I need dinner ideas for DH - transition

[sherahtaylor]

My husband knows he needs to do something and is willing to go totally 100% raw, but...only if I help him by making his meals and sending them with him to work. I've done this in the past but right now, with the baby and everything, I'm just not up to it; I feel so overwhelmed right now as it is, trying to do my own raw lifestyle (23 days 100%).

But he's willing and hopes I will start making raw dinners for him...and I need some ideas! Last night I made a mango tomato avacado mexican-tasting romaine wrap, and I think I suck at wraps, LOL! The whole thing fell apart into my hands in a gooey mess...although yummy! I ended up making him a salad with the ingredients. Anyway, he isn't too fond of mangos, apparently, and ended up adding lots of nacho chips and cheese. :( But at least most of it was raw!

I don't have a dehydrator OR a spiral shaver thing to make "pasta" with. So what recipes or meals has your significant other liked, who was mostly SAD but wanted to eat more healthy? I'd like to make him 100% raw meals so I can eat them too.

I have a feeling my taste buds are different from his now - I have never really liked mangos before either, or avacados, but now find them both absolutely delicious. So what might taste good to me, might not to him. :cool:

[Biff]

Funny thing is that I was going to tell you to make him some tostadas (using Alissa's corn tostada shell recipe) and also to make him pasta using a spirooli. But then I saw that you do not have a dehydrator nor a spirooli.

Sounds like your husband might have better success with his transition if you save up and buy a dehydrator. Othewise you might turn him completely. Think of buying one as not only an investment in your health, but your marriage. :) (Much cheaper than doctors and therapists!)

These tools were the key thing when getting my wife to go raw. Don't think she wouldn't have tried to go further than green smoothies if I didn't tempt her with Igor's bread or Alissa's corn tostada shells.

You can also make pasta with a peeler. (not as nice as the spirooli, in my opinion, but it is an inexpensive solution.)

[carolg]

I think getting this gadget is a must of $19.95. Check online or email me for more information, but I love it totally: Spirooli - Spiral Vegetable Cutter.

I have dehyrator and don't use as often as most.

I think a recipe book, like Alissa's or even some booklets that Rawpriestess offers the folks here for special price is a fabulous feature. Look for her posts or email address. Libraries may have raw books if budget is a factor. Look for Victoria Bountenko as one source and her kids have a book out too.

You can have a theme night. For example tonight could be Italian nite with the "raw pasta", and large Italian salad and dressing.

For the American night, I could include pickles, ketchup, learn how to make burgers even if not using a dehyrator. Pickles/ketchup/burger recipes here. The burgers are so great I have been known to just eat them without dehyrating either.

Making something seem like a memory of the way we used to eat is great and not look weird to others.

I have tons of eggplant from the Farmer's Market so that's my challenge today of figuring out what to make with it but I do have an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator I can pull out.

Oh, with the dehydrator pizza is fabulous.

Maybe with your size family it may be a great investment even just incorporating healthier eating into the family lifestyle.

carolg

[JEN]

Yanni's chili is great(recipe in this forum) and even though she calls to dehydrate the veggies and the chili, you dont have to and it is wonderful. Alissa also has a wonderful chili recipe in her book. Use the banana at the top of the page to search for chili. Alissa has a wonderful onion dip recipe as well that is great on top of the chili. Chili is very filling and easily portable.

Pasta and marinara is great. There are some recipes for it in the forum as well and in Alissa's book ,which, I highly reccomend! If you dont have a spiral slicer just use a peeler to make fettacini type noodles. To make it more filling add chopped veggies of your choice to the marinara. Very yummy and also portable. Same goes for fettacini alfredo....there are recipes in this forum and its easy to carry with you.

I take my dinner to work with me and although I usually just take salads sometimes I need a change and these are the things I make.

There are recipes in the forum for philly cheesesteak and fahitas that are simple and delicious. If something calls to dehydrate veggies just marinate them in olive oil and let them sit for a bit and they will soften. These recipes are awesome. For quick easy dessert make RP's brownies!!! No dehydrating required!

[Guppy]

My dh is also making this change (to my utter astonishment!). However, none of the dehydrated/prepared meals sit well with him. What I do is make him a smoothie for breakfast and then pack a small cooler of just fruits and veggies that he munches on all day. When I am in a rush, I just put in whole f and v. When I have more time, he gets fruit salads, guacamole, trail mix, etc. but always with a container of romaine leaves, cucumbers and tomatoes. He likes to munch these while driving home.

For dinner, I make a large salad and then he usually adds feta, olives, hummus (non raw) to it. I also make simple cooked meals of brown rice and beans, baked potatoes with steamed veggies, steamed veggies with marinara sauce (raw or cooked), vegetable soup, stuff like that.

The Raw meals I have made that he has liked are:

From Raw Food Real World:
Double Mango Thai Basil Salad (using zucchini i/ the green mango)
Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho
Spicy Thai Vegetable Wraps
Lasagne
the spicy "beans" from the tortilla recipe
the marinated portobellos from the tamale recipe

Alissa's zucchini pasta and marinara
Storm and Jingee's tabouli and their tahini dressing on our salads
The cheesecake and fudge recipes from these threads

My dh was a huge meat eater, drinker etc. He has been high raw now since April and has lost the 15 lbs he packed on in the last 10 years we have been together. He looks and feels fabulous. I am just AMAZED that he is doing so well with this!! He used to tease me about my vegetarianism, hahaha. I hope I am enjoying the last laugh, lol.

Good luck!
emily

[Sharon in Colorado]

The best dinners I've done was when I wasn't too lazy to cut into a large melon or slice up a bunch of oranges before the main salad or meal. That "appe-teaser" tends to satisfy them after the whole meal.

You could do melon slices, or orange slices, berries or grapes, and get them out there on the table whilst you are assembling dinner.

Honeybee Joy's Fajita wraps are GREAT. Like your experience they tend to fall apart, so you could try the smaller lettuces such as radicchio used as little taquito holders, instead of the big floppy broken leaves which tend to make more of a mess.

And if you don't have the Saladacco or Spirooli, you can still use a veggie peeler and to make fetuccini noodles.

[Lay-Lay]

my hubby loves nut and date balls, guacomole, hummus, Alissa's marinara, any kind of fruit smoothie, spicy flaxseed crackers, Alissa's mud slide, raw pizza.

[FindingMyself4Me]

Hi Lay Lay,
I love hummus, and was wondering if you could post you'r recipe! Only if its not much trouble.