Help!!! Munchies...

[naturesgarden]

Ok...it is driving me crazy...my dehydrator is packed somewhere and I am having a severe case of munchies...My fiance eats sad so he can have all of my past favorites like chips & crackers. Even if I dig out my dehydrator, it takes several hours to put a recipe. Does anyone have any quick ideas to satisfy munchie cravings? (I tried celery and it just isn't cuttoign it, I am looking for that salty crunch)...There are no Vegan stores around here and the health food shop is carrying a lot of garbage.

Any ideas/quick recipes would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Rawkinlocs]

Do you have any nuts or seeds that you can season and munch on? I'm thinking like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, etc. and lightly misting with water or tossing in a very small amount of oil and then sprinkling with sea salt and/or other seasonings (cayenne, onion or garlic powder, etc.)

If you have cucumbers, you can slice those kinda thick and eat with apple cider vinegar and sea salt or lemon juice and salt.

[naturesgarden]

Thankyou so much Rawkinlocs

I am only 4 days into 100% raw and needed the ideas. I am trying very hard and I have tried the Fit for Life program with little trouble, however I find the full transformation from sad to high raw a little hard...I have been reading everything I can get my hands on of find online. Hoping to get Alissa's book soon.

I am prud of myself. Fiance wanted coffee and munchies so we went to town, he has his coffee and chocolate bar and I got herbal tea and a raw trail mix (yay for me).

Thanks again
Sharron

[Kathy Fields]

Hey Sharron when you want to have naughty munchies there are raw munchies that taste just as yummy as the munchies you miss. The best part is that after eating it you dont have to feel guilty and you dont feel lethargic and yuck because you havent put something bad in your system.

If you have braudband internet I suggest you go to www.vegsource.com they have all this footage of amazing doctors and researchers in the field of health talking that you can just watch. Someone here on rawfood talk mentioned it yesterday and I thought I would check it out and - WOW! Really great stuff.

The single biggest thing I found helped me THE MOST in transitioning is filling my mind with lots of positive reinforcement that I was doing the right thing. So if you are waiting for the book to arrive busy yourself watching Amazing leaders in the field of Vegan and raw talking about why the decision you have just now made is about to make you a much happier and healthier lady in the future.

[Imani]

I have been doing so much better. I have the taste for seasoning also. Yesterday, I made this chili just with tomatoes and bell peppers onions and avocado. I add chili seasoning it was great. It satisfied me. I wish I had made a bigger bowl for later. I will do that today, make a bigger bowl. i love the taste of veggies and friut sometimes I want a little kick or punch of something. I love capers to to that, so I did not eat the speghetti I make but I ate the suce. dices tomatoes and capers. The first day it wa good, but the next day it did not taste as fresh and fullas my raw. Yeah me..... ;)

[JinxieKat]

My new fav snack is to make some type of dip, be it a ranch dip that I get from the book 'Raw food for one or two people' or a dip from Allissa's book like the spinach dip. Hmm.. good. And dip all sorts of crispy veggies in that. Just like a SAD veggie dip tray.

Jinx

[Kassandra]

When I need a quick munchies fix I grab either cherry tomatoes or chunks of cucumber.

Even better is the fact that satsumas, mandarins and clementines are just coming into season here, and I can just gobble them up :D

Kass.

[Fresherson19]

Hi Everyone, I am new to this site and raw, but I am very excited to be trying this. I was also worried about snack attacks so I bought a Raw Revolution organic live food bar for emergencies only. Well, as I was going around to various stores buying lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, there was an emergency :D Two bites were all I needed, it was an odd but ok flavor.
If you keep one at home for when you don't have snacks ready I think it will help get you through. I had chocolate coconut.
The rest of the day was fruit and big salads.

[Morn]

I can't take credit for this but I saw on this site someone made what they called cheese doodles by coating raw cashews with nutritional yeast. I guess you put the nuts in a baggie and coat with a little olive oil and nutrional yeast which give it a cheese flavor.

Thus crunchy and cheesy - I tried it and they were good!

You may be able to buy the nuts and cheese at a bulk food store. I got mine from the Good Food Store.

[Nancy from Portland]

Jicama is a great snack if you want something with a crunch.

[naturesgarden]

Thanks everyone

I made it through the night...yay me :D . Starting day 5 and I am doing great...I settled with the trail mix and I went to bed. :rolleyes: No guilt this morning (woohoo) :p . Will power is a little stronger than I thought. I know if I slip up even once, I'm done, there is no going back. :eek: I have some time this weekend, so I will dig out the dehydrator and get going on some emergency munchies for when I reaaly want to munch. THnaks again everyone and have a great raw day.

[Trinity]

Always have some nuts or seeds on hand and that oil and n. yeast flakes in a bag with some salt, is my absolute fave snack, I even sneak em into the movies!! Cures that popcorn thang. Also believe it or not, corn(raw) on the cob!! Put it in a pan of warm h20, let it warm up(no heat) and make sure you've got really good, sweet corn and either use flax, olive oil or a ripe avocado and smear the corn and add sea salt and you're munchin!! I had it for the 1st time yesterday and I loved it. Good luck:)

[1Christine]

Help for crunchie munchies:
You can use your oven. If you have gas, often the pilot light is enough warmth. Electric is trickier, you would have to warm it, put stuff in and turn it off. You can check the temp by using an oven thermometer from the grocery store(mine starts at 100 F)It would make the nuts crunchier. Thinly sliced root veggies make nice crackers raw or dehydrated(turnips, rutabagers, parsnips, etc. try anything in the produce section that is hard/crisp like that and see what you like!). I love to use raw Jicama and cherimoya as crackers. You could make the nacho cheese in Alissa's book and do try the oven dehydration. There are all kinds of debates on the actual temperature that de-activates enzymes but the range is usually considered 105 F to 135 F. When the food is dehydrating it is my understanding that food itself does not reach the ambient air temp. You can see for yourself by putting water in a container with a thermometer and seeing what temp it gets to in comparison with the temp of the oven. For more info on "safe" temps, go to http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/gen12a.htm
These folks worked with Ann Wigmore, Viktor Kulvinskas, and Dr. John Whitaker on enzyme preserving temps.

[RawFoodieMom]

Christine, thanks for sharing that link. I never realized that excalibur had that page about enyzmes, for Raw Foodists on their site. It's very interesting!!

Debra

[Luvitup]

Hi! :)

Not sure how everyone feels about pre-packaged fare, but I have found THE MOST delish (raw) energy bar in the health store in my neighbourhood. It's called "Larabar". Vegan, Kosher, uncooked, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and salivatingly scrumptious. Comes in a bunch of flavours. My current fave is Cinnamon Roll. Great for days on the run or just bouts of raw-laziness......

[naturesgarden]

Ewwwwwwwwww...I finally got out my dehydrator and tried potato chip...I can say that I have found something that I really do not like. I tried four different flavors and I didn't like any of them (garlic, onion, paprika & Mrs Dash Extra spicy). So now I will need to find another alternative to my favorite potato chips. Thank you all for your suggestions, I will be trying some of these soon.

[Sharon in Colorado]

What I do when I have really bad cravings is usually make a really thick smoothie - a little water or coco water, lots of bananas, vanilla, honey or agave nectar, ice and carob or cocoa. It is very filling and dense and knocks out the cravings fast.

Now I know that isn't salty or crunchy, but it is really satisfying.