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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI am trying to ge going and want to start increasing my intake of raw whole foods… I have a food dehyrator (although no the cool one i keep seeing displayed throughout my raw researching :( ), a juicer and a mini food chopper… so it is a start on getting the right equipment. I have begun to make dehydrated fruits for snacking on… and I have been making myself a daily juice… I have been making lovely sandwhiches (not on raw “breads” as of yet, as this is where things start to get overwhelming for me, although, my breads are home made) like avacado and cucumber with shredded carrots, for example (dinner tonight)I have been browsing this site for a while now and see some really fantastic recipes, except I don’t know how to get started understanding how to do it all… I need some kind of idiot’s guide to help me get organized I guess… I love to cook… and have gotten really good at having a stocked pantry, but have to rethink how i stock my pantry to convert to mainly raw. notice that so many of these recipes are types that have to be thought out ahead of time just in preparation. How did you get started? What resources did you use? How did you find all these items? Any suggestion on how to really get started? I did just buy a book called :living cuisine” and it has helped some… but wondering if anyone new about any resources that are useful to a complete novice… Thanks for any help you have to offer!!! :)
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you definetly have to do some kind of blended meal. whether it would be a green smoothie or soup. dont be shy make a big glass. most people dont make enough juice or smoothie. dont depend on the dehydrator. I am a busy guy so i just throw stuff in a bag and go. i have a small size blender hooked up in my car. it is pretty sweet.
i started with naturalnews.com then, mercola.com then thebestdayever.com. once i read that this gives you cancer or that gives you a heart attack i stopped eating it or doing it there after. I turned raw in 3 days. from eating 6 sausage sandwiches(college all u can eat) in one sitting Monday night to eating all raw Friday. lets just say college was easy and i had alot of time to read. i started with massive plates of raw vegetables at the salad bar that i could barely digest. it was a rough start. but got a lot easier with time. keep it simple in times of transition. food shop for no more than 7 days. get your major staples in and buy stuff for particular recipes. you can find most of this stuff in grocery stores or health food store. trial and error. feel it out.
I do actually eat quite a few salads… i chop everything I can find into them LOL… I enjoy preparing foods, and need a way to satiate my craving for making stirfries and the like (I eat about 95% vegetarian already, though I do it eggs and cheese) I probably will continue too… at least that is the immediate goal. I am looking for good sources to maybe satiate my need for crackers and breads… I don’t mind having good gluten free breads from time to time, but since I have such a weakness for them, I’d like to find alternatives to incororate…
This book looks like it has some decent info to help me at least understand the basics… Once I get the swing of any “cooking” I don’t typically use recipes… it more about the techniques… I like to “cook” :) I enjoy food much more when I get involved in the process… if that makes sense…. but you are right… I was sort of lookign at too big of a picture… I ned to deal with a few days at a time and I suppose I’ll find a system :)
I know what you mean about an idiots guide needed! How awesome would it be if there was actually one of those things! Check out all the recipes on the site and find something you feel comfortable tackling :) smoothies and juices are easy (if you have the equipment) and salads are simple. I would suggest finding some good books. I recently picked up RAWvolution and it’s excellent. :)
I recommend making crackers in your dehydrator. They’re easier than raw breads. Try using either flax, sesame seeds, or nuts, ground in your coffee grinder. They can be mixed with some water or pureed tomatoes. Follow a recipe from goneraw or elsewhere. The onion bread seems to be popular – i haven’t made it yet. I recommend making seed/nut crackers. I didn’t like the flax ones I made – but I’m VERY new at uncooking too. It could be a matter of getting used to things. So start simple. Choose recipes with less than 5 ingredients.
When i first took the leap 2 years ago,it was the day before Easter Sunday. I made LOTS of mistakes the first 5-7 days as i kept on reading and learning.I even ate 5 Hershey kisses each day the first 3 days! Don’t try to be perfect about it. Your raw will come to you. In the beginning I kept lots of things like Larabars and raw nuts in the car for those “I need food now” moments. Those are non-existent now. I know how to satisfy my chocolate cravings raw and i really don’t feel deprived of anything except CHEESE! Every once in awhile I have raw goat milk cheddar. It’s not vegan , but it’s raw. After about 5 days, you’ll tune in to your body’s desires. It’s fun. I remember waking up one day desperate for avocado—I never even ate it before!
well, you already have my favorite raw foods book, living cusine by renee loux underkoffler… but it sounds like you are doing great! definitely, don’t expect perfection in the beginning (or ever!)
if you’re making juice daily, try making them green. my favorite is 1 head celery, 1-2 apples, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 pound leafy greens (usually kale or spinach). cucumber and giner are also tasty in there.
i love the onion bread, and it’s very easy to make, although a mini food processor might be a little tricky… i typically use 2 batches of a full size one!
if you feel adventurous, try some of renee’s burgers, sushi and cookies… totally amazing, and not that hard! although again, you’ll probably want to scale down the serving sizes for that mini food processor!
ok, enough rambling about me. glad you are excited about starting on raw foods!
I know.. I want a larger food processor… but I figured I could make due LOL… lots of itty bitty batches… I did that when I made Pesto… I had SOOOoooo many basil plants to harvest at the end of the season.. they were like weeds…
burgers and crackers… they sound like a good way to go…
I do have to make my juices a little greener… I have added spinach from time to time, as well as cucumber and carrots (ok.. not green)...
Cheese will probably be my biggest weakness… btu I want to try to make some nut”milk’ to see if that will at least solve my craving for milk…
I had Rawvelution in my hands, but ended up going with the one I have… they both looked good. The guy at borders must have thought I was nuts… I was sitting there for about an hour, taking the 5 different books they had on and off the shelf….
Thanks… your responses have made this look a little less overwhelming… you know how it is.. new things always seem bigger than you… I felt the same way starting the dogs on raw, though that was a bigger transition for them than me.. I at least already ate a lot of veggies and fruit… but theirs is much easier to prepare… open meat and hand it too them (Ok a little more than that, but not much and not always)
The book I started with I don’t use much any more, but the important thing is to start, and like lzhpt said, it will come to you. I feel best when I go to the store, buy what appeals to me most, and then make something out of it. That way, I know I am getting what my body needs. It is nice to get the ingredients for a few recipes so that if my experiments end up in the garbage, I still have something good to eat. :) Or sometimes I write down the vegetables, nuts, etc. that appeal to me that week and then remember or look for recipes once I have an idea for ingredients. However you decide to do it will work for you! I love creating recipes and “making food” too – that’s what I say now instead of “cooking” :)
Cheese is one of the main food sources of Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin). I notice that when I crave it, I just need to get B2, and my craving goes away. Vitamin B2 is also found in whole grains, almonds, and sunflower seeds.
I’ve noticed that out of all the equipment I felt I needed when I started my 15 dollar coffee bean grinder (for seeds, nuts) gets the most use! get one of those if you don’t have one. Also the spirolini for making veggie pasta noodles and pretty salads is great for 30 dollars. And I’d suggest Ani Phyo’s book.. she has simple, delish recipes. Good luck! Remember you can take as long as you want to transition, it’s not a race :)
Hey Kminty – where do you get a spirolini from? I’ve never heard of it. Can you get it in the UK?
Red Earth – I posted a thread about spirooli. The world cuisine tri blade vegetable slicer from amazon is supposed to be better. fyi :)
Funny you should mention the “idiot’s guide” because they are actually coming out with one! The people that own the raw restaurant in Kauai (can’t think of their names) are in the process of writing it and it comes out this summer. I went to a dinner/class they did in Scottsdale.
HI Everyone,
I am a new member. Just wanted to let you all know that The Complete Idiots Guide to Eating Raw is here! There is a great foreword by Gabriel Cousens.
We are the authors of the book, and its available now through amazon. You can visit our website (www.veganfusion.com) for more information and some free recipes from the book. We actually list Gone Raw as a recommended website at the back of the book.
We just added a recipe from the book – our Live Moo Shu recipe to this site, with a photo.
We look forward to participating more on this site.
Keep up the great work