I have a fun (green!) recipe that you’ll see later today, but first I just had to share my overnight oats with you.

If you’re a regular reader, you may remember a while back when I made Coconut Peanut Butter Honey Overnight Oats. And if you aren’t a regular reader, go check that recipe out!

Overnight oats make a fantabulous breakfast, lunch, or snack. Why?

Because they are:

• easy to prepare ahead of time
• great for busy people who work outside the home
• fun for freelancers, too!
• or even students
• loaded with nutrition – and flavor
• filling
• perfect for rushed mornings
• and more!

I can’t wait to try these cold, creamy, chewy, decadent overnight oats on a hot summer’s morning. I have a feeling this dish will be the perfect breakfast – or snack! – during the scorching summer months.

Check out how beautiful my overnight oats turned out!

So, whether you’re a student and/or are someone who is busy with your job – in or out of the home – overnight oats provide an amazingly yummy meal that not only tastes absolutely fantabulous, but is good for you, too!

And overnight oats can be whipped up any way you like. The ingredient possibilities are endless.

• fruit
• nuts
• seeds
• wheatberries
• nut butters
• chia seeds
• coconut oil
• avocado
• freshly ground flax seeds
• cocoa powder
• stevia
• raw honey
• and more!

Whatever your favorite flavor combos are, try ‘em in overnight oats. And be sure to experiment and try new things, too – it’s so fun!

Preparing Overnight Oats

Mashed Nanner

Raw Honey

7 Grain Flakes

Nuttzo!

Melted Honey

Almond Milk

The Night Before

and like magic….

The Next Morning

Overnight NuttzOATS Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup 7 grain oat flakes (or regular old-fashioned oats)
• 2/3 cup almond milk (or whatever milk you prefer)
• 1 tablespoon Nuttzo
• 1 tablespoon Tropical Traditions Raw Honey (I’m giving away a jar!!!)
• 1 banana, smashed with a fork

Directions:

1. Put all the above ingredients in your bowl (I used the CaliBowl) and stir.
2. Cover with wrap – or a saucer or lid – and refrigerate overnight.
3. Take out of the fridge the next morning and stir.
4. At this point, you can add any additional toppings or ingredients you wish or just enjoy as-is. Delish!

Have you ever tried overnight oats? If not, why not?! They’re fantabulous! And if you are a fan of overnight oats, what’s your favorite combo? Have you ever tried 7 grain flakes? They did really well in overnight oats. And have you tried Nuttzo? It’s sooooooooooo amazing – delicious and nutritious! And if you’re in to online shopping, you can find organic, old-fashioned oats AND Nuttzo in my OpenSky Shop!

Coming Next

• Health Benefits of Blackstrap Molasses – And Why I Drink It
• Tart Cherry Concentrate Health Benefits – And Why I Drink It
• More reviews and giveaways!

Contest Alerts

• Averie, over at Love Veggies & Yoga, is having a raw food book giveaway.
• I’m giving away a jar of Tropical Traditions raw honey.

Just stopping by? Have you entered my latest contest (over a $200 value)? It ends tonight! Or maybe you’d like to try your hand at my chocolate-covered raisin hemp balls or raw tuna fish-less salad. 

Two of my latest product arrivals for review are Coconut Peanut Butter and Raw Honey from Tropical Traditions. (Of course, I’ll be doing a thorough review of each product in upcoming posts, but I had to share this recipe with y’all!)

Oh, and for raw foodie purists, the ONLY thing I can find that doesn’t make this breakfast recipe 100% raw is the fact that the peanuts in the coconut peanut butter have been roasted. Well, and I used boxed almond milk (you could make your own, raw almond milk though).

Before I share the recipe, I have to tell you that these two products are soooooooooooooo yummy!!!

A sneak peek to my upcoming review:

“The coconut peanut butter is amazing! It literally tastes like 50% coconut and 50% peanut butter in each bite. Although the consistency is runny, it really fills my mouth with explosions of flavor and healthy goodness. I’m a thick consistency/crunchy kinda gal but I’m LOVING this stuff. Really. I could eat it every day! And the raw honey is solid and needs to be scraped out or sat near a low heat to be softened but it is really sweet and fantabulous!”

Coconut Peanut Butter Honey Overnight Oats

1/3 cup oats (heaping)

2/3 cups almond milk

2 tablespoons Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut Butter

1 tablespoon Tropical Traditions raw honey

1 (small, very ripe) banana

Coconut Peanut Butter is runny, but DELISH!

Dump your oats in the bowl.

Pour almond milk in.

Add coconut peanut butter.

Add raw honey.

Mash in 1 small (really ripe) banana.

Stir, and refrigerate.

Note: Averie saves half her banana for adding as a topping the next morning. I just mashed the whole banana in.

Looks like this going in…

This Morning

After Stirring

I’ll admit, I’ve seen various concoctions of overnight oats all across the blogosphere and although they all look delicious, I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of eating cold oatmeal for breakfast. Just sounds a little gross, doesn’t it?

I am not new to the idea of soaking oats overnight – I’ve done it for years (with steel-cut) but I’d always cook ‘em on the stove top the next morning.

And… I’m now a new overnight oats convert. I’ll be eating this often. It’s DELISH! Oh my gosh. If you’ve been hesitant to try it, you have to make this – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results!

Plus, this is the PERFECT (healthy) breakfast for anyone who has to be up early and works outside the home. You can make your oatmeal the night before, grab it out of the fridge in the morning and gobble it up. Who says you can’t have a healthy breakfast if you work long, crazy hours??!! Overnight oats is a fantabulous solution for you!!

And have you entered my latest contest yet? Prizes are valued at over $200!! And the contest closes at 9 p.m. (Central Time) TONIGHT. A winner will be chosen via random.org. There are TWELVE ways to enter. Hurry and get your entries in!

Coming Soon

Interview with the owner of ShimmerOrganics, my review of her raw beauty mask (plus a surprise for y’all!!) and lots more reviews and contests.

Oh, and guess what??!! I made a new batch of raw flax seed crackers – and they turned out this time! The recipe made 100. Eeek! I’ve been gobbling ‘em up and love every single taste! I’ll be sharing photos and everything in an upcoming post. Yay for raw flax seed crackers!!!

Your Turn

Do you make raw recipes often, or do you read raw blogs for inspiration and learning? Have you ever made overnight oats? What’s your favorite overnight oats combo? What did you think of eating  ‘em cold? Let’s talk about it!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to enter Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds–thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring–and don’t forget to check out my chocolate ice cubes!

Blended Blessings

I’ve mentioned a few times that my blender keeled over on me. It was sad. I was sad. But a new blender wasn’t in the budget so I’ve been a pouting, smoothie-less Raw Juice Girl for a while now. Pathetic, I know. LOL

I was on a real roll having awesome smoothies for breakfast, but I made due with substitutes:

• Green (Hemp) Overnight Breakfast Cookie
• Green Steel-Cut Oats
• Chocolate Hemp Shake
• Cashew Cookie LARABAR

Delicious, yes. A green smoothie? No!

So, imagine my out-of-this-world delight when my aunt donated her blender she never uses! Oh, believe me, I tried (and tried) to promote the health benefits of smoothies and convince her that she needed to keep her blender–she insisted on giving it to me anyway, reassuring me she never uses it and didn’t plan on it anytime soon….

Enter: the Osterizer 10-speed Blender

I took pictures of my blending adventures this morning, so you could enjoy the experience with me!

And, my goodness, this thing is a LOT more powerful than I thought it would be. It gobbled up the ice cubes like there was no tomorrow! Seriously! Eeeek! Bring on the smoothies, people!

Osterizer Blender

10 Speeds!

Sassafras Root Tea

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro 70

Chocolate Ice Cubes!

Green Hemp Smoothie

Wanna Taste?

YUM-O!!!!

Happy Hemp Smoothie

• 4 tablespoons of Hemp Pro 70 (from www.manitobaharvest.com)
• 1 cup Sassafras root tea (you could totally use Hemp Bliss milk instead)
• 1 banana
• 2 chocolate ice cubes
• 2 water ice cubes
• Freshly ground flax seeds (a little less than a tablespoon)
• A drizzle of agave syrup

And that’s what I had for breakfast this morning. Ah, a green smoothie. I can’t tell you how happy my mouth–and my tummy–were as I chugged that gorgeous, bubbly, hemp-ish, thick smoothie down. YUM!!!

I did forget one thing, though: spinach! Yikes!!! Sheesh, guess I’ll have to make another one.

If you’re just tuning in, be sure to check out Healing With (Raw) Juices’ latest contest for an 8 ounce bag of Raw Chia Seeds–thanks to NavitasNaturals.com for sponsoring!

Want to keep up with Raw Juice Girl’s adventures + more?  Subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life. I’ll also be making a recipe page where you’ll be able to easily locate recipes for raw juices, smoothies, and now dehydrator creations!

First, I’d like to remind you about the current contest I have running: The Bolder Mat Company Yoga Mat + Stacy McCarthy’s Yoga DVD. (Contest ends Wednesday, August 19th. There are SEVEN ways to win!!)

For the longest, I’ve been meaning to make Angela’s raw chocolate pudding (which is RAW and VEGAN) but have never got around to it until today. Gosh, have I EVER been missing out! Seriously. This chocolate pudding is the best stuff–and it’s WAY healthier than the chocolate I ate on my birthday!

Note: Since I added the organic Oikos Greek yogurt, my recipe isn’t raw or vegan like Angela’s. If you’d prefer it to be, head on over to her site (linked above) and use her recipe. If you don’t mind the yogurt, feel free to make mine! (I am going to try it without the yogurt next time. I think I added too much cocoa powder this time, or maybe it was an after taste from the agave nectar. Ya think? Should I try a different Agave? Any suggestions on that?)

Organic Blue Agave

Cocoa Powder, Vanilla Extract, Agave

Into the Food Processor

4 avocados (forgot to photo them separately, sorry!)

1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the Certified Organic NOW brand)

3/4 cup agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of water

All Combined

It tasted TOO chocolate-y. Does that make sense? So I added a 5.3 ounce container of organic Vanilla Oikos Greek yogurt to try to mellow it out some….

After the Oikos

Scraped Clean

Into a Container

(Notice the recipe on the fridge in the background for lots of future use!)

Creamy Chocolate Heaven

Half a Banana, Sliced

With Chocolate Pudding On Top!

Yum-O!!

(This chocolate lovin’ girl is H-A-P-P-Y!!!)

How’d your Sunday go?  After I made this awesome chocolate pudding, I cleaned out the fridge and between fridge veggies and stuff from the garden, I juiced up a few containers of raw juice. I’ll post about it next. I thought you’d love taking a peek at my avocado chocolate pudding adventure! Hope you did!

Be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life PLUS get to enter all sorts of awesome contests!

First, I want to address an issue some of you may have when you’re actually in the middle of your juice fast. You may feel like it’s all happening too fast, like your body is on toxic overload and can’t rid itself of the toxins as fast as your cleanse is making it happen. Maybe you travel a lot or work a lot of hours and you just don’t have time to feel those detox symptoms as strongly as you are.

Here’s a tip…

Two foods that gently slow the effects of detox while juice fasting:

Avocado

Banana

So, while you may not want to completely end a fast, you can eat a small portion of banana or avocado to slow down the detox process and allow you to have a little rest from the detox symptoms. Yes, you will “wake up” your digestive system a little by nibbling on a banana or avocado but this is a mild way to find relief from, say a headache or achy flu-like feelings that often come with a juice fast cleanse (for some people).

Remember, I’m not telling you to eat 10 bananas or avocados in some crazed oh-my-gosh-my-mouth-met-food-again frame of mind. Be cautious, be mindful, be respectful of your decision to adhere to your juice fasting goals.

Breaking the Fast

This part of the fast is a personal preference, I believe, but let’s see if I can give you some ideas.

A great way, I’ve learned, to break a juice fast is by eating some fresh fruit. A small portion will be enough. I can’t stress enough that you need to think with your tummy and not your brain when breaking a juice fast. Here’s where your preference comes in: Maybe your favorite fruit is banana or apple or a peach. Whatever it is, have that. Pineapple is another great choice. (Raw) fruit is loaded with enzymes that’ll really help your system start to get used to real food again.

I’ve heard of people sipping hot veggie broth during (and to break) a fast. Honestly, I tried both of those and really don’t prefer broth at all during or breaking a juice fast.

Some other ways to break a juice fast:

• a smoothie
• raw veggies (if you must, but they’re harder on the digestive system than enzyme-rich fruits)

You can also eat pulp (with or without the juice).

I’ve found that the simpler I make it coming off a fast, the easier it is. For example, instead of going wild and making a fruit salad from every fruit you can find, just stick with one (or two, if you must).

Add more veggies, and then raw nuts, seeds, and if you eat dairy or meat, etc., be sure to add those (in moderation and hopefully organic, of course) after at least a few days of enjoying fresh, raw, living foods.

Enjoy the Process

This is the most important tip of all, I think! If you enjoy the process of breaking your fast in a healthy way, you’ll probably end up wanting to embark on another juice fast in the future. Take time to savor each taste of fresh fruits and veggies on those first few days after the fast has ended–and forever! Your body–and your taste buds–will thank you.

Upcoming Contests Sponsored by These Fabulous Companies

• 2 Food Matters DVDs (Haven’t had a chance to watch this one yet, but do check out their site–they have a RAWsome message to share!!)
• Detox 4 Women by Natalia Rose (I read this book last night and it’s awesome; it really helps you understand water retention, etc!)
• Oh Nuts! (raw macadamia nuts and pecans) <— These are seriously delicious nuts–and they’re JUMBO sized!
• E3Live (Green-tasting (which I don’t mind!), but I REALLY notice that it’s making me feel better. It was definitely put to the test through my recent stressful events!)
• 2 books (Coconut Water for Health and Healing and Oil Pulling Therapy: Detoxifying and Healing the Body Through Oral Cleansing by Dr. Bruce Fife
• and MORE!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.

Photo Credit(s):

http://www.sxc.hu

Oikos (Organic) Greek Yogurt

After my yummy-to-the-tummy Oikos Greek yogurt, I had my daily shot of E3 Live.

Snack/Lunch

Since I had a late breakfast (around 11 a.m., or so) I didn’t eat lunch at noon. Instead, I ended up having a snack around maybe 1 p.m.? I was a little hungry but not much, so I had a big banana with a spoon of raw honey. Yum! (No pic, sorry!)

Mid-Afternoon Snack

By this afternoon, I still wasn’t really craving anything–except chocolate! I realized I’d been craving chocolate all day, so I had me some! LOL Double the chocolate, double the fun, eh? I started with the totally delicious Amazing Grass Chocolate SuperFood bar. Yum-O! It has a thin layer of chocolate coating on the outside and nutty, green, chewy goodness on the inside. It’s healthy, tasty, and chocolate. What’s not to like? Seriously, I could eat one of these every single day! And they’re very dense and filling–AMAZING!

Amazing Grass Chocolate Bar

I decided to double up on my chocolate fix and had my other sample packet of Amazing Grass chocolate superfood powder, mixed with almond milk. Yum!

Amazing Chocolate Shake

(Just click on the photo below to read all about this yummy chocolate superfood powder! )

Dinner

It was most definitely time for some raw veggies, so I fixed myself a salad. And here’s the sad news: all of my camera batteries are dead and I’m having to charge them–so no salad pics tonight! Sorry! Use your imagination, though, and picture this:

a base of baby spinach leaves

with chopped Napa cabbage

chopped heirloom organic banana peppers (from my garden)

diced heirloom organic bell peppers (from my garden)

sliced heirloom organic beets (from my garden)

Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds

scattered fresh blueberries

Yummy to the tummy!

Contest!!

Want to win a giant 2 pound container of healthy deliciousness? Special K wants to know what nourishes me. So, here it is: raw juices, smoothies, raw foods, and healthy thoughts nourish me. What nourishes you? Head on over there and tell her so you can be entered to win!

Coming next: various foods I’ve eaten when breaking other juice fasts I’ve been on, and also why I don’t incorporate vegetable broth into my juice fasting regimen like some juice fasters do. <—– I am working on this post!!

You’ll definitely want to stay tuned!

So… be sure to subscribe to Healing with Juices’ Feed for free updates. You can get free updates to your email as well (sign up here). You’ll also receive inspiration, juice and smoothie recipes, and juice fasting tips and encouragement to help keep you motivated toward your ultimate health–and more personal posts about stuff that’s going on in my life.