I'd like help planning raw+cooked menus 4 family of mixed eaters

[qnjnean]

Hello. I eat raw. My son is sensitive to many raw foods - today I asked him exactly what he could eat raw and he said "nothing." Of course, that's not true, he eats salad, etc. But I would like to come up with some menus for raw vegan & cooked healthy vegetarians.

I am new at this and appreciate any suggestions, and would love to hear how others are handling these kinds of situations.


thanks!

[sport]

http://www.rawgosia.com/recipes.html
http://www.fromsadtoraw.com/RawRecipes.htm

There are many sites like these that will give you lots of recipes that you can use.
What age is your son.

[qnjnean]

my son is old enough to know better - 28. he lives next door. we are doing some joint family dinners. I have lots of raw recipes, I am just wondering what cooked things go good with what raw things.

thanks. :D

[MiahTay]

I cook for a mixed family every night as do a lot of people on this board. What I usually do is salad bar with a cooked item (one dish type thing). And if I want to make any more involved raw recipes I either serve them as part of the salad bar or I make them for lunch. So, I just do all raw during the day when everyone else gets their own breakfast and lunch (for the most part) and then make salad bar for dinner and we all start with a large salad and then those that want something cooked, do that. Hope you find what works for you.

Blessings,
Heather

[Raw Angel Mom]

How old is your son? It is always a good idea to teach our children to make their food, if he is old enough of course. Because some day, he will be having his own place and will have to figure a way to make decent food for him. If he is 8 and more, you can start to teach him to make steak, pasta, grille cheese (any easy dish) etc... Get him help you in the kitchen. I have learned to do men stuff and i was very grateful when i was by my own in appartment.

I would stand my ground of not buying anything from fast food, but you can teach him how to make his burger or pizza at home. Get him involved too in cleaning dishes. It isn't easy to make two kind of food. The beauty about raw food, is that you don't have pot to clean but this is a lot of planning. Maybe at first, you can make him his food but try to gradually get him to help. Children loves learning new skill.

I loved to use pitta bread for pizza crust, this make yummy home pizza.

Best wishes!

[Emma-Liza]

What MiahTay described is workable and should be easy for you. I do something similar at my house, but since it's only me and my husband, I don't serve in as formal a way as to have a salad bar.

I often make salad for the two of us and an extra item for my husband such as
- a baked sweet potato;
- pasta or rice with sauteed veggies (use a bagged blend from the freezer for extra easy prep);
- burrito, nachos, or quesadilla (put the salad on top of those and include refried beans from a can or your own walnut taco "meat");
- sandwich or wrap made with a raw nut pate such as eggless salad or cashew "chicken" salad plus tomato, cuke, lettuce, etc.

Although he has liked all the raw soups I've made, another thing that has worked for us is when I make a raw soup, before adding in the water or nut milk, I put some aside to use as a pasta sauce. This is good in summer when I'm making tomato soup, but could work with other veggies as well.

I keep a huge container of homemade raw trail mix in the pantry. If dinner has been too light, he gets a scoop of that for "dessert." Even though it's raw, it's customized to his tastes, with his favorite dried fruits and nuts (I put equal parts fruit and nuts, with at least 3 different fruits and 3 different nuts). Then I add a smaller amt of coconut and/or cacao nibs.

[annavon]

Alissa's marinara sauce works well on cooked pasta. You could make that I also make some zucchini or other raw pasta. I made the zucchini pasta for a church pot luck and there wasn't anything left!

Also, if he likes avocado, I would try Alissas stuffed portabella mushrooms with avocado.

There are some good vegetarian cookbooks out there. One of my favs is called the Voluptuous Vegan. It is arranged in menus (ie. Holiday dinner, Greek dinner etc). It has some really good vegan recipes which are great for festive days (they can be a bit complicated). You may want to consider going to a used book store a looking for some good old vegetarian cookbooks like Laural's Kitchen, Whole Foods Cook Book, Vegetarian Times cookbook, and Diet for a Small Planet, you may be able to pick them up on the cheap. These were my staples in my vegetarian days. (although I admit that I was a beans and rice type of gal :rolleyes:) Also, Frugal Raw has some suggestions in her un-cookbook on how to deal with family meals. Here is the link: http://frugalrawnews.blogspot.com/ How was that for a plug???;)