I want my kids to go raw but they are defiant and stuck in their cooked world me and their mom tought them just like my mom and her mom tought us!!! Is there any recepies I can make for my kids so theyll become believers???!!! Its EASY for me but hard to make something for them,they think everything should be COOKED!! BLEH!!!
roadrunner

OK so NOBODY has any ideas for things to make for kids??

You don't say how old your children are and if you have a supportive spouse.

If your children are real young try:

[rawbabyalex.blogspot.com]

Not my website, just one with yummy food.

Anyway... I told them, "Eat your fruit/salad, then you can have ________ [whatever cooked food was for breakfast/lunch/dinner]. If they didn't finish the fresh food I put in front of them first, they couldn't have anything else. "If you aren't hungry enough, you don't need ___________ [cooked stuff]."

I taught them to pay attention to how they felt after they ate. This is key.

For example, one child always got diarrhea after eating the greasy pizza at school. After a couple of months, that child decided to bring lunch rather than eat pizza on "pizza day" in the cafeteria. That child also began to not get so excited when my spouse tried to bribe the children with trips to fast food restaurants. (You know, "If you _______, I'll take you to McDonald's.)

When I went to Whole Foods, I bribed them into behaving: "If you are good, you can have anything you want from the salad bar." If they wanted cantaloupe and carrots and other weird combos, fine. At least it was live, unprocessed food.

When they were hungry for snacks between meals, I told them they could have ANY fresh fruits or vegetables or (raw) nut butter. If they wanted apples with expensive raw nut butter, fine. If they wanted to eat weird combos, as long as they were fresh fruits, vegetables, or raw nut butter, fine.

I made them help me with the food shopping and preparation process, explaining to them how to pick out bananas and apples and greens... and this is part of the process of educating them and tested my patience, in having to explain everything, but then when you say, "Go pick out enough bananas for us," they take ownership and learn from that. Having to explain, "No, these carrots are limp," and "This celery looks old," gets old but it is invaluable to getting them to buy in. Also, again, I had them help me with food preparation, not just setting the table, but actually touching the food in the process of making it. Another patience builder.

Eventually, they saw the salad bar at Whole Foods as a big treat and McDonald's as purveyors of nausea producing nonfood.

I let go of what they ate when not at home. Slowly, they began to realize that we don't have the processed foods that their friends have at home or that the school cafeteria has. They realized that food effects how they feel and made wiser choices when away, usually... but not always. Again, you can't control what they eat when away from you but you can teach them to pay attention to how they feel after they eat and you can provide fun, delicious raw foods.

Once, after being away from home for a couple of days, one said at dinner time, "I just want a big salad. ________ fed us a lot of junk." Yeah, they ate the junk willingly, even greedily, but they are beginning to see the effects it has. Home is where healthy food is, where the food that makes you feel good is located.

What do they love? If they love watermelon, have plenty of that. If they love apples and raw nut butter, have plenty of that. If they love oranges... you get the idea.

I hope this helps.

Lee

Thank You Lee for your post!!
My kids are 2 boys, one is 14 and the other is 11. I am divorced and single,no significant other as of yet which is why I wanted this advice. Its just me and my boys.At their moms they eat the SAD diet we all grew up on and I want them to get away from that. They are seeing living proof in me how healthy I am becomming from eating raw and are slowly becomming interested. I just want them to realize how GOOD raw food truly is and that they dont need macaroni and hamburger helper and fast food etc its all poison to me!! Thank You for your post it was very helpful!
roadrunner

How about trying these ideas-- no idea what equipment you have!..but heres a few ideas

Tacos and taco meat, marinara sauce, cashew sour cream and avo sauce -- all raw

raw vegan mega sarnies-- with sundried tomato bread stuffed with veggies, cashew cheeze and sprouts

or you could make a huge raw vegan pie-- spinach, walnuts and spinach with a creamy topping


or... raw cookies, raw cheesecake or banoffee pie??

there are some ideas I thought of...anyway for preteeny-teen age group

Wishing you all the best!

great ideas! thank you very much I will try thease!
roadrunner

Banana smoothie! My children's transformation began with them realizing that banana smoothie is far far better than cornflakes. They both love the smoothie! The recipe is easy. Blend: bananas plus some other fruit (berries or mango, for example) plus water. My children have a smoothie each morning and each afternoon. In between they have fruit, and some recipe-designed stuff. But, they could live on smoothies, easily.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
RawGosia streams

Roadrunner,

You are giving your children an incredible gift -- a healthier YOU! The way you eat and the way you think about food will be passed on to them.

I realized that I couldn't control my children when they were not with me, but I could teach them about the effects of food and I could make the healthy food they like as available as possible when they are with me.

It takes a while. My children are not 100% raw, and maybe they never will be, but they are aware -- much more than most children -- of the effect of their food choices.

You can quietly and compassionately help your children to be aware of how their bodies feel and use teachable moments, letting them know without being overly pedantic that their are consequences to all behaviors. While we cannot control what is in our air and water and in ALL of our food, just what we can control has big consequences.

I let my children have their Halloween candy... and their subsequent belly aches. They really learned from that -- this year more than last and last year more than the year before that.

When you hear your child said, "Can I just have a salad?" Wow. It's one of those beautiful moments.

Your children might enjoy the film "Supersize Me." Some high school health classes are using it now. There is an "educational" version of it out that has some cool interactive extras on the DVD and that cuts out the very brief part of the scene where Morgan Spurlock gets a prostate exam.


Lee

Check out Sergei Boutenko. He's a great role model for kids. He talks about how his mother (Victoria Boutenko) used to put comics on the wall in front of the toilet so when you went to the bathroom he would see the jokes and laugh. Then over time, after he got used to reading her clippings, she started adding informative articles about the problems with pop, junk food, etc. and what they do to the body. Occasionally she would still put up the comics. Soon, he became interested in the things that would be healthy for his body. It became his choice by education. He then began making things in the food processor, dehydrator and blender and really enjoyed the creating process. Now he is a world renowned raw chef that travels the world teaching classes. I guess he has some summer hikes in Oregon teaching kids and parents about wild greens. He's very cool to the kids (snowboarder, hiker, smart, etc). They're impressed by him. He was a treat to listen to on www.rawsummit2.com this last week. Check out www.RawFamily.com by the Boutenko's.

Gina