I need help getting creative with sprouts!

[jrose_lee]

We are very poor.

Last night we almost decided we had to stop eating raw.

Then we decided to just eat less and ration out the food.

And we've decided to eat more of a few less expensive things....flax crackers, oat groat oatmeal.....and SPROUTS!

Problem is...I don't know much about sprouts. So far my two sprout things I make are Alissa's burger buns and buckwheat cereal.

What else can I do with sprouts?
Sweet Recipes?
Savory?
Crackers?
Salads?

I need any and all ideas for using sprouts. I don't know much about it.
Also, What type of sprouts? (Right now I only have buckwheat)

(oh- and I have picky eaters...these things need to taste good!!!)

[raweater]

Well I don't know much about sprout suggestions, I'll be looking for the answers as I'd have the same question.

I'm curious to know what your eating raw for it to cost more? Normally a raw diet can cut 30-70% off your grocery bill, which is why I'm surprised to read this. Also, don't forget that the inevitable diseases a cooked diet will cause will cost you much more money, and eventually your life. I was spending $50/month on a drug that will killing me which was fraud and murder as it only served to pull a profit from my terrible disease, which I'm now cured of on raw.

I do however have suggstions for low cost foods:
-Mature coconut, at over 1400 calories and $1.29, that's well below $1 for a whole meals worth of calories, I in fact just had half mature coconut for supper, that's what I have when I'm really hungry and don't want to prepare a recipe
-Bananas
-Nuts, although expensive, are very high in calories so you don't need much to fill you up, filling yourself up on low calorie tomatoes would cost a fortune
-Sprouts (obviously)

And one final tip:
Don't just look at the price of foods, you MUST compare the price/calorie ratio. Some foods which seem very cheap cost a fortune per calorie, and other foods that look very expensive cost nothing per calorie. The less you pay per calorie the cheaper your grocery will be, this is why coconut is by far the cheapest (and also happens to be one of the healthiest) food to eat (per calorie), how esle can you get a full raw meal for well below $1?

Hope this helps

[rawstrength]

One thing that I've wanted to try (but haven't yet) is sprouting wehani rice and using it to make a raw rice milk. I'm not sure how it would taste, but it would certaintly be cheaper than making almond milk.

Lentil sprouts are very cheap and very delicious. They only take 2-3 days to soak and sprout. You can blend them with oil, salt and spices to make a filling raw hummus type dip.

Whole wheat berries also sprout will.
Adzuki beans are another good sprout.
Have you ever sprouted sunflower seeds? You can grow those quite long as sprouts, to the point where they get little leaves on them, and use them instead of lettuce in a salad. They have a very tangy, nutty flavor.

Quinoa make a nice, cheap sprout that is very similar to rice or couscous. I use it to make raw tabouli.

[jrose_lee]

I'm curious to know what your eating raw for it to cost more? Normally a raw diet can cut 30-70% off your grocery bill, which is why I'm surprised to read this. Also, don't forget that the inevitable diseases a cooked diet will cause will cost you much more money, and eventually your life. I was spending $50/month on a drug that will killing me which was fraud and murder as it only served to pull a profit from my terrible disease, which I'm now cured of on raw.


Thanks! You know....I really don't know. All I know is that we kept dropping over $1,000 a month on groceries (sometimes nearing $1,400!). I think we just were so new to raw that we were making tons of "treats" and expensive nut desserts and perhaps eating when we weren't hungry too (and old habit of SAD eating I suppose....)

Thank you for the tips everyone!

[Bobbie]

My food bills cost a fortune too. :(

For sprouts, the best value for money is to blend them, because you absorb so much more of the good stuff, and it makes you feel amazing. Anne Wigmore's energy soup is a blend of:
Rejuvelac
Sprouted Lentils
Sunflower Greens (sprouted to the point of being stalks with green leaves)
Avocado
Apple or Papaya or Watermelon

I add a banana to make it taste good. I love it that way.

For buckwheat, try pizza, calzone, nut-free bread.

[rawbutterfly]

I hear ya! Last month, I said to hubby, Wow! We only spent $1,189 on groceries this month! :eek: Our problem is, even though we have tried and tried, we don't care for sprouts. I am sprouting buckwheat now for my last attempt at something we like...buckwheaties. Maybe??

[MiahTay]

I agree with raweater. If you simplify your menu (less gourmet raw) you should be able to cut costs. It would be way better to simplify than to go back to cooked. I feed a family of 2 adults and 2 children plus 2 more adults for dinner every night and if I was making gourmet recipes ever day it would kill our budget. I stick with big salads for dinner and I will usually make a couple of marinated veggies for the week to go with these. During the day it's smoothies and fruit salad or lettuce wraps with avocado or other simple stuff. And only make gourmet stuff once a week or so. I have managed to keep our grocery budget for this size family at between $200-250 a week. Best of luck.

Heather

[raweater]

One other money saving idea I thought of:
Are you buying organic? You're MUCH better off eating raw NON organic food than eating cooked organic food (I think cooking organic food, or even any food, is absurd).

Also remember that with raw you need much less food and calories before you feel full, so with cooked food, you automatically have to buy more of it. But don't forget that organic food also has more vitamins and therefor should fill you up more, but raw non organic is definately better than any cooked organic food, because to me anything cooked can't really qualify as food, as it really isn't (food should sustain life, not cause disease).