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Changing my ways

I was wondering if anyone has any good tips on changing your food prep style. It’s going to take some time for me to get used to making things a day or two ahead of time. Anyone got any advice on how to make this a smooth transition?

Comments

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Buy a ton of fresh fruit, greens & assorted veggies at the same time as you buy ingredients to make other meals that take longer. So for the first couple of days you can eat fresh fruit & veggies, salads (make a couple of different dressings) & green smoothies while you are doing the work to prepare meals that will be ready a day or more later. Also look for recipes that you can just make & eat right away or that only take part of a day to soak something before making & eating. I have found a few recipes that either whip up fast or last a long time once they’re made, and I make those often. I also like to cut up a bunch of veggies all at once and make a couple of dressings, and then I have easy salads all week; otherwise I tend to not eat as many veggies if I’m tired & don’t feel like chopping veggies cuz I’m starving! My big tip: do what works – that’s just what works for me.

    Some of my easy 1 day or less foods are:

    Chocolate avocado pudding, alfredo zucchini noodles, raw tacos, Zoe’s “Cheese With Spring Onions” or other seed cheeses, Brazil nut pancakes.

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    I don’t do a lot of preparing ahead – I like quick and fresh, but if it makes it easier you can keep almonds or other nuts soaking in the fridge, just change the water, or soak and dehydrate a whole bunch and keep those in the fridge – they’ll last much longer. I found the whole dehydrating thing a bit much in the beginning as I was detoxing and transitioning, it was overwhelming, so I was more likely to eat big fresh salads or smoothies. You’ll find recipes other than salads here that don’t require any prep time, like veggie chili and kelp noodle recipes.

  • anngoingrawanngoingraw Raw Newbie

    I don’t know if you have been eating SAD until now, or if you were vegan before or… But anyway, if you were SAD you can think now in a different way, “large salads/wraps, fresh fruit/smoothies and nuts/seeds/fat” instead of “meat and 2 veggies”. If you were vegan try to think that now you are going to eat large portions of fresh raw stuff instead of cooked. There are some things that cannot be eaten just raw, you can’t make a raw bean casserole, but you can sprout legumes and use in salads.

    Two things that have helped me:

    Think about what CAN i eat (and not what i CAN’T)

    Make gourmet recipes just when i have time or when i really like to uncook, most time i eat as fresh and unprocessed as possible.

    Welcome and good luck, let us know how are you doing!

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    why would you need to prep 2 days ahead of time? do you mean with dehydrator recipes?

    when i was making crackers or flatbreads, i made stuff after breakfast and it was ready by dinner.

    otherwise, raw is the easiest ever. no cooking, no pre-heating an oven, no washing greasy sticky pans. it’s just a different WAY to think of “cooking,” which takes a little mental adjustment… it just comes from experience. you’ll get it. =)

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Sprouting stuff means planning ahead – like sprouting buckwheat and then mixing it up to make crackers or a pizza crust, etc. I make pies that set up in the freezer & it takes 12 – 24 hours. Soaking nuts to make pancakes, etc. – but once you get into everyday eating raw foods, even when making things like that, it just becomes a routine. So I don’t plan certain meals for certain days; I just eat whatever’s ready first and do parts of other things when I have time & food in my belly. I also make two or three things at a time when I can – like if I’m soaking nuts in the morning to make pancakes for tomorrow morning, I put sunflower seeds in to soak for raw tacos for tonight, and some more sunflower seeds to soak for a seed cheese that I will eat for lunch with the bread I made two days ago…Then by the end of the day or the next morning, I have raw tacos for two or three meals, two meals worth of pancakes, and plenty of seed cheese to put on my salads/crackers/breads/lasagna/etc. for a couple of days. That kind of day happens ONCE IN A WHILE, and I fill in with fruits, salads, smoothies, etc. So, once I have a thing or two made, I am set for a while. Like pianissima said, it just takes some getting used to, & you WILL get it :)

  • Thanks to everyone who responded! The advice was very helpful. I’m at a bit of an advantage, because I never used to cook, so there aren’t any bad habits to break. Everything I ate was restaurant food, so it’s been a little harder not getting that instant gratification. However, I am wowing my friends and myself just making my own almond milk, so who knows what the food prep future will bring. :D

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Wow – great! That’s fun that you’re doing nutmilks – just wait & see how amazed you’ll be one day to realize you can make crackers & nutburgers & raw pies with the best of the raw chefs! Woohoo!!!

  • I started out making almond milk, but didn’t like dealing with all the almond pulp left over, so I’ve switched to hemp milk, and it’s wonderful! Less pulp, and very tasty, plus it’s got lots of essential fats.

  • Thanks!

  • bittbitt Raw Newbie

    it depends on what you want. it’s nice to have some special things that take longer sometimes. but there are some great recipes that take very little prep. you can search them by equipment on this site. that might help.

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