FRUSTRATED with Daily Food Prep! HELP!

[tweety]

Hi all,
I have thoroughly enjoyed started this Raw Food Journey, and have started a full system at home but I am SICK OF IT!!!!

I prepare and chop and cut and dice veggies the night before...
I Love to have fresh green juice in the morning, and I HATE cleaning my Jack La Lane Power Juicer every Friggin NIGHT before i go to bed!!!!
I have to repackage everything in baggies so that I know that Im eating nutritious meals at my crappy corporate job... :mad:
I also would make smoothies the night before and refrigerate them in plastic chug bottles.

Am I the only one sick and tired of all this food prep? It is a lot of work to eat this way.
Yet there are days when I come home and i feel tired and sluggish and in pain from my back/feet problems and the last thing i wanna do is stand in the kitchen cutting carrots.

i need some support on this one because i know im not the only one who's tired of cutting carrots :mad:

My only devices:
Blender & Magic bullet
Food Processor
Knives & Cutting Board

I cannot afford a dehydrator now..

At the very least it would be nice just to hear what others do and how you handle the challenges of food prep to stay Raw. What do you do when youre sick of standing at the cutting board???
Do you feel the same way I do?

Im a student and work full time and live alone... so im self-sustained..

Please help....

tweety

[Conscious Midwife]

Let your food processor chop everything 1 or 2days / week
use the pulse setting and the top shooter device

pack made up salads in pyrex bowls with lids, add cherry tomatoes when you get to work. Leave bottle of olive oil in a drawer

make smoothies from scratch in the AM with bananas, greens or whatever in the blender. run hot water in it before you leave, let it sit

Eat salads at home, eat handfuls of nuts raisins and hole fruits at work

[lil fairy z girl]

hi,

just wondering do you mean you chop your veggies by hand or use your food processor to do this?

why not make double of the amount and either freeze, or leave in the fridge? i find most of the recipes last me for two days, or i double up the amount to do so, so when i am tired from work i don't need to make dinner.

regards
sal
~*~*~*

[RowanC]

No way am I uncooking every day girl!

I make a breakfast smoothie every morning. I do NOT use the juicer, I just shove everything into my blender and blend it. You need the fiber! You can use the food processor the same way.

Then, most of these recipes last me two to three days.
Are you feeding a small army of people?:eek: :confused: :eek:

[tweety]

THanks, yes i know i should prepare food at least 3-4 days ahead to help.

i chop carrots and celery by hand cause i like to eat them with hummus dip.

i think i am also just frustrated because i havent seen changes in weight and my energy is low this week and im dealing with pain. i was Rawkin the last 2 weeks since i started juicing.
i guess i also needed to vent a little.

okay... DEEP BREATH!!!!!!!!!! :D

I need to do some slowing down and meditate...

yawn...

tweety

[Shoney]

I got this idea from my Dad, and it has saved me much frustration when I am craving salads. Get a big plastic slidey drawer that will fit in the fridge, and once or twice a week take twenty minutes to rinse a bunch of salad veggies, chop them up, and then put them in the drawer. Doing this has saved me tons of time and frustration.

Also, I am not always picky when I rinse out my blender. Starting to use it daily for shakes, so I rinse it out with hot water immediately after using it and set it on a towel to air dry.

When I am uncooking, I make large amounts of what I know to be household favorites. The raw chocolate cookies, for instance, I frequently will make a double batch and then keep them in plastic containers in the fridge.

I think the key is to plan ahead a little, make large amounts, and not try to be a gourmet unless you really love spending all that time in the kitchen. And it sounds like you don't!

Let us know what you find that works for you!!

[jgunn]

i hear ya about tiresome food prep...i used to get so overwhelmed at times thinking all the time about food and prep food and eat food and on an on an

what i do now is i usually get home before my hubby and just put on some nice music sit on the floor with my stuff and chop chop chop and meditate, relax , think about the good things of the day, dreams for tommorrow. somehow the chopping gets almost rhythmatic after a short time

im now cherishing this little bit of peace time just for me instead of agonizing over it every day when i get home (from my crappy corperate job lol)

when i was travelling about india and nepal id see people doing this all day just chopping , sorting, sifting, almost in a trance and almost always with a smile on their faces ...i can only think that they musta been thinking good things :D

[laurabfig]

Hi tweety- I'm thankful for your honesty. I am right there with you. I am trying to eat 100% raw and food preparation has just left me with no time. I work full time, have 2 young children (ages 4 and 3) and a husband. We like to eat together as a family, but it is hard because the kids don't want to eat my fancy raw gourmet dishes (and neither does my husband really) and my husband thinks they need "animal products" for B12. My husband is really supportive of me wanting to eat raw, but he doesn't really ENJOY the food the way I do so it is really hard when i spend all that time preparing something and then we don't eat it together.

When my husband was out of town, me and the kids ate really simply. Green smoothie for breakfast. Avocados and tomatos, live hummus dips, raw veggies, salads for lunch/dinner. But for my husband, that is not "REAL" food! :) ha ha.

It is hard when we are all busy and we truly have to spend more time to prepare food that is really nutritionally good for us...and the processed stuff is so quick and easy. I guess that is why it became so popular in our country. Our lives just go faster and faster and our food choices suffer.

I like the idea of using food prep time as "me" time. Just to unwind and relax. But it is rare that I get that time without the kids around! :)

Hang in there! I feel the same way you do!

[learningrawways]

Hi Tweety, when I was working full time (I recently lost my job) I would get tired of all the work involved with preparing food. I can sympathize with you on that. I would make my green smoothie in the morning when I got up so it was fresh. In the beginning of trying to eat raw I would take part of my smoothie to work but the taste would change and get more bitter. So I started eating the whole smoothie in the morning, for lunch I would take leftovers (like raw spaggetti). If I took a salad most times I would make it at night to save time although I did make it a lot of times in the morning. I would also make wraps at night. Yes, sometimes it seems like all you are doing is preparing food and inside I would complain because it would take time away from me that I could be doing other things but I would also remind myself of why I would do this extra work and that my better health was worth it for me. You did get some really good suggestions in the above posts, they were good for me to read too. Alanna

[Rawmney]

Hi Tweety!

(Caution: brief reference to specific cooked foods ahead for those who don't want to see that)

Thanks for starting a great thread. I think everyone can benefit from tips to make raw simple and quick. A few thoughts / questions:
* Can you budget handle the little carrots? Not as economical, but just right for dipping.
* How about having lunch as a fruit meal with just apples, bananas or something that doesn't require any work?
* Can you simplify what you make for your husband (although if you're also working FT and doing so much with the kids, maybe my question should be whether he should make his own food). Can you make a raw marinara that you use on spaghetti for him and the raw version for you? Ditto for pad thai? Can you batch cook simple meals for him on the weekend? I make my husband things like lentils, chick peas, rice dishes etc. that get him through most of the week filled in with veggie burgers.

Good luck. Sounds like you're doing a great job and what a super head start you're giving your kids.

[Beckla]

Hey there!

First of all, kudos to you for your strength and dedication.

Second - how bout just blending up a bunch of salad dressings each weekend? That way you have can have a new salad every day ... and lettuce is economical. If you do a banana search, you'll find up at an amazing thread with a TON of recipes for dressings. If you can't find it, just let me know - I'll pass it along.

And whatever fruit is economical and yummy - grab it! Farmers markets in your area? I find they're so much cheaper.

My dehydrator isn't fancy. I paid $40 for it via the web. (shop.com is a good site to search on) But until then, don't fret. I get frustrated, too. I have a 1980's tiny food processor. We rent an apartment. If I run the coffee maker and the blender, the power goes off. It's impossible. But I manage. You can do this!

[Ariannah]

I don't prepare food much.
I eat most food as-is.
less fuss, less mess, less craving.

I don't own a juicer, but a blender is easy to take apart and clean. I love smoothies. I drink them right then.

If I worked outside the home, I'd just take fruit all day, and save the fancier stuff for off working hours.

For me the whole point of raw is best nutrition in very little time... too easy.

[Sharon in Colorado]

I timed my green smoothies and it takes roughly 20 minutes. This includes juicing the oranges for the base, and clean-up time. This is making it for the whole family.

I realized that it is worth it to me. But you can also eat more simply, plain fruit for breakfast for instance.

Another time saver I found are Toss and Chop salad shears. You just throw everything in the bowl and cut them up with the shears. It makes everything so juicy you don't even need dressing.