I have been trying to go raw for the longest, always something goes wrong. A trip, kids don't like it etc.
I am not used to the taste of raw vegetables, but I know I should.
I have a green smoothie for breakfast every day. A little later sprouted bread with honey and butter.
Fruits throughout the day and then it all goes down the drain.
There is chocolate, cooked dinner, cookies etc.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
I have 7 raw recipe books, but they are so cumbersome, some dishes require 2 days prep or ingredients that are really expensive and hard to find.
Please help!!!!

i think we have become so accustomed to fast and instant food , i understand how a couple of days prep (sprouting, soaking etc> can seem daunting .. imagine the hunter gatherers how many days of prep they had to do get a meal at times lol !

maybe find easier things to make untill you get the hang of perpetually keeping stuff like soaked and sprouted things available all the time

maybe get yourself used to lots of raw things in your diet before worrying about trying to convert your family ..its hard enough to do for yourself nevermind convincing others its the way to go !

maybe add lots of good things to your diet like whole raw fruits and veggies and you might find the urge to eat the cookies, chocolate and cooked stuff diminishes over time

and be good to yourself , yer only human and rome was burnt faster than it was built

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

The sprouted and dehydrated recipes do take a lot of forethought. Eating raw food doesn't really have to take a lot of time, though. The food starts out raw, right? When I'm busy, the best recipes are the ones that just take a little chopping or blending. Some of the celebrity raw food cookbooks include too many of the more time consuming recipes, but with seven books you should probably be able to find a good selection of simpler ones.

There's a lot you can do more simply. Salads can be great if you find a salad dressing recipe you really love. Most salad dressings are quick - just blend the ingredients. Blenders clean up fast too. Sauces are usually equally simple, usually just blended. Find a recipe for a raw "mayonnaise" and make a Waldorf salad.

In a real tight squeeze, I sometimes run out of the house in the morning with a bunch of bananas and a plastic bag to give me some place to put the peels.

Once you get into the routine, you can get in the habit of sprouting and dehydrating the more complicated recipes, but it's more important to know that you can make food quickly. No matter how good you get at the long-term plan-ahead food, there will be times that you need to find or make something quickly. For me, a big part of getting into a raw food mindset was learning to recognize these simpler foods as being enough food, as being meals. Before, I enjoyed fruits and veggies, but fruit alone didn't feel like breakfast unless I had cereal or a bagel, and a salad could only be dinner if I topped it with a meat and cheese.

It sounds like you're okay with a raw breakfast and raw snacks, but that you're having trouble with raw dinner. Do you feel like you aren't looking at the simpler recipes as "substantial" enough for dinner?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 08:22PM by frances.

Try putting out a bunch of cut veggies and guacamole or hummus or whatever dips your family likes before dinner as an appetizer, just to get your family used to eating raw vegetables. Also, try to get your kids involved in making salads -- my four year old will eat three helpings of salad, but only if she helps make it. Consider growing a garden and getting your family involved in that. This also helps my little one enjoy her raw veggies.

The more fruit I eat the more I am satisfied.

What about filling up on raw fruit all day and then having a healthy, cooked vegan dinner at night? Later you can transition to a raw dinner three times a week and so on.

There are lots of easy raw recipes out there, I stick to them. The Boutenkos and The Garden Diet (storm and Jinjee) have a lot. Even some of the more complicated ones are a LOT easier than most of the cooked meals I used to make. One of the more complicated raw recipes my family likes a lot is "vegan crab cakes." My daughter is making them today. They have a lot of ingredients and dehydrate a couple hours and still are way easier than making even a simple cooked stew. When I see other people prepare cooked meals I wonder how any one can say raw meals are difficult. I spend about 1/4 (probably less) of the time preparing food than I did when we were a mostly cooked family.

pakd4fun Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When I see
> other people prepare cooked meals I wonder how any
> one can say raw meals are difficult. I spend
> about 1/4 (probably less) of the time preparing
> food than I did when we were a mostly cooked
> family.

I'm with you there. I've always enjoyed cooking, but now that I am making raw dishes I can't even imagine spending the long hours in the kitchen that I once did!

I really like eating simple raw. Its quick and easy and everyday feels like a picnic. I like to graze on fresh raw whole fruits all day and then have a meal of fresh raw veggies, including greens and avocado at about dinner time. After dinner I'm done eating for the day.

Good old carrot and celery sticks are a good start.
Have them on the table every night,before the main course, and I bet the family will be munching on them.

vinny