problems I am having.

[Suzi]

okay, I love raw food, but there are a few things about it that have been hard for me. First of all, my kitchen is a disaster! With the blender, juicer, processor, sprouter, dehydrator, etc, I can't keep up with it. Having 2 young boys I find it hard to find time to prepare food also. And then I have to find time to grocery shop. I have to go far to find organic produce and if I buy it at the local Kroger it starts rotting in a couple of days! Is there any way to keep veggies fresh longer? Other than that I am doing ok with it! I crave bread and chips, but I am hoping I can just get over it! I do like flax crackers! :eek:

[tracyinfo]

If your food starts rotting in a couple of days -- complain to Krogers. Do you refrigerate your produce?

To make things easier, I often buy the pre-washed bags of lettuce. That way I can just open the bag and toss it into a bowl. Then just slice up some veggies/fruit that is in the refrigerator and toss with either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and a spoonful of olive or flax oil.

I also think that soups can be a fast, delicious way to serve with dinner. You could use a blender, but I just throw some chopped veggies into my food processor add seasonings and turn the processor on. Chopping takes between 3 to 5 minutes and the food processor about 1 minute. It is a fast dinner! There are many recipes on line for raw soups. Also, the chili, which is posted in the recipe section (several times) is very good, takes about 5 to 10 minutes, and you can substitute fairly easy. If you don't have carrots, you could throw in some corn - that kind of thing. Also, since I have 3 children, I know that sometimes you need to deal with them instead of dinner. So, you could chop for 2 minutes, set it aside, deal with the child, and then return to chopping. It is not like you have something on the stove that may boil over while you are away.

Hope this helps.

[PixieGreen]

okay, I love raw food, but there are a few things about it that have been hard for me. First of all, my kitchen is a disaster! With the blender, juicer, processor, sprouter, dehydrator, etc, I can't keep up with it. Having 2 young boys I find it hard to find time to prepare food also. And then I have to find time to grocery shop. I have to go far to find organic produce and if I buy it at the local Kroger it starts rotting in a couple of days! Is there any way to keep veggies fresh longer? Other than that I am doing ok with it! I crave bread and chips, but I am hoping I can just get over it! I do like flax crackers! :eek:

I use green bags [Evert-Fresh] to keep my produce in the fridge. After using them for four months I can say they definately save more money than they cost. If you get them take their advice and keep a non-bleached paper towel or tea towel in with the produce, the dryer it is the longer they will last. This is where I ordered mine. Their customer service was really good.
http://www.reusablebags.com/

I made a weekly meal chart and grocery list to stay organized. At the beginning of the week I write down what I'm really in the mood for and what produce I still have t come up with recipes. I write the daily tasks associated with each recipe plotting "backwards" from the day I'm eating it so I can keep track of when to start sprouting for thursdays dinner and how long to dehydrate for tuesday, etc. Also check if I'm low on spreads and homemade condiments and schedule those in. I stick to fruit or oatmeal/ meusli for breakfast and huge salads for lunch. So aside from my dinners I pick up whatever is on sale. I keep the chart on my fridge, so I know when I look at it that on Wednesday I know what to put in the fridge to soak [and how much], etc. I don't have to think about what the ingredient is for because I already figured it out. It's a Word document. Let me know if you'd like a copy.

I agree with tracyinfo, keeping it simple is probably the easiest way to stay organized. About as complicated as I get these days is to mix up sauces the night before I need them because it really brings out their flavor and makes them "punch" more like cooked food. That might come in handy for you if you could do it when the kids have gone to bed. Stuff like soups, marinara and other sauces, marinating lasagna ingredients or stirfry veggies, marinading portabellas for that great [though too salty for me the way it's written] philly steak recipe somone posted. Stuff like that. In fact marinaded veggies last more than a day in the fridge so you could make some during the quiet part of your week.

When you use an appliance for something make everything you can with it before washing and putting it up. Like if you're making a breakfast smoothie, rinse out the blender when you're done and throw in soup ingredients and put it in the fridge for lunch. Or if making fruit leathers grab the slightly overripe tomatoes and pop those in too. When I make sprouted bread I make at least two kinds at once and freeze the extra. You get the idea.


Christa

[rawnappy]

I use green bags [Evert-Fresh] to keep my produce in the fridge. After using them for four months I can say they definately save more money than they cost. If you get them take their advice and keep a non-bleached paper towel or tea towel in with the produce, the dryer it is the longer they will last. This is where I ordered mine. Their customer service was really good.
http://www.reusablebags.com/

I made a weekly meal chart and grocery list to stay organized. At the beginning of the week I write down what I'm really in the mood for and what produce I still have t come up with recipes. I write the daily tasks associated with each recipe plotting "backwards" from the day I'm eating it so I can keep track of when to start sprouting for thursdays dinner and how long to dehydrate for tuesday, etc. Also check if I'm low on spreads and homemade condiments and schedule those in. I stick to fruit or oatmeal/ meusli for breakfast and huge salads for lunch. So aside from my dinners I pick up whatever is on sale. I keep the chart on my fridge, so I know when I look at it that on Wednesday I know what to put in the fridge to soak [and how much], etc. I don't have to think about what the ingredient is for because I already figured it out. It's a Word document. Let me know if you'd like a copy.

I agree with tracyinfo, keeping it simple is probably the easiest way to stay organized. About as complicated as I get these days is to mix up sauces the night before I need them because it really brings out their flavor and makes them "punch" more like cooked food. That might come in handy for you if you could do it when the kids have gone to bed. Stuff like soups, marinara and other sauces, marinating lasagna ingredients or stirfry veggies, marinading portabellas for that great [though too salty for me the way it's written] philly steak recipe somone posted. Stuff like that. In fact marinaded veggies last more than a day in the fridge so you could make some during the quiet part of your week.

When you use an appliance for something make everything you can with it before washing and putting it up. Like if you're making a breakfast smoothie, rinse out the blender when you're done and throw in soup ingredients and put it in the fridge for lunch. Or if making fruit leathers grab the slightly overripe tomatoes and pop those in too. When I make sprouted bread I make at least two kinds at once and freeze the extra. You get the idea.


Christa
PixieGreen,

Thanks for your schedule. It really helps to see what others are doing. Now if I could only implement this type of organization I would be go to go. :-)

[PixieGreen]

Baby steps, grasshopper.

Just kidding! I usually do really well for awhile then I get sick of being organized and think of how much fun it is to be spontaneous. After a few days of eating spoonfuls of almond butter out of the jar I wish I had something "for real." Then it takes me a few weeks of procrastination before I get terribly sick of myself and my internal whining. Then the cycle starts over again. ;)

Christa

[Suzi]

Thank you all for the tips! Christa, I would love a copy of your chart if that is possible. I did better today, but I seem to be craving salty food. This is weird for me because I used to go for sweets, but I can easily satify that with raw foods!
Thanks!
Suzi

[UltrasonicRaw]

i stumbled on this entry yesterday and i just have to say i feel the same way. my kitchen is tiny and i have so much STUFF everywhere. i am eagerly awaiting my dehydrator and juicer but honestly i have no where to put them! my husband is already complaining about the blender and food processor being constantly in his way on the counter not to mention the produce in the fridge has taken over! ha ha! the kids complain they cant find THEIR food among all my strange food. it is pretty funny actually, i am sure they think this is a phase i will go through and get over sometime. i dont think so!

anyway, just wanted to say i have the same problem with rotting veggies, appliances everywhere, a hectic schedule trying to make three or four different meals a day for each person in the family. i know it will get better as i get more organized. i think the dehydrator will be the most challenging to remember when i put something in or when to take it out. i had a couple close calls with my sprouting, forgeting to rinse them, basically forgeting about them completely! i am sure i will leave something in the dehydrator for a week before i remember, but maybe it will still taste good??? ha ha!

just wanted to say your entry sounded exactly like me!

leslie

[calee]

Leslie, I had to comment on the small kitchen. It's a good thing I live alone now because my big Solostar juicer is in the oven and the small citrus juicer and other small gadgets are in the microwave. I hope nobody ever comes over and tries to turn on the stove. ACK!

Your husband is lucky you're making such good food. Good luck to you!

[PixieGreen]

Suzi, check your email, I've sent the menu planning worksheet. I hope it helps!

I have a tiny efficiency kitchen, too. To help with space I made a ceramic-tiled board for the my stovetop [I know this isn't possible for those of you with non-raw live-ins], and a little shelf above for canning jars. I also built a sprouting stand that fits on the counter right behind my sink, it makes it easy to remember to rinse them. I think I used $3 worth of pine and cut w/ a jigsaw, no nails. I also built a stand for my sprouting greens w/ a growlight above, but it really needs some modifications since it was my first carpentry experiment and I didn't know how much raw appliance space I'd need. I think I'm going to use the same amount of floor space [12" x 30"] and make a little countertop with shelves underneath to store the juicer, processor, and blender. And put longer shelves above for the sprouting greens. Does anyone have any raw space solutions they'd like to share?

Christa

[tracyinfo]

Christa, I am impressed with your carpentry skills. I am more along the lines of leaving the food processor out on the counter.

[rawpriestess]

Hi,

I didn't read all the answers to your question, so if anyone else has already suggested this, then don't read mine. LOL

Anyway, the easiest way is to make all the food the same, don't make one meal for you and a separate meal for the kids, make it all the same, even easier now that summer is upon us. Fresh fruit frozen for smoothies, and ice creams, or just frozen fruit to eat as is.

Warm soups, not hot are the best veggies and spices, and just a quick blap in your blender.

Anyway, as far as organizing, everything, that gets tough without knowing your kitchen layout, but do keep everything you use out on the counter, or move it to the dining room, if your health is important you will find space, but get rid of any toastes, coffee pots etc. and put a big wooden chopping block over your stove, as you won't use it anymore, and you can store alot of things like blender food processor etc inside the oven, I actually store lots of stuff in mine, as it never gets used, also where my microwave used to be, I now use as storage.

So, hope this is new info and you can use it.

Oh, and the veggies, should alst at least a week, although they won't have the same "life force energy" but they should still be good, unless your house is about 150 degrees or so.

don't keep tomatoes or bananas in the fridge as this ruins the taste and texture, you can keep other fruits and veggies in the fridge if you want them to last longer, such as root veggies, and keep leafy veggies in an air tight container, mushrooms need to breath, so paper bag, or keep the lid off anything you keep them in.



blessings,
Rawpriestess