Do you think that the raw food diet is time consuming and complicated?

[Queen Bean]

I want to feel a sense of ease with the raw food diet, but I'm finding all the soaking and sprouting very time consuming. I want the benefits of the
sprouted and soaked food, but I am feeling that it is really cluttering up my day. At the moment I have nine things soaking. Do you find the raw diet
complicated? Do you eat a lot of soaked/sprouted food?

[DebB]

When I soak things like nuts and seeds - I do a lot of them at once. For example - I will do 7-9 trays full of pumpkin seeds at once. Then I'll dehydrate them. These will last me a very long time. After they're dehydrated, I store them in the freezer. I learned this from Rene Oswald on YouTube in her video about making a "staple stash".

Having the nuts and seeds soaked, sprouted and then dehydrated - they're all ready to go into a recipe, which saves me a lot of time.

Sprouting only takes a minute. I rinse my jar of sprouts twice a day - it doesn't take long...

Yes, I do think in the beginning I was making things more difficult than they needed to be, but I was learning. I was also preparing the majority of my food gourmet. I have greatly simplified things over the years. Now I spend much less time in the kitchen than I did earlier on.

[fastfreedom]

In the beginning I spent quite a bit of time learning how to prepare meals. But now days I can put together something delicious in around ten to fifteen minutes. Your favorite meals will get easy to make and will take you very little time once you've done it a few times.

I also soak a large portion of nuts and seeds all at once and then dehydrate.

[walnutty]

Yes, I do!!!

[MysticTree]

I think it's as simple or as complicated as you make it.
Sad food is as simple or as complicated as you make it.

If you don't want to spend a lot of time on raw prep then eat simply.

[fastfreedom]

Yes, I do!!!

HA

That was awesome. It gave me a good laugh.:ROFL:

Comparing it to people popping microwave frozen junk dinners into the nukerator................LOL

[Traceyraw]

The first time was overwhelming sprouting dehydrating soaking. But them I was missing out on the fresh stuff. Now I keep it very simple juicing takes the most time of my day. When Im feeling lazy I make smoothies. Sometimes I just buy the stuff already made from WF. (Glaser Farms).

Deb question about seeds. If there raw do they have to be soaked before you eat them. I love pumpkin seeds do you have any good pumpkin seed recipes??

[vegangoddess]

i would suggest starting off slow.....i did.....it took me a year to get to a high raw diet. (i still eat steamed grains, sprouted grain breads and baked potatoes)

i started out with a day by day....week by week approach. using what i had...a blender. ie. i did not go out an buy a bunch of expensive stuff like a dehydrator or juicer or anything. i started with a blender. period. i still don't have a food processor.

at first i tried to drink one serving of fresh juice a day. (a smoothie if i made it at home in my blender) or i would go to a juice bar or buy flash pastuerized carrot juice at the store. this was my first baby step to healthy eating.

next i tried to eat one fresh fruit and a salad every day.

i did these steps for weeks until i mastered them. i increased my servings of fruit etc. as i felt like it.

next i added reading some raw books and highlighting recipes i wanted to try. i suggest the blog Raw on $10 a Day....if it wasn't for her easy recipes i never would have become raw.

next i tried one new procedure a week. first soaking nuts on sunday. then soaking grains on sunday. then trying a new more complicated recipe on sunday. i did this for months.....

this whole process took me a year.......i ate cooked when i wanted to and kept it very very low pressure on myself.

i suggest you come up with a similar plan and enjoy the process. don't let going raw stress you out.

[DebB]

Deb question about seeds. If there raw do they have to be soaked before you eat them. I love pumpkin seeds do you have any good pumpkin seed recipes??

Hi Traceyraw ~ Yes, it's my understanding that raw nuts & seeds should still be soaked. The only nuts that do not have to be soaked are those that are white like cashews, macadamias, etc. You may wish to soak them though if you're using them for a creamy-type recipe.

We buy the raw, green pumpkin seeds. Mostly - my husband snacks on them, they're his favorite.

I looked in my files and have this one that looks really good. 1 cup of maple syrup though:

Pumpkin Spiced Party Mix - Diana Sobo

Ingredients
1 cup Almonds, soaked
1 cup Pecans, soaked
1 cup Pumpkin seeds, soaked
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
1 cup cashews
1 cup shaved coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup cranberries
2 cups fresh pumpkin, cubed
1 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 tablespoons Pumpkin Pie Spice

Directions
Almonds should be soaked for 12 hours, Pecan pumpkin and sunflower seeds only for 2 hours. (The rest should not be soaked) After soaking, rinse and drain and place in large mixing bowl. Add the un-soaked cashew, coconut, raisins and cranberries and toss.

Place Pumpkin, maple syrup, salt and spices in high speed blender and blend until pureed. Pour mixture over nuts and seeds and toss until completely coated. Prepare Dehydrator tray with and teflex sheet laying over mesh grid sheet. Pour mixture onto 2-3 trays and spread evenly. Place in dehydrator for 3-5 hours at 105 degrees. Remove trays and transfer mixture from teflex to grid sheet only and continue to dehydrate for 12-24 hours, until mix is crunchy. Will keep in airtight container for up to a month.
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This is one of my husband's favorite salads. I do toss in a big handful of green pumpkin seeds in here. (I also omit the mint)

Thai Coleslaw - with deb's tweaks

2 zucchini
6-8 green onions
4 carrots
1/2 cabbage (I used 1/2 head red and 1/4 head green)
3-4 stalks basil (about 1/4 cup after chopped)
1/2 bunch cilantro (1/2 small bunch)
1/2 bunch mint, stems removed (about 5-6 sprigs)
(I added about 1/2 cup+ cashews & about 1/4 cup+ pumpkin seeds)

Dressing:
5-6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp thai chili sauce
Sea salt to taste
3T Nama Shoyu
3-4 T, Juice of 1-2 limes
1/4 cup agave nectar
Pepper to taste
1 small piece ginger
1 small clove garlic

Preparation:
1. Process the carrots and cabbage in the food processor until chopped and/or shredded.
2. Peel the zucchini into strands with veggie peeler and set aside core/seeds for future use.
3. Chop herbs and add.
4. Blend dressing ingredients, dress and enjoy!

[Papa2X]

Well, it's a heckuva lot harder than slapping some meat and cheese between 2 slices of bread with mustard....

In a way, I really enjoy playing with the smoothies, but I haven't actually made anything but them yet, except salads.

[Non]

It's easier when you eat very mono like me. I mean I dont eat one food at a time but usually without any of the 'fixings' of a recipe. Just a head of greens, fruit or veggie and some nuts/seeds.

Occasionally I can make a greens powder drink. I like to mix therapeutic herbs.

[SunshineMN]

We've only been raw 5 days now but for us it's been really easy. We make up a huge (20 quart) stainless steel bowl of mixed lettuces, cabbage, bok choy, celery, and cauliflower. We graze on fruit all morning then have a salad for lunch and dinner. Some times with another piece or two of fruit between the salads and one in the evening. We also started sprouting, which is really quick and simple, and eating those with our salads. I'm hoping we can get a dehydrator before long then it'll probably take us longer. For now it's a lot less time consuming than eating the SAD way.

[RawDad]

I think it's as simple or as complicated as you make it.
Sad food is as simple or as complicated as you make it.

If you don't want to spend a lot of time on raw prep then eat simply.

I totally agree with this quote. I find that what I crave is complicated but what I need is simple. Sprouting and dehydrating takes planning ahead but making juices, smoothies, and salads are quick and easy. And just eating food as it is, thats as easy as it gets. I like how Dr. Fuhrman (http://www.drfuhrman.com/) put it in a presentation he gave on the public television station a couple nights ago: "Salad is the main dish." You can't go wrong with salads.

I often overwhelm myself with all the things I have sprouting. A couple experiences I had recently were finding some sprouts I had totally forgotten about in the closet and having some pumpkin seeds I'd soaked go bad because I just didn't end up using them in a timely manner.

[littlemermaid]

It depends on your taste preferences. I personally don't care about re-creating the cooked food taste with raw recipes, like raw pizza, bread, crackers or whatever. I love simple plain natural taste of greens, veggies, etc. So for me, going raw made things way much easier. I don't use dehydrator. I soak just enough seeds and nuts to last me for 3-4 days. I do this overnight, rinse in the morning, put them in the glass jar and into fridge, done! I don't sprout myself, but I do buy sprouts.