I 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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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 :)
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)
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.