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Bananas and oranges. These can be eaten whole without any prep. They are tasty and relatively cheap. Put them in a smoothe with some other fruit and maybe some greens.
Kale, tomato, onion, avocado. These are the (my) essentials for a basic salad. Just cut everything up and mix together. Put on some olive oil if you want.
I love my food processor - I've found I spend less time in the kitchen than when I was on a cooked whole foods diet. Pesto's are easy to combine - I keep lemon, olive oil, garlic, and basil on hand and add whatever nut I have on hand after blending the pesto ingredients to chop coarsely. Then I'll shred zucchini with the shredding attachment for "noodles". In the mornings I'll soak 1/2 a cup of cashews while I'm getting ready for work, then throw whatever fruit I have in the blender with some water and the rinsed cashews. This morning I threw in cherries and oranges. Yum. The day before it was banana and raspberries. I'll soak almonds overnight for the next day, and if I don't have time to use them in the morning, they go in the fridge. I love almonds with a couple TB of cacao and vanilla bean. It gives me some extra kick in the morning. I'll also throw 2:1 almonds and water in the blender with a tsp of probiotics, lime, and raw honey to make unfermented yogurt to go with peaches.
I try to prep the more complex meals in the evening and make a large batch so I have enough for lunch the next day. I had sunflower seeds I had soaked during the night and needed to use up, so I tried the spring onion cheese recipe (yum) and just tore leaves of romaine and chopped up some carrots, zucchini and cucumber. I was done well before Lance had finished cooking his chicken on the stove top. I tend to stick to wraps and salads because they take less time.
I got very sound advice yesterday and went to the store and picked up a bunch of fresh fruit to have on hand at work. I tend to go through calories quickly, so I make my bad food decisions in the evening when I'm in serious need of a calorie fix. I keep dried fruit bars in my purse, and make date almond coconut cookies to have on hand.
I'm new at this and struggling to be almost 100% raw, but there are tricks that can cut back on time. Ani Phyo's book is something I really enjoy because her recipes are really quick. It's usually just a matter of throwing a few ingredients in the processor or blender and then you're done. I have a lot of allergies so I'm used to prepping all my meals, and this sure beats cooking :)
I'd add in dandelion leaves to the suggestions! I can't buy organic kale or spinach in France, and so just pick a bunch of dandelion leaves from the garden to make my smoothies "green" (in addition to courgette which I guess counts too!)
Thanks Camiheartsraw for the advice, I do have a food processor. I guess it just seems I am trying to make this too complicated. Maybe my problem is I am not buying enough stuff to keep around. I know it will take time for me to learn how to uncook. I never was good at just throwing things together when I did cook either. :)
Keep it simple- fruits, salads
Yeah, fruit and salad is always easy and quick. If you want something bulky or filling, I always recommend making up a big batch of nut/seed pate. I used to make it on a sunday evening and have it everyday throughout the week as it keeps up to 5 days. My fav is this one: http://goneraw.com/recipe/sun-dried-tomato-pate
If you have a dehydrator, you could make up a big batch of raw bread/crackers to keep on hand, or if not, just get some nori sheets and make up wraps with veggies, etc.
I do have a dehydrator. I actually just made my first batch of crackers, which I really like. Never tried nut/seed paste before. Do you just eat it? Going to try some bread in the dehydrator next. I drink green smoothies every morning, so I love those. I am getting in the groove of knowing what to have on hand, after my smoothie I eat fruit. Have to work on dinners, just being lazy, I mean how hard is it to make a salad, I just dont have enough on hand, going to the store tonight.
Oh you should definitely try the pate, it's so versatile.
You can have it on top of a salad, spread on crackers/bread, in wraps, on a lettuce leaf, with cut up veggies or just as it is.
Green smoothies are great aren't they - such a good staple.
A lovely bread you could try is this one: http://goneraw.com/node/6388.
They're called carrot crackers, but my batches have always turned out soft and bread like.
Soooo tasty! They remind me of eating carrot + hummus - which I love!
When you say wrap, what do you wrap it in besides a lettuce or green leaf?
Hi blakejack- I rarely use any of my cookbooks since they almost always call for a lot of dehydration time and a lot of ingredients that cost too much. I use my juicer everyday for juice in the morning and maybe a salad and pate for lunch and a smoothie for dinner. I'll have fruit throughout the day. I always make sure to have lots of fruit, veggies, and sunflower seeds/almonds on hand.
iliveyourdream: I know what you mean about overwhelming, I thought the cracker recipe in my cookbook seemed so hard but once I did it I thought well next time it would be a breeze. I have a sweet cracker recipe that I am going to make sometime soon, said to put nut butter and fruit on them, sounds yummy, or some kind of choc sauce or ganache would be good too. What kind of bars are you talking about? Do you have any recipes for those? I am a snacker especially in the afternoon and I dont get home till late so that is what usually gets me to eat nonraw food in the evening. I havent tried any kind of raw pasta or sauces, although I have a few recipes. Basil is just so expensive around here, I need to grow some on my windowsill. What other kinds of pestos do you make?
Blakejack here's the deal with the pate(spread) and wrap. Lay out Lettuce wrap. we've found collard greens or other big leaf varieties work well. My boyfriend makes one with pecans & sunflowers that is great. spread it on. Cut up avocados, mangos, peppers, zucchini, onions, sun-dried tomatoes if you got em and wrap up in wrap. Eat!
recipes to reference
walnut meat sauce (good "meat" starter recipe)
mango salsa
Easiest best salad ever - tear up green lettuce varities (more than one makes a great salad)
Cut up zucchini, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and i of course love avocados in everything so avocados, and mix in. Top with oil vinigarette. Eat
If you can afford to get a spiralizer at some point do it :) It makes pasta in a flash.
And the trick with the sauce this time really is the sun-dried tomatoes, it makes it less watery and way more delicious.
Download the free recipes at this man's site www.therawchef.com
if you look at the lasagna recipe on there. The tomato base is great for a pasta sauce, I just take that part of the recipe and add a few more tomatoes to make it more like a sauce than a paste.
everything he does is divine.
Our must have foods around the house, bananas, oranges, mangoes, avocados, peppers, onions, 3-4 types of leafy greens, melons, carrots, tomatoes,kiwi, jicama, zucchini, garlic, ginger, Dates, and Figs...and if ok with nuts/seeds then add a few types of nuts, i.e. pecans & cashews. sunflower seeds, & pumpkin seeds. Figs & sunflower seeds are my go to snack food, as well as any type of fruit.
Try simple raw for a few weeks. You'll love life.
Luxdivon-thanks sounds yummy!!
the wraps he made the other day were amazing!. For this specific one He did a style where he did the "Meat" filling with pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, some oil, avocado, nutritional yeast, garlic, onions, haberno pepper, lime, oregano, basil, rosemary all mixed up in the food processor. fill up the lettuce wrap with nut mixture. layer mango salsa on top. wrap it up. and top with more mango salsa, and cashew nut cheese (cashes, nutritional yeast, & sunflower seeds) It really was a great dinner. I had to interrogate him to get the info. :) definitely gonna have to make that one again. :)
Man I wish I could get my hubbie to cook like that for me :) He is a meat and potatoes man, so I guess I am on my own for now!!!
I am a very lucky girl. He's 6'5" so he found out early in life that food was important :) it's too bad about your hubby.. he's really missing out. man, if he could even just try some of them, i bet he would say they would be good "in addition to" his stuff because of course he won't want to give those up! yet! :) evil grin.
I think it is best to have your fav. ingreds. around all the time. That way you like them just as they are, when you are in a hurry, and are inspiered by them to create more intricate dishes when you have time. Flax seeds and be easily made into quick over night crackers in you just mix them with veggy pulp. Blend your fav veg with your favorite seed, add a source of salt (ie, sea salt, braggs, sea weed) and a source of acid (lemon juice, vinegar...) and you have a balanced spread! It can be very easy, once you know what you like.
The recipes in cookbooks seem incredibly overwhelming at first but once you get the hang of it it seems like a breeze. Practice really does make perfect.
My super fats recipe is pasta of any kind. I can make a marinara in under 5 minutes and the noodles only take a couple minutes as well (and I dont have the tools for fast pasta noodles). Its the meal I make if I have gone to long without food and I am starving. It happens to be damn tasty as well so it works out.
Pestos are also really easy but I like to soak whatever nut I use prior...even if its only for an hour. It's normally raw pumpkin seeds or pine nuts and they soak pretty quickly!
Having bars on you is also a great idea but they are really high in fat. Something I have noticed with the raw diet is that it never used to matter how much fat I ate. I could eat fat all day long and still shrink like crazy but now....I have to really watch what I eat. Lame....
I am trying to include super easy recipes on my blog...feel free to take a look AND contact for recipes for the things you see!
Sorry for the delayed response but the bars I was talking about were LaraBars. Only some of the bars are actually 100% raw. Someone on here mentioned that they weren't even raw but I would have to do my OWN research on that because I cant see how a company would be willing to falsely advertise products making them susceptible to crazy lawsuits. There are a few brands of raw bars though to choose from now. It's so nice seeing options become available for us. There are bars called Raw Revolution but are super high in fat as well.
As far as pestos...you can make ANY kind. Pick and herb...any herb. Whatever is cheapest for you to get that sounds good. There is a class coming to my area specifically on Pesto's which I want to take. I will be sure to add all my creations from that class on my blog!
Someone mentioned a sauce that had sundried tomatoes in it and while they are nice to have sometime...dont feel like you need to add them. Not everyone has time to dehydrate them and they are pretty pricey at the store. Most brands also contain preservatives in them making them not raw. It was actually those damn sundried tomatoes that kept me away from making pastas for nearly a year until I discovered there was no need for them. I dont mean to make the other posters post non valid because they are right in that they are tasty and help with the viscosity of the marinara. You just mentioned super easy and sometimes dehydrating your own tomatoes isnt exactly time saving. I would say though that you can make yourself a weekend treat and follow the more complex recipes.... thats what I like to do. Feel free to check my blog out for recipes and ideas. My main focus is on fast and easy (Thats what she said).
It's a relatively new blog but I post almost everyday and will be throwing in a mad recipes section!
Cheers!