Help with First Raw Winter

[4forme]

I currently live in and equitorial climate so it's quite easy to eat salads and fruits and the like for any meal. I still struggle staying raw, but that's another topic :o.
What foods/recipes to do you all rely on to help you stay raw when your family is eating all those comfort foods of the winter?
There has only been one soup I actually like, and I can do some dehydrating as well, but, I am not sure how I will survive!
When I went to the US last week to house hunt, I craved squash soup terribly. One day I at an entire (cooked :o) butternut squash in the form of soup or just plain. It was very satisfying, but not raw. I don't know how I'll do it.
Thoughts, ideas, inspiration, recipes, give me watchya got!

[JEN]

This chili recipe is really delicious. I usually dont dehydrate it but I do sometimes in the winter. Its really fast and easy to make if you chop the veggies in the processor. Ive subbed onions for the leek too. I like Alissa's calzone and pizza out of the dehydrator. Its mostly warm where I live but sometimes I just need a warm meal. I find that adding cayenne and ginger to things really warms me up too. I like to make lemonade with lemon juice, apple juice, water cayenne and ginger and sometimes when Im cold I use warm water and add a little honey so it seems more like a hot tea. I sometimes add warm water to a blender when making almond milk along with chai spices for a warm chai milk.


Raw Chili (posted by Yani)

Okay- the best chili in the world.... I ran around to everyone and made them try this- oh, it's so good. By the way, I didn't make this recipe up unfortunately, I got it from Cousins book: Rainbow Green. I would love to take credit for it but alas- not my recipe- just our great good fortune to eat it!!!!!!!!!

Chop up:
2 carrots
2 celery
1 red pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup leek
Add about 1/4 cup olive oil and a touch of Celtic salt, stir it up and put it in your dehydrator for an hour.
During that time in the food processor add:
1/2 cup soaked sun dried tomatoes (I add more)
4 tomatoes
2 avocados
1 T ginger
little more Celtic salt
2 T Chili powder ( I add more)
2 t ground cumin
and cayenne (anywhere from a titch to 2 t of the stuff. HOT!)
Mix this with the veggies above and put it back in the dehydrator for one more hour.
So good, so quick. Yum.
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[Inca_faerie]

I drink HOT tea during the cold months and I wear a scarf pretty much all through the winter which helps me stay warm quite a bit.

[Lady Green Jeans]

I heat up my dishes with more warming spices in the winter months. Enjoy waminng foods year-round, but especially helpful in feeling warmer when the colder weather hits. It also easier here in So Cal than where I grew up in Ohio. When I visit back home for the holidays, everyone laughs at how bundled up I am.

[Ilse W.]

I really like soups. Currently I am still on my tomato soup kick. I use my Omega juicer and put through it several tomatoes, a red bell pepper, half an onion, and a jalapeno or serrano pepper. The Omega juicer leaves most of the pulp in the juice, but it eliminates the skins.
I pour this in a stainless steel bowl and mix in miso, ceyenne pepper, garlic, various herbs, some braggs or sea salt. I put the bowl over my electric cuisinard fondue pot of boiling water and warm until I can't feel a temperature (warm or cold) when I stick my finger in it, which should make it body temperature. I'm sure a double boiler would do exactly the same, but I don't have one of those.
In the last 3 weeks I have purchased an abundance of "#2 tomatoes", bell peppers, jalapenos, and onions extremely cheap (the vegetables that are getting VERY ripe). I make up "soup bags", quart freezer bags filled with chopped tomatoes, onions, and peppers. I throw them in the freezer, and when I want soup, all I have to do is take out a bag, thaw it out quickly in a bowl of warm water, put it through the Omega and make my soup. Life is good! (The blazing wood stove helps, too!):D

[4forme]

Wow, that Chili recipe sounds great! I am definately going to try that this week. The tomato soup sounds awesome also, I have really been wanting a good tomato soup recipe too.
It would be good to get a few of this kind of recipes to have kindof perfected, so I don't have to think about it when I need something, ya know? That's mainly why I stick to saldas and simple stuff, I don't have an abundance of recipes I am familiar with yet. having a family of 6, that's alot of cooking/uncooking when making seperate meals. Problem is when trying a recipe for the first time, you run the risk of it being not so good. Then you are hungry, wanting the other food and wasting so much good food!
I am generally not cold too much, and I would rather be cold that hot, so it's not that I am bothered by. Moreso the comfort foods. I am a huge comfort eater, so i need to (besides address that issue-i know) have some stand bys to have when I am craving something from the winter months.