Need ideas for raw meals for 4 year old, and myself

[KaitAnne]

I could use some advice from raw food experts!

I'm fairly new to this raw food thing, and am still working on making my own diet more than 50% raw. I'm trying to eat all raw until dinner time, mainly by eating a lot of fruit. But I could use some ideas!
I get tired of eating plain raw nuts...I bought some big bags of walnuts and almonds from BJ's, the kind that are meant for baking, and I'm pretty sure they're raw, the ingredients say "shelled almonds or walnuts". Also regular raisins are a regular part of my diet. I make a mix of goji berries, raisins and nuts and have this everyday, but it gets boring if I eat just this for lunch everyday..plus I'm hungry!

I also just got a food processor and am looking forward to making green smoothies. I always keep a wide variety of fresh fruit around, and loads of baby spinach.

And I need help figuring out what to do with my 4 year old. She already eats way healthier than the average child in America, no junk food, several servings of fruits/veggies daily, very little meat..but her diet, as does mine, needs improvement, more raw items.

I am also not interested in going 100% raw, not for me or my daughter, but I'd like a large majority of our diets to be raw.
So I need some practical, easy, tasty ideas for breakfast and lunch for me and her.
What I am the most interested in is homemade raw breads, cereals and crackers. I need some recipes..and I also need some guidance as to where to get these ingredients, preferably online.
I need to make the switch from Cheerios and pastuerized cow's milk, and Wheat Thins!!

I also recently bought raw almond butter, and well, I don't like the stuff...I am disappointed, I thought it would taste so much better.
I heard though that raw pumpkin seed butter is supposed to be a good alternative to peanut butter? We love peanut butter...but alas it's not raw.

I guess I'm feeling overwhelmed by the whole raw thing...organics are supposed to be better but they cost so much and I don't have much access to them...a lot of ingredients, especially fresh ones (like coconuts) are not readily available around here..I'm battling in my mind over whether cow's milk is beneficial or harmful for us..

Sorry for the rant!

So if anyone has practical ideas that are appealing to a child, I'm all ears! Thanks.

[Christiana]

I guess I'm feeling overwhelmed by the whole raw thing...organics are supposed to be better but they cost so much and I don't have much access to them...a lot of ingredients, especially fresh ones (like coconuts) are not readily available around here..I'm battling in my mind over whether cow's milk is beneficial or harmful for us...

I have almost the same problem. Organics are more expensive, but I'd rather not continue ingesting harmful stuff like pesticides and herbicides.

On the milk issue, ditch it. Firstly, cow's milk is properly balanced---but only for calves. Not for us. Second, where do you think cattle get their calcium/protein? From their natural food, which is greens. For instance, kelp has about 10x as much mg of calcium per 100g. Pretty good, huh? So eat more greens and replace milk with nut milk. Welcome to RAW!!

[MiahTay]

First of all I'm far from an EXPERT but I will share some things that have worked for me. Second, if you don't have Alissa's Book it would likely answer any questions you have. There is tons of information and recipes that are mostly very easy to make and delicious.

Here is a website with TONS of info on Dairy www.notmilk.com

Some raw things my children like:

Raw desserts like:
-Alissa's Blueberry Pie
-Any Phyo's Mango Cobbler
-Ice cream made with a whole Blended Coconut, dates to desired sweetness, and a vanilla bean blended then strained through a nut milk bag then put in an ice cream maker.
-Bananas with raw chocolate sauce and some walnuts

Breakfast/Lunch
-Smoothies
- Chopped up apple with ground up nuts drizzled with 50/50 honey and coconut oil
- Fruit Salad with raw chocolate sauce
- Celery stuffed with Jalapeno Burger recipe made as a pate
- Cucumber hollowed out and filled with any pate and veggies
- Wilted Spinach Salad
- Marinated Collard Greens
- Cauliflower dipped in Rich Cheddar Sauce
- Eggless Eggsalad on Flax Crackers (Alissa has several in her book, and there are some here on this site)

These are what comes to mind off the top of my head.

Blessings,
Heather

[MiahTay]

Oh, and regarding organics ... buy them when you can, and if you can't raw is way better than SAD. Feeding a family of 6, I buy some organic but only when it is cost effective.

Blessings,
Heather

[KaitAnne]

Wow thanks guys so much, great recipe ideas too ;)

Ugh the milk issue!! It's terrible really. We're raised to believe that we NEED it and that we're harming our kids if we don't give it to them...at the same time the idea of giving it up totally is scary. I don't want my kids to miss out on calcium! I know some nuts/veggies have calcium but still. *sigh* I think I'm getting closer to ditching milk tho.

[MiahTay]

My children have never had cow's milk and they're doing great at 9 & 11.

Blessings,
Heather

[HolyGuacamole]

Yes, my kids have never had a drop of cow's milk, and they're brilliantly healthy at ages 3 and 15. :)

[coco]

if you aren't sure about how much calcium you're getting there are great online nutrition trackers like fitday.com where you enter in all the foods you've eaten for the day and get a breakdown of nutrients. you'll see how much calcium your kids are getting at a glance, very handy!

kids like to eat things that they helped to prepare too, a little hands on in the kitchen makes for better meals i find. and if they helped to grow it too? hoo boy, that's a favourite for sure!

[smoothiegirl]

Scroll through the recipe section on here and find recipes that are simple to make without a lot of fancy ingredients. My fav is a giant fruit salad-(apples, bananas, oranges, grapefruits, strawberries with walnuts or pecans, drizzled with raw honey or some raw chocolate. I have to watch the sugar intake now-I was eating way too much fruit.:)

[appifanie]

re: cow milk: my daughter had non-vegan formula till she was 1 and now she's 2 and on soy milk and rice milk (we're not 100% raw) and she's super healthy. she's the size of a 3 year old and in great health (knock on wood!!!)

[coco]

just a word of caution to be careful with the soy. we don't eat any of it at all over here.