In the morning...

[mykidzrkute]

Tomorrow will be my first day on raw. i have no idea what to eat for breakfast. are oats or steel cut oats raw?

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

Have a giant fruit salad! And no, I don't believe they are.

[rawstrength]

Steel cut oats and rolled oats are not raw, but whole oats (oat groats) are raw and should be sprouted. Soak the oat groats in water for 24 hours and then sprout them until they have little tails.
If you don't have time to sprout oats, try having a smoothie. You could make a green smoothie with greens and fruit, or a more creamy smoothie with raw nuts, dates and fresh fruit. You could also just have a plate of fresh fruit, a salad, a handful of nuts, a raw dessert recipe or whatever else you are in the mood for.
For me, breakfast is no different than any other meal of the day and I just eat whatever I want. With raw you are truly free! You could even have some raw ice cream for breakfast :D .

[rawzeit]

Tip: Make your breakfast the night before and put it in the fridge. In fact, make a whole day's worth of food beforehand. If you don't have any food stand-by, then it can be very tempting to get something quick and non-raw instead.

[sharpmates]

Hi, I always loved oatmeal in the morning. If you don't have time to sprout the oat groats, I read where you can just soak them overnight (I do this in the fridge) and in the morning, drain and put into the food processor along with raisins, or a few nuts and process a little. I add a little raw agave while processing and this is delicious. A little crunchy, but it feels and tastes so healthy. You could also add a little cinnamon.

Enjoy your journey. Raw is wonderful.

[hibisanpo]

I usually have green smoothies, but love me some raw granola!!!
i was a SAD oatmeal and granola junkie,
this stuff is a billion times better.

Take a handful each of almonds, cashews, pistashios, walnuts and chop 'em.
throw in some seeds, like pumpkin, sunflower and a handful of raw cacao nibs.
(yes chocolate for breakfast! and you get some caffiene too.)
mix together with about 4 spoonfuls of agave and a little honey, a dash a salt and cinnamon to taste.
everything raw of course!

enjoy! this makes enough to last a few breakfasts, snacks, lunch, whenever.

[trinity082482]

I love porridge. Blend 1 banana and serve with cinnamon on top. I have a more in depth recipe with cooconut and pineapple but simple tastes AMAZING too :)

[Barbie2]

The blended banana with cinnamon sounds yummy. Simple is very good.

[unbent]

I've been having a salad, typically consisting of romaine lettuce, kale, spinach, red cabbage, pomegranite(sp) and Alissa's french dressing. I also have a banana or some other fruit depending on my mood at the time.

Andy

[Joy & Delight]

First of all, congratulations for beginning a raw diet and for asking for help:).

I struggled lots at the beginning, especially with breakfast when going raw (my prior breakfast was oatmeal), so my heart goes out to you...

Some thoughts (take what you like and leave the rest):

1) Get Alissa's book "Living on Live Food" (and DVD if you can)--it gives you your first 30 days of menus and shopping lists, lots of easy simple recipes, and tons of inspiration. She makes it easy & simple and gives you a very useful road-map for the journey!

2) Get support--you're on the right track by joining this forum. When I first started raw I lasted 2 weeks and then stopped for 3 years because I got challenged and didn't have anyone to ask for help. Find a raw food group that does potlucks in your area, a co-op or raw restaurant or connect with others on-line (there are zillions of sites) so you're not alone. You've already started this, so congratulations!

3) Educate yourself--read everything you can get your hands on about raw & living foods (buy, check out from your library or read on-line)--the more you know, the easier it is and the more you'll be inspired.

4) As for breakfast, there are several options (as others have already said in the above replies)--figure out what works for you:

a) Eat a raw version of a SAD (standard American diet) "breakfast" food; there are raw versions of almost every SAD food out there, including cereal with milk, oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, eggs, etc., and if you can't find the raw version, with some experimentation you can make it up!

b) Eat a raw version of a "lunch", "dinner" or "dessert" food; with raw it's all healthy, so you can forget about the rules and eat whatever you feel like eating

c) Fruit before noon; there are many people in the raw community who eat only fruit before noon. This works for some people's constitutions but not for others (for more info see Dr. Gabriel Cousens' book "Conscious Eating" that Alissa also recommends in her book). If you are a "fast oxidizer" you will need to add fats or protein (avocado, nuts, spirulina/chlorella powder...) to your fruit so your body gets the correct "fuel mix" to convert the fruit to energy.

d) Green juice; many people in the raw community make green juice (with a juicer--the green star or omega ones with a slow RPM work best for greens) for their first meal--this is very nutritious, but time consuming and must be made immediately before drinking because it oxidizes and loses nutrients within the first 30 minutes after making.

e) Green Smoothie; see Victoria Boutenko's book "Green For Life"; this is basically blending (ideally in a high-speed blender like a Vita-mix or K-tec/blendtec) dark green leafy greens (kale-spinach-chard-dandelion-celery-parsley-cilantro...) with something liquid (water-coconut water-cucumber-jicama-fruit or vegetable juice...) so the blender will turn over and possibly other things like something sour to cut the "green" taste (lemon-lime) or something sweet (fruit) or something spicy (ginger-jalapeno). You can also add other non-green vegetables, nuts/seeds, spices (nutmeg-cinnamon-allspice-mesquite-cacao/carob powder...), "superfoods" or supplements (bee pollen, maca...), ground flax seed or anything else that sounds good to you! This is easy, quick and has the advantage that it can be blended the night before and stored in the refrigerator so it's already ready in the morning and you just have to pour it in a glass (or grab the glass jar you stored it in) and go! You can also dehydrate green smoothies (add ground flax, avocado or ground psyllium husk to make it thicken up first) on a teflex sheet to make tortilla-like wraps for your lunches or dinners.

Hope this helps--best of luck to you and enjoy this new adventure!