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My advice is to make FRESH foods the staples in your diet. It is easy to get caught up in buying alot of pantry type or dry ingredients but they are expensive and often not raw. Smoothies are a great way to incorporate raw fruits and veg and I agree with thorne that sunflower seeds are a fab staple. Make sure they sprout to ensure their rawness.
The one pantry item I buy is raw olive oil. It really helps take savory recipes to the next level. I use it in moderation because it is a concentrated fat.
peace James
I’m also new to raw (Mom of 2 kids, 2 Guinea pigs, 1 hamster and 1 cat) and I’m a very picky eater! I LOVE the agave nectar and the medjool dates for sweetners. I keep lemons and limes on the counter to make fresh “ades” and dressings every day or so. There are certain veggies and fruits I buy every week, like 3-5 different lettuces, carrots, cucumbers, tiny tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries, cantaloup, watermelon, cherries, pineapple, peaches, berries (in season), lemons and limes. I buy as much as I can at my local Farmer’s market. I also tend to have lots of raw nuts and seeds. I like to check out the new recipes and add them to my box, then when I’m making my grocery list, I check out the recipes I want to make for the week and add the ingredients to my shopping list. This insures I have standbys in case I’m not happy with the recipe I try. Good luck to you and yours!!
For spices some of the those I always seem to use are black peppercorns (freshly cracked they add some nice zing to your recipes and salads), pink salt, onion powder, garlic power, italian seasoning. I always have olive oil too and nutritional yeast. It really all depends on whether or not you like spicey stuff or not too. I don’t and my bf does – he uses lots of cumin, coriander, hot sauce (you can get that raw and mix it in recipes – or make your own), cayenne. You might want to consider getting some some of mixed spice – like herbs de provence or something like that. Add that to your hummus or other sauces for a different flavor.
You will like agave – it sort of tastes like a light honey. :)
I know what you mean about being tired of the hummus. When you first start out, it is often necessary to relay on the easy familiar things which is OK. What you might want to try is having your hummus with different things – like cucumbers instead of carrots. Or put between lettuce rolls on top of tomatoes. One of the things I have been eating a lot of lately is the Rich Cheddar Cheese Sauce (there is a version posted on here) and I make it thick like a spread and put it on cucumber slices and sprinkle my Rawmesan on top (you could put whatever you want on top (chopped onion, tomatoes, chives). Once you have the cheese sauce made the rest is super easy. Takes a few minutes to do! Like little cucumber pizzas!
So making a versitile dip or sauce like hummus or cheese sauce or a spread is nice to have a largeish batch so it is a quick snack to make when you are pressed for time. I always have at least one in the frig made so I am am lazy and don’t feel like making something big I just grab that!
Also for the spices, don’t worry so much if you won’t use them too much – they last. So they will always be there when you need them for a new recipe!