If you’re new to Healing With (Raw) Juices, or are behind on your blog reading, be sure to catch up on my latest posts:

• Chocolate-Covered (Tart) Cherry Smoothie Recipe
• Amish Country, Sunny Skies + Critters
• Spiralized Veggie S’ghetti Recipe 
• Aurorae Yoga Mat Review
• Oats in a (Nuttzo!) Jar
• Raw, Green (Vegan) Chicken(less) Salad Recipe
• NuttzOats: An Overnight Oats Recipe
• Agave: Why I Was Hesitant to Use it and Won’t Be Using it Anymore
• Living With Rheumatoid Arthritis + Fibromyalgia 

Caught up yet? Good!

You all loved my Jalapeño Hummus Recipe so much, I just had to share my sun-dried tomato hummus recipe with you. It was nice to know I’m not the only one who hasn’t always been madly in love with hummus. But I’m so glad I made this yesterday! Each bite has such a burst of flavor: I taste the sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, and garlic in every. single. bite. It tastes so fresh and delicious. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m just proud of myself for making such yummy hummus!!

And I promise review and contest posts are coming next….

Into the food processor

Results after processing

Into containers

Up close

With veggies: red bell pepper, carrots, avocado

Wanna bite?

Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus Recipe

Yields 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 can garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas) rinsed and drained
• 3 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves
• juice from 1 lemon
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 (and a half) tablespoons olive oil (from the sun-dried tomato jar)
• 1 tablespoon parsley (I added an extra teaspoon after a taste test.)

Directions:

1. Toss all ingredients into the food processor and let ‘er rip ‘till it’s the consistency you like.
2. Do a taste test to make sure you don’t want to add anything else.
3. Serve immediately or store in the fridge.
4. Enjoy!

Note:

You can absolutely leave the garlic out of this recipe. I heart garlic, but many of you do not.

Let’s Talk Revolution

How do you feel about Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? Are you following his show? Do you know who he even is? I’ve known about him for a few years, and always enjoyed his food shows that I’ve seen. Since I first saw him on TV, I loved that he promotes fresh produce and real food. (You can read his food philosophy here.) He isn’t promoting anything outrageous – just sensible meals and snacks created from real food.

Here’s a quote from him (from his site) to better help you understand his Food Revolution Mission – in case you haven’t heard about it yet:

“I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It’s time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!

You live in an amazing country full of inspirational people and you have the power to change things. With your help, we can get better food into homes, schools and communities all over America and give your kids a better future.”—Jamie Oliver

Changing my habits to eating real food is how I lost over 100 pounds. So I absolutely believe in Jamie’s mission. I personally admire his courage, passion, and believe he has a genuine, soft heart. And I can’t believe how much resistance he’s been up against for this whole thing. Isn’t it amazing how so many people fight healthy eating/living?

And as I write this, there are almost 80,000 signatures on the petition Jamie plans on presenting to the White House. Would you consider signing? I’m going to I did!

Let me know your thoughts on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution – and the sun-dried tomato hummus….

Coming Soon

In no particular order…

• Review of the Paderno World Cuisine Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer
• Review of Aurorae Sport Sweat Towel
• Review of Aurorae Slip Free Rosin Bag
• Health Benefits of Blackstrap Molasses – And Why I Drink It
• Tart Cherry Concentrate Health Benefits – And Why I Drink It
• More recipes
• More reviews and giveaways – lots of surprises!

Contest Alert

My Tropical Traditions giveaway is still open. Win a jar of creamy, delicious, healthy organic, raw, wild honey!!

And if you caught it, you’ll remember I mentioned that I’d be sharing a fun (green!) recipe later today. Well, I didn’t forget… just got myself into a pickle and actually thought I might have to waste food. I’m NOT one to waste food so it took me a while to regroup and try to figure out how to save these ingredients, but I did it!

Originally, I planned on making a Saint Patrick’s Day version of the raw cheese I’ve seen around the web for a while now. I’ve noticed raw foodies using soaked cashews or macadamia nuts and mixing the nuts with either an orange or a red bell pepper and seasonings (and sometimes even more ingredients) to make a raw cheese sauce.

Well, I thought I’d had a “brainstorm” and would replace the red/orange bell pepper with a green one – for green cheese, in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day!

Yeah, that didn’t work out so well.

I know it isn’t because of the green bell pepper. I tried to make this recipe in the food processor because I didn’t think the blender would do such a great job with the nuts. Maybe I should’ve tried because all I ended up with was a mixture of chunky bell pepper and cashews. I had added sea salt and a pinch of cayenne like a lot of recipes recommended. But it just wasn’t getting creamy like I’d seen across the blogosphere.

What to do?

I let the mixture sit in the food processor while I sorted it out in my head.

Hmmm… To waste, or not to waste. I almost tossed this in to that new “Raw Flops” category I created a while back. But at this point, I figured I’d just try to add a few things and see what happened.

Rewind.

Before I discovered my mixture wasn’t getting smooth (or maybe I didn’t wait long enough?) I started documenting my recipe.

Green Bell Pepper + Soaked Cashews

Chopped

In the Food Processor

After this, I started processing the ingredients and when I realized I wasn’t coming out with the smooth, green cheese I’d envisioned, I forgot to take a photo of the chunky mixture!

Okay, back to where I was with adding ingredients to try to save my concoction…

The full recipe is at the end of this post but basically, I threw in a splash of almond milk, added a little more salt, some freshly ground black pepper, and some minced garlic.

And with a little determination – and perhaps a little luck

this was born:

Raw, Green (Vegan) Chicken(less) Salad!

I gave it this name because when I dared take a tiny taste (I was getting scared, y’all!) it tasted similar to chicken salad! Eeek! My raw flop isn’t a flop after all – it’s a happy accident; a blessing in disguise!

And the photo doesn’t show just how green it was. I love its color.

I had planned on serving the raw (green) cheese with broccoli, celery and cucumber sticks, but after all the hassle – and cleaning up my mess! – I just ate a small bowl of this and called it a night.

Raw, Green (Vegan) Chicken(less) Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 medium bell pepper
• 1 cup (soaked) cashews
• pinch cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste
• minced garlic to taste
• splash almond milk (just for smooth sailing in the food processor)

Directions:

1. Chop bell pepper (or celery).
2. Add (drained) soaked cashews.
3. Toss in cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, and almond milk.
4. Blend until you get the consistency you enjoy.

Uses:

• Serve with veggies, as a dip.
• Spread on crackers.
• Smear on bread like a real chicken salad sandwich.
• Smear on a tortilla and make a yummy wrap.
• You might even sneak a spoonful straight from the bowl!

Note: Next time I make this, I’ll use celery instead of bell pepper and add onion.

Of course, if I would have intentionally set out to make raw chicken(less) salad, I’d have used celery – not bell pepper – and I’d have added onion (similar to my Raw Tuna Fish-Less Salad). Yum! You know what I’ll be making for quick meals from now on.

AND…

Just so I knew I wasn’t just tired and crazy (LOL!) I had a couple of family members taste my creation. I didn’t tell ‘em what it was. Wanna know their reaction? Of course you do!

I saw big eyes and shocked faces, and heard: “It tastes like chicken salad!”

Bingo! I had saved my ingredients. Phew!

Updated on 3/18/10 to add: I’m getting requests for more!

Have you ever started out making one recipe and ended up with something totally different? Was it edible? Have you had happy accidents in the kitchen? If so, don’t you love ‘em? And what about the raw cheese? Did I just not wait long enough? Does it only work in a Vita-Mix? Chime in, wise ones, chime in!

And I hope you had a fantabulous Saint Patrick’s Day!

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 tried my coconut peanut butter honey overnight oats yet? Or maybe you’d like to try your hand at my  chocolate-covered raisin hemp balls or raw tuna fish-less salad.  And you simply HAVE to try my latest, simple creation: Coconut Peanut Butter Cream. YUM! And don’t forget to take a peek at my Thanksgiving holiday eats + treats – or my interview with ShimmerOrganics owner, Lisa Ann Turkel!

The last time I tried to make raw flax seed crackers, they ended up being a flop, thus the new Healing With (Raw) Juices category: Raw Flops.

But these… these were NOT a flop!

Delicious Flax Crackers!

I soaked my flax seeds overnight. And this time, I used red and green bell peppers (like the recipe called for). I still used apple in the place of the zucchini – but this time I left the peel on. 

Into the Blender

I forgot to take a photo of the other ingredients before I blended ‘em up! But here’s what it looks like when all the ingredients are whipped in the blender….

I added my juicy concoction to the soaked flax seeds….

Then I added the ground flax.

Stirred It Up

HimalaSalt = YUM!

I bought parchment paper this time!

I decided to add a few shakes of Mexican Seasoning to one tray of the mixture.

Here’s the four trays the recipe yields!

Up close

I cranked it up more this time (about 120).

Look at my crackers! Yay!

Some raw flax crackers all plated up. 

  Look at how crispy and beautiful!

I used the same recipe for inspiration as last time, from  The Raw Food Revolution Diet by Cherie Soria (sent to me by www.bookpubco.com for review). The recipe really makes 100 raw flax seed crackers. Yay!

I’ve enjoyed these crackers with sliced avocado, by themselves, with a drizzle of agave, a smear of nut butter, with salad…. SO delicious!

This post has actually been set to publish for a few days now, but I noticed Gena (from www.choosingraw.com) just published her raw juice pulp cracker recipe. Do check that out, too! I’m going to make her version as well.

Oh, and I’m also going to make some time to experiment in the coming weeks, and I’ll share the recipes I come up with on my own….

Have you tried your hand at raw crackers yet – with or without a dehydrator? Do you have Cherie’s book? If so, what do you think about it? Do you love it? Have you made good use of it? (I have a review coming up of my copy!)

I went with Yoga for yummy abs again this morning. I’m going to see how switching things up goes for me. So far, I’ve tried the following of Polly’s videos: Yoga for low back, Yoga for yummy abs, and Yoga for newbies. I love ‘em all!

Let me tell you, although Polly’s yoga videos seem gentle and easy, I’m feeling the soreness, people! Sheesh, who knew?! LOL

I think I’ll take at least one day off each week to let my muscles rest. Maybe two? How many days each week do you practice yoga? Do you take a day or two off?

Breakfast

Anyway, after yoga with Polly, I decided to have a bowl full of frozen blueberries. I absolutely love frozen blueberries! They’re so tasty!

Frozen Blueberries

I drank some herbal tea after that (I didn’t make my warm lemon water this morning). I also had my daily shot of E3 Live.

Lunch

By lunch time, I was starving! My eyes were bigger than my appetite, though, when I made this ginormous salad. LOL

Giant Veggie Salad

Napa cabbage

Spinach leaves

Heirloom lettuce

Sliced celery

Sliced carrots

Sliced beets

Sliced tomato

Diced bell pepper

That was a huge salad and I was only able to eat about half of it. That’s okay, I’ll finish it off as a mid-afternoon snack, or as my dinner. It won’t go to waste!

Snack

I still have some more Amazing Grass products to sample (but couldn’t because I was juice fasting when they arrived) so I thought I’d try out the Chocolate Green SuperFood Drink Powder for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. Oh. My. Goodness! It’s DELICIOUS!!!!

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

Amazing Grass Shaker Cup

Added Organic Rice Milk

Added Chocolate SuperFood Powder

All Shook Up

Up Close

Non-Raw Milk?

No, the organic rice milk is NOT raw. I’m not a milk person, really. I have never been one to just guzzle milk–even before my raw food adventures. When I ate the S.A.D. diet, I only used milk on my cereal. I tend to shy away from processed cereals nowadays, so I pretty much don’t use milk at all–not even in my smoothies (I use herbal tea instead).

Anyway, although it will be pretty rare,  I may decide to enjoy a treat once in a while that isn’t 100% raw. I’ll let you know when I do, like today with this organic rice milk.

I would have made a smoothie with the chocolate powder, a frozen banana, and some herbal tea but my blender died on me. So, I remembered Jenna saying she just added the Amazing Grass chocolate powder to her shaker cup with rice milk so I just went for it–I’m so glad I did! I’m telling you, it’s soooooooooooooooooo good!!! Yum!

Dinner

For dinner, I had the other half of my salad from lunch. And now I’m ready to call it a night. Can’t wait for yoga in the morning!!

Off-Topic:

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a freelance writer. I write about all sorts of things, including writing! Check out my latest post over at The Writer’s Round-About: 7 Tips for Getting that Writing Gig Without an English Degree.

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.

Speaking of back, I did a new video today: Yoga for low back by Polly at Yoga is Yummy. It was totally awesome. My back really did feel better afterward!

YogaDownload.com

Both Cindy and Jocelyn have mentioned yogadownload.com, so I checked it out and downloaded a beginner’s class: Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. I haven’t tried that class yet, but I will!

After my morning yoga, I remembered to make my favorite morning drink.

Warm Lemon Water

After I drank that, I got busy with laundry, dishes, etc., and forgot to eat!

Snack

Around noon, I wasn’t really hungry so I thought I’d just have a banana and sample some of the raw products Premier Organics sent me to review. (More about this fantabulous company and their organic, raw products in an upcoming post–and contest!!!)

Premier Organics Samples

1 banana, sliced and served with

raw pecan nut butter

raw macadamia nut butter

raw cacao bliss

Yum!

Macadamia nuts are my favorite nut ever, so of course I had a conniption over the macadamia nut butter. Pecans are my next favorite nut, so I chose it to sample on my banana as well. And, how can you go wrong with cacao bliss (aka raw chocolate)??!! Oh my gosh, y’all, these nut butters and the cacao bliss RAWKS! Soooooooooooooo tasty–and good for you!!!

Mid-Afternoon Snack

A little while later, I still wasn’t really hungry so I thought I’d drink my other juice from yesterday in my E3 Live shaker cup, with a scoop of Amazing Grass (I prefer my E3 Live liquid straight up ).

Dinner

I was craving a yummy salad for dinner, so I threw this together…

A little of each of the following:

Napa cabbage

heirloom lettuce

sliced celery

sliced carrots

diced bell pepper

baby tomatoes

fresh blueberries

Check It Out!

And I leave you with this: When I went to read Choosing Raw today, I discovered Gena had written a guest post for Fitness NYC. I knew it’d be great, but I didn’t realize it’d really be so relevant to this last few days of my own journey with yoga. I knew the post was about yoga. She mentioned it in her short post. I didn’t know it would be so touching, so beautiful, so true! You have to read this post. It’s fantabulous!

Gena on Becoming a Yogi

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.

This morning, I did the video called Yoga for Yummy Abs by Polly from Yoga is Yummy.

I did the cobra pose, too! Fantabulous, people!

I was hesitant to try a different video. I’m trying to be very careful with my (bad) back. But, while I could really feel the yoga poses and stretches burning and using my muscles, it was a good, warm burning and relaxing experience. I’m just madly in love with yoga!

After my date with yoga, I had breakfast:

Blueberry-Kiwi Salad

1 whole kiwi, peeled + sliced

handful frozen blueberries

Yum-O!

I also had some herbal tea and, of course, added a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar to one of my glasses of water.

About mid-morning, I had my daily shot….

E3 Live Brain On

I think the Brain On formula tastes just a little stronger (or a little different) than the original E3 Live I’ve tried but it’s definitely do-able for me. You could always disguise the taste (if it’s too strong–aka green–for you) in a smoothie or juice. I just take a tablespoon straight up. What? I love my greens–and I’m lovin’ how it makes me feel: clear-minded and mentally alert!

Juicy Ingredients!

4 small heirloom organic beets, with leaves (from my garden)

3 organic carrots

2 heirloom organic cucumbers (from my garden)

small apple

2 handfuls spinach

handful Alfalfa sprouts

1-inch piece of ginger

medium heirloom organic bell pepper (from my garden)

1 whole kiwi, peeled

Raw Beauty!

Juice Pulp

(Looks Like Confetti!)

Yummy Juices

Raw Lunch

1 celery stalk, cut up

1 carrot, cut up

shaker cup full of today’s juicy concoction

+ a scoop of berry flavored Amazing Grass SuperFood powder

(To learn more about this berry-licious superfood powder, click on the photo below! )

Snack

I had another carrot and another celery stalk (I was craving carrots and celery today! LOL)

And…. some of the juiciest, most delicious…

Organic Cherries

Dinner

I thought about having my other juice in the place of my dinner but then I had an overwhelming craving for the following spinach-based salad. I absolutely adore baby spinach leaves–they’re my favorite veggie! I love them raw, in juices, in smoothies, in salads… you get my point.

Oh-So-Good Salad

generous handful of baby spinach leaves

heirloom organic cucumber slices (from my garden)

generous handful of fresh blueberries

Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds (Yum!)

2 stalks heirloom organic okra, sliced

Have you ever eaten okra raw? It’s delicious! I’m serious! The above combo is absolutely YUM! What’s your favorite salad combo? Do share!

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.

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.

Breakfast

I felt like having cucumber juice for breakfast. I added a scoop of berry flavored Amazing Grass SuperFood powder to it.Yum!

(To find out just how berry-licious this superfood powder is, click on the photo below!)

Amazing (Grass) Cucumber Juice

All Shook Up!

Snack

Mid-morning: After breakfast, I drank some herbal tea. I also had a shot of E3 Live and a glass of water with a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar.

Lunch + Dinner

I juiced some leftover cantaloupe so it wouldn’t go to waste.

Cool Cantaloupe

(Made about 3 cups. It was about 3/4 juice and 1/4 water.)

Heirloom Rainbow

1 big (heirloom) beet (from my garden)

several (heirloom) beet tops (from my garden)

heirloom lettuce (from my garden)

small (heirloom) bell pepper (from my garden)

4 organic carrots

huge bunch parsley

2 pieces ginger root (approx. 1 inch each)

5 celery stalks

Kinda Mucky Looking

The beet concoction made 3 cups. I diluted it 50/50 and ended up with 6 cups.

Ready to Drink!

Note to self: If I make this beet concoction again, I’ll remember that it included a LOT of lettuce and does NOT need to be diluted. It tasted very bland and just wasn’t fun to drink! (I added a splash of cantaloupe juice to jazz it up a little.)

Until tomorrow… happy juicing!

Don’t forget to catch up on my 30-day juice fast…

Day 1 of a 30-Day Juice Fast and Juicer Mishaps

Day 2 of a 30-Day Juice Fast–and AMAZING GRASS!!

Day 3–E3 Living!

Day 4 + Wheat Grass Galore + a Juicer!!

Day 5 — Dead or Alive?

Day 6 + Father’s Day Bliss!

Day 7, Cucumber Chia Heaven!

Day 8, Let’s Talk About Weight!

Day 9–and I’m Feelin’ Fine!

Day 10–Learnin’ About Lemon!

Day 11, Grapefruit Juice Heaven!

Day 12 with Sprouts on Top!

Day 13 and Juiceless

Day 14: Salad in a Glass

Day 15 + Living Tree Community Contest Winner!

Day 16 + Books by Dr. Bruce Fife

Day 17 + Green Pineapple Juice

Day 18 (Catching Up)

Day 19 + July 4th Celebrations!!

Day 20 + My Dad’s Birthday!

Day 21 , Winding Down

Day 22 + AMAZING Watermelon

Day 23, Repeat

Upcoming Contests Featuring these Fabulous Companies

• 2 books by Nomi Shannon, The Raw Gourmet (These two books have GORGEOUS photos and the recipes are amazing!
• 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.