Easter Dinner Experiment

[peacelover]

Happy Easter Everyone-Blessings to you on this day, whatever it may mean to you and your family.

I am going to see my mom and dad today. They live about 40 miles from me, which is not far when you are in Texas. My mom has been feeling pretty yucky lately. Chemo had really beat her body up badly. My dad has been working 14 hour days and so he is pretty beat up too.

Dad said he would take me and my family to eat somewhere today, Mexican food he thought would be good(could I have a little more cheese with my cheese please). He was going to drive over to our house after church.

I decided instead I would cook. He does not know this yet. I am just taking dinner to them after church as a surprise :D

I am the only RAW person in the clan. I am going to take food of both kinds.

I am making a turkey now(my house smells gross)
I am making broccoli rice casserole
Rolls, mashed taters

I also made Alissa's meatloaf last night and it should be ready soon
I made the BBQ sauce and a corn salad with bell peppers and garlic and parsley-will throw some avocados in when I get there.
A huge fruit salad and fresh asparagus.(not mixed together)
And for dessert I made Alissa's apple pie and fudge balls...

I cannot wait to see if they eat the meatloaf-
At least with making the meal I get something to eat too....

I would love to hear how you compromise on the holidays with your cooked families to meet both your needs. I would be even more interested in hearing how the react to your RAW-ness. Do they still tease or rib you for your choices or do they respect your food selections. How do you handle it?

:p

Love and Laughter To ALL-
Melissa

[BigTime]

First off let me say I hope your parents feel better soon! I'm glad to hear they're letting you incorporate some raw food into the holiday. For me, being so young(19), my family thinks there's something wrong with me. For example, when I fast they automatically think it's starvation and won't listen to a thing I say. I am new to raw, and this is my first holiday. I am just going to eat at home, then go visit the family for a bit after they all eat. It's easier this way for me, so I don't have to try to explain myself to the whole family. Your meal sounds great and I hope you enjoy :D Happy Easter!

[jennplas]

Today is my first day of the 30 day RAW challenge. i was doing ok a few weeks back and then stress got in the way and i got in self destructive eating patterns... but after reading a few recent posts, i decided to commit 100%.

we had easter dinner in my husbands family last night, and their family is VERY VERY set in their ways. i did eat what they had available yesterday. i was actually concerned as to how i would eat there when 100% raw. but i figure, i just don't have to put myself in that situation too too often, i can deal with it when i get there. i am sure in his family, if i explain that i am eating a certain way, they will just smile and nod and move on. they never really ask questions or pass judgements about people. i dont know what they do or say after people leave, but i think i am very lucky with the in laws i got. they usually mind their own business. sometimes you actually wish they would ask a question or two about stuff heheheh

i am sure it will be very very different with my family. they lives 2 provinces away, and i am visiting them at the end of may. one of my grandmothers is extremely judgemental, and i know i will not have heard the end of it. however i can limit my meals at her place or just offer to cook (uncook) some RAW recipes while i visit.

Thats an awesome initiative that you took by making the whole easter meal! wow! if anything your family will be appreciative i assume. :))

Happy Easter!!
jenn

[Cinnamon]

I think you made a great decision Melissa, this is what I also do with my family on holidays. I always do the cooking anyway, so I make all their favorites (but ask my partner to do the meat dish as that is not something I want to do if I don't have to!), and then for me I make some fun raw dishes to share with everyone. Although, I do make vegan versions of their dishes and they really can't tell the difference and they do know I do that! Gotta work on their health one way or another!

Now they usually won't touch my raw foods, except for say a fruit salad and green salad, but they are curious and ask questions! I don't get much in the way of teasing from anyone anymore as I've been that "health food nut" in the family for over 20 years so they are used to me and my ways by now!

I think by making them their favorite foods and including my own dishes in the menu it has created more harmony than tension through the years too. I respect their decision to eat the way they do and in turn they respect the decisions I have made in what goes into my body also. And none of them can argue that I am indeed the heathiest in the bunch! I get more teasing about that than anything else and I love it!

I hope you and your family have a wonderful day and let us know how it goes!

[Revvell]

concern in my family (brother and mother) is more about why I changed my name than what I eat ~ since they live over 3000 miles away.

With my mother-in-law, she saw how good her son looked when I went to Denmark to meet her and the family that she said she wants to "cook" like I do. Basically she's starting off cooking mostly vegetarian. That alone is a biggie for someone use to always adding SOME dead animal into the process.

A couple of days before we left to come back to the states, she and Bo made dinner ~ I made desert which just happened to be Alissa's "pudding" ~ we combined papayas, mangoes and papayas. One of the kids was the first to try it and once we got her nod of approval, everyone had some ~ his brother, having about 3 servings. Not a bad start methinks.

Injoy ~

Revvell

[blue_sky]

Best wishes to your parents to feel better.

With this being my first raw Easter, I told my mom I would bring a large green salad. Of course since it will be most of what i eat there, I made it extra yummy, with mixed greens, marinated mushrooms, yellow pepper, tomato, red cabbage, etc. etc. and threw in some mozzarella balls to satisfy the dairy eaters.

I am also bringing homemade guacamole and jicama sticks.

My family is understanding about raw foods.... they just keep asking "are you getting enough to eat". But they also said that before I was raw :)

[catherinethegreat]

Yesterday was my Easter dinner experience - with my boyfriends family.
I brought a small cooler with different raw options. I wasn't sure what it would be like. There were little bowls of candy and chips and snack food EVERYWHERE. I grabbed my ziploc of walnuts and raisins and got a bottle of water and sat with everyone else. It was uncomfortable. I would have prefered to have just ate what they were eating - and NOT have the adverse effects that I always have but that has never been my experience.
Dinner was a buffest style dinner so I got some of their salad ( romaine lettuce and tomatos ) and then got my raw pizza and put it on my plate and didn't say anything about it to anyone. I think the people across from me noticed but didn't say anything. The only person who knew was the host because when I walked in with my cooler Jerry explained it to her. She didn't seem to mind or care. I just told her I got sick and so have changed my diet - no wheat dairy sugar and stuff. That was the end of it. (YAY!)
Dinner was fine. THe pizza wasn't very good though. Then the dessert was brought out. TONS of cookies with frosting on them and a chocolate pie of some sort. It smelt heavenly - the smell was the hardest part.
I'm used to watching Jerry eat desserts so it wasn't too odd to not eat them. If I were diabetic it wouldn't be strange so I felt like it wasn't a big deal for me to refrain and no one asked.
When we got home I made a HUGE salad and ate that. Then for a treat I had a banana with almond butter - but I only ate a little of that - I'm just not a huge fan of desserts right now. But if I feel deprived that sure hit the spot.
So now I know I can do it. I think next time I'll bring more things that I made and share them - like a blueberry pie or something raw and yummy. And the other lesson I learned is that I don't need to talk about it. So Jerry and I will come up with a plan for the next family encounter so that he doesn't feel the need to tell people ( he is proud and amazed by it so he wants to share )
Anyhow - that was my least favorite raw experience to date. I just don't feel comfortable around family and always feel different - so to add that into the mix just made it worse for me internally. Externally I think it went well.
I'm just not used to being around So much unhealthy food these days. It was a bit overwhelming!!!

So now I think my response - if asked - is
I had some health issues and was told to change my diet

*c

[peacelover]

Hey All,

Dinner went fairly well. I took Alissa's book with me because I knew that my Dad would ask 'where I got the recipes from'. I am so trying to convince them to eat RAW. He was not crazy about the pie, they did okay with the meatloaf-hey they tried it and I cannot ask for more than that.

Surprisingly enough I made this non recipe salad that my Dad just raved about. I got the mix at the store. Cabbage, carrots and broccoli stems shredded. I put some apple cider vinegar, garlic and olive oil and pepper in it and let it sit all day. He loved that.

They are fairly used to me trying new things, I have always been an adventurer. They did not give me too much grief about the food choices. I told my folks that even with the slips off the RAW diet I still felt better than I had in a long time. Told them about the changes. My dad, ever the skeptic told me that this was just because I was eating more fruits and veggies like I should eat.

I told him this may be true but I was still going to stick it out and see what happens.

It is interesting to hear all the varying methods you all have adopted to handle these situations gracefully.

Peace All
Melissa