last brownie at 11pm because, hey, it’s not going to taste as good tomorrow. This healthy eating challenge is just about beating those mental addictions, as it is the physical. Please be honest with yourself so you can reap the benefits you deserve!

How are you preparing for this healthy eating challenge?

Paleo Almond Butter Fudge Truffles (sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan recipe)
Print Recipe

4 Medjool Dates, pitted
2-3 Tablespoons Date Water
3 Tablespoons Flax Seeds
1 cup Natural Creamy Almond Butter
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast

Cover dates with just enough hot water to cover and allow to soak for 15 minutes.

Add medjool dates and flax to a food processor and process until chopped. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and mix in the almond butter, 2 tablespoons of date water, cinnamon and nutritional yeast. Mix until smooth. If mixture is still a bit firm, add date water as needed.  Scoop out and roll into smooth spheres. Store truffles in an airtight container in the fridge.

Yields 8-10 truffles.

Hello there, friends!

First off, we have to say thank you, thank you to those who have posted and shared kind words about our cookbook. We can’t explain how wonderful it is to stumble upon pictures, comments and reviews saying how much you like the book. Your feedback means more to us than you know. Thanks for your support and we are just soooo grateful to all of you.

We’ve been thinking about sharing a sugar-free challenge with you for awhile now. You know, something like March Madness! These last few weeks have been so busy that we realized we could use a reset with our food habits and now was a great time to start. Although we attempt eating sugar-free, we can get side tracked from our goals every once in awhile. We’re human. We want to reevaluate our habits today and begin a healthy eating challenge! This will be 30 days of sugar-free, healthy foods and we invite you to join in!

Why are we starting this challenge?

When we underwent the Candida Cleanse back in 2010, we began to understand what an important role food plays in our health.  We also realized the negative impact sugar can have. The way to regain better habits and become in tune with our bodies is to get back to the wholesome foods our bodies thrive on. Healthy sugar-free desserts may help us eat healthier in general, but they should never replace the dark leafy greens and raw fruits that should always be included in our diets.

So what is the challenge?

This challenge will be similar to a Candida Cleanse. This challenge will be to eliminate all processed sugars (we’re going really strict and even cutting out natural sweeteners) as well as dairy and processed foods. We’ll eat lots of fruits and veggies and drink at least 60 ounces of water a day. We’ll eat this way for 30 days.

The Sugar-Free Challenge Plan:

During these 30 days, we want to fuel our bodies with more produce. We will focus on filling our diets with about 80 percent fruits and veggies with the other 20 percent being good proteins and fats.

One goal we had with this challenge was to decipher if we have any food sensitivities to dairy, gluten or even natural sweeteners. On the candida diet, these foods are all big no-no’s and cutting them can help us maintain a candida free body! If you do have candida, this diet switch will definitely help. If you have been a sugar addict and are just making the switch to naturally sweetened desserts, going sugar-free is the perfect “reset” so that even the naturally sweetened desserts don’t cause problems. However you’d like to participate, we invite you to go sugar-free with us this month!

Once the 30 days are up, we’ll reintroduce foods back into our diet. Our hope is that this reset will help us make wiser, healthier choices and we’ll gain a deeper understanding of how foods impact us individually.

We’ll start the challenge on Sunday, March 1st.

This time frame will have us done by spring break and Easter (so there aren’t excuses to give it a try!). We will share some recipes along the way and share pictures/tips/thoughts through our social media outlets to keep us all focused! If you have any suggestions or questions, don’t be shy! Shoot us an email or find us on social media. We’re inspired by the efforts others make to live healthier and love hearing what works for you. We’ve felt the benefits of cleanses in the past and we are confident this challenge will make a huge difference for anyone who tries it. We are excited to get started. We know our bodies will thank us for it!

I will never forget the first time I tried a mango colada. Oh my goodness. Pina coladas are all well and good but a mango colada? They taste just like a liquid orange starburst milkshake!

I haven’t had a mango colada in probably 3 or 4 years, but I have never forgotten the taste.  The flavors of coladas are instantly nostalgic because they are associated with vacations and tropical paradises. This may be the reason we love coladas so much! Why not create this feeling at home while also making a colada that is 10 times healthier than any other colada you’ve ever had!?

Despite the fact that this mango colada is loaded with greens, it really does have a sweet tropical flavor. The best part is that it is not loaded with any artificial flavorings, dyes or sugars in order to create that delicious tropical drink. Instead, it has the real fruits to make that perfect, wonderful flavor – mango and pineapple! There isn’t even a hint of veggie flavor in this creamy tropical drink but you still get the satisfaction of eating your dark leafy greens.  If you are desperate for something “tropical” tasting and healthy, this is the drink to whip up!

Mango Colada Green Smoothie (raw, vegan, soy-free, gluten-free)
Print Recipe

1 cup Full-Fat Coconut Milk 
1 cup lightly packed Organic Kale, Spinach or Super Greens Mix
1/2 cup chopped Mango
1/2 cup chopped Pineapple
1 Small Frozen Banana (or 1/2 Large Banana)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup Ice
1/4-1/3 cup Water

Blend up the ingredients until creamy. Serve immediately or pour into an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 week. Serves 2 large smoothies or 4 smaller servings