Ideas on what a raw foodist eats...

[travelingtoes]

What do you eat on a typical day? Just want to get an idea. My DH keeps asking me what are we gonna eat when we start this new raw lifestyle. All we have is a blender and a citrus juicer. We don't plan on getting a dehydrator anytime soon.

Thanks :D

[Lunar*Fey]

There are many different "ways" of eating raw.
My suggestion is to start out with any raw foods that you enjoy and that suite your needs...but try to make sure you get in as much of the whole, fresh food as you enjoy.
I'm guessing you don't have Alissa's book? It is very helpful to people starting raw and comes with loads of information and recipes.
There are desserts and all sorts of recipes...
Here is one recipe website you can use to get you started
from sad to raw....recipes (http://www.fromsadtoraw.com)

I am a growing 15 year old with a fairly high metabolism so I eat quite a bit. Of course if the groceries were up to me I would have farrr more variety but here is an average day for me lately...
*HUGE green smoothie (like 5 big bananas and 6-8 cups kale (or a different amount of other leafy green)
*4+ good sized apples
*smaller green smoothie (2-3 large bananas and like 4 cups kale or other green)
*my fill of fruits (and once in a while a salad as well when we have the ingredients) for the rest of the day ending with some avocado, nuts, or coconut butter.

that may not sound like THAT much but the "my fill of fruits" is generally a lot.

Most people who first begin raw find it better for them to make recipes though, which I usually don't (unless you count green smoothies ;) ). but once in a while I do.
A nice simple one is::
freeze some bananas overnight and blend them up in the blender to the consistancy of ice cream the next day. Some people like to top with coconut shreds, agave, nuts, etc. You can mix in raw cacao, carob powder, berries, watever you like...raw ice cream rawks.

enjoy and welcome to raw! :) Happy birthday too by the way. My sister's is Dec 17th and my step sister is the 16th (today) so you are all really close :)

[Revvell]

You may wish to do a search on this as well as check journals as this question as been asked numerous times and you'll see what others have said besides the reponses you'll receive here.

If you don't have it, my suggestion would be to add a food processor to your wish list.

Also, if you get no other book, you might wish to get Alissa's book and dvd's. She's got menu plans to help you get started plus LOTS of recipes.

Revvell



What do you eat on a typical day? Just want to get an idea. My DH keeps asking me what are we gonna eat when we start this new raw lifestyle. All we have is a blender and a citrus juicer. We don't plan on getting a dehydrator anytime soon.

Thanks :D

[vgloveforlife]

For breakfast I have a green smoothie OR oats with nut milk and fruit.

Lunch is sometimes zuchinni spaghetti with pesto, avocado, olives, onions, tomato etc.

Dinner is usually a big salad with lots of greens and vegetables.

Snack is fruit and sometimes a celery stick with nut butter or a sandwich.

[RowanC]

Every morning I have a smoothie.

I add a slice of pineapple, 2 bananas, some coconut milk, an orange, and fresh or frozen berries. Often I add 2 or 3 kale leaves.

At lunch and dinner, it just depends. I usually have either Alissa's apple/turnip salad or her beet/pear salad for lunch.

Dinner - usually something from Alissa's book.

[Pierre]

I don't make green smoothies. My smoothies are all fruit. But I eat lots of greens for lunch.

My usual breakfast is a smoothie or some fruit. My lunch these days includes cabbage (sometimes kale or gai lan, but broccoli in the next few days), green onion, various other veggies, tempeh (not raw, but a living food), olive oil, and Nama Shoyu (it tastes like the stir-fries that were one of my winter staples last year). Dinner could be nuts or fruit or whatever else I feel like. It usually takes me a couple of hours to finish lunch, while I work.

[Raw Jewelrylady]

I always have a lg-green smoothie for breakfast...Bananas, spinach or kale, berries-I rotate from strawberries, blueberries, cherries & raspberries with wheatgrass & agave. I sometimes add a tsp of raw cacao.

Lunch is usually more fruit-lately persimmons, mango, bananas, etc.

Dinner is usually a salad with flax crackers spread with tahini & veggies or stuffed romaine/cabbage rolls stuffed with veggies, lime juice & tahini. I also make nachos with flax crakers with nut cheese & tons of veggies.

I sometimes make my heavy meal in the middle of the day if time permits-I just follow what my body seems to crave & it works for me.

I snack on fruit or nuts.

I would get Alissa's book/dvd combo as it helps answer EVERYTHING !

Lana

[Ariannah]

Food processors and blenders and dehydrators are nice thing to have when you want to broaden your repertoire and make new things :)

However, if you're lacking any or all of the above, you don't really need anything special, you just need to get some fresh fruits, veggies, and nuts and dig right in!

You have a blender, and one thing I enjoy is banana and berry smoothies... wow are they ever decadent and feel very treat-like all the time. You have a juicer so you might try fresh orange juice, that is delish.

But for me, my most prized kitchen utensil is my knife. I cut fresh pineapples, watermelons, etc, but the rest is finger food if it's easy to eat fresh, as is.

[Rawkinlocs]

With what you already have...you can make smoothies, puddings (look up the chocolate pudding recipe in our recipe section), salad dressings for your salads, raw nut cheeze dips/sauces for dipping veggies into it, fresh orange juice with your citrus juicer, freeze bananas and blend in the blender for "ice cream" or make shakes, nut milk, and of course just eat whole fresh fruit and veggies, nuts and seeds and you can make trailmixes with nuts and seeds too.

As it was mentioned, I'd get at least a food processor so you can have a little more under your belt and then later, you can get a dehydrator if you feel the desire to do so...imagine having crunchy crackers, pliable breads for veggie sandwiches, and a LOT more! And you don't have to break the bank to get one...you can get an American Harvest Snackmaster (round model) dehydrator with the temperature control for around $50 (sometimes less depending on where you get it or if it's on sale) from Walmart, Walmart.com, Nesco.com or Everythingkitchens.com That was my first dehydrator and it served me WELL for 2 years until I got an Excalibur. I still own and use both!

But again, you can do this with what you have. Just let your husband know that there is a mindshift that will take place where instead of seeing eating fruit and veggies as an "inbetween meal snack", fruit and veggies BECOMES the meal as well as the snack inbetween! :)

[trinity082482]

Well today I was bad. I ate cooked foods all day long. I went back to my binging ways and I feel ill. I will start eating raw again tomorrow but I feel guilty right now :(

[juliebove]

My diet is probably not typical. I'm not a smoothie person.

Breakfast is usually just some pumpkin seeds. If I don't have them, I'll have nuts. Occasionally I'll have some grapefruit.

Lunch: Often nothing at all because I'm not hungry then. If I do eat it, it's usually some cut up raw veggies or sprouts.

Dinner is usually a big salad with all sorts of veggies. I don't eat dressing but I will sometimes put salsa on it. And it's usually topped with pecans or walnuts.

Maybe once a month or so I'll make onion bread and nut cheese. So for a meal (usually lunch or dinner but sometimes breakfast) I'll have three little sandwiches of onion bread with lettuce, tomato and Swiss nut cheese. Or I'll have cut up veggies with nacho nut cheese.

Occasionally I'll make some sort of sweet like RP's brownies. But I'm not big on sweets so I usually find myself throwing them out after eating a bit.

I'm not a big fruit eater. Mainly I eat what is seasonal in my garden. Either strawberries, apples or pears. And by fruit I mean sweet fruits. Not stuff like cucumbers or tomatoes.

I should add that I am still not 100% raw. Some days I am, others not quite. I do have a snack before bed. It varies. But often it's popcorn and that's not raw.

[chilove]

I pretty much eat nothing but fruit, mostly mono meals (one type of fruit by itself). Occasionally I'll have a simple salad. A very yummy simple dressing is an avocado blended with fresh squeezed orange juice.

If you are planning on doing more recipes I would recommend a food processor. It would really give you more options. You can find perfectly good food processors at thrift stores for very cheap.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com