I Need Some Advice from You Wonderful People - Raw Food Chat

So New to Raw · 11-03-2007

Dear Fellow Raw Friends:

Today, I had a wonderful salad. It consists of romaine lettuce, slices of garlic, onions (I am an onion lover), spanish onions that is, sun-dried tomatoes on a pita bread with Hellman's Mayonaise.

Now, before you gag or flip out, I need the pita bread because it makes the salad taste soooo goooood. I found that home-made croutons and pita breads adds to a salad. Also it fills me up. I don't like the idea of starving or being hungry.

I am in the process of finding a mayonaise recipe. I simply love Hellman's. Any suggestions of recipes?

Also the pita bread is staying. I'll just have to be contented on being 99% raw.

Now, I need some advice. I need a wheatgrass juicer. An electric wheatgrass juicer. Any suggestions. Greenstar is too expensive. (Sorry I am a grad student and the money is coming out of my own pocket.)

Also, I need a suggestion on one more raw book. I have Juliano's Raw and have access to Living Cuisine by Renee Underkoffler. I was thinking of purchasing Raw Food/Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis, Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet, or Living on Live Food by Alissa Cohen. Any suggestions? Please remember I want good raw food. Not something that is so churned that it looks like slop.

Don't mean to be mean but I believe that if I am going to be raw, there should be some pleasure in it. I know that the health benefits are great.

Thanks.

So New to Raw
and proud to be a Raw Newbie

greenbunny · 11-03-2007

Hi Newbie,

There are some relatively cheap hand cranked wheatgrass juicers.

What kind of juice do you plan on making besides wheatgrass and how much wheatgrass do you plan on making? This is important to understand before suggesting a juicer. I've had most of them. If you never want to make anything except an occasional shot of wheat grass the hand cranked will do fine. Otherwise, more details please.

Gotcha on the bread thing. Have you ever tried Manna bread? It's a brand name for this amazing bread that is cooked at low temperatures. It's not technically raw, but it is incredibly digestable and as far as breads go is an amazing delicacy. Many raw foodist do include it in their diets. I take the sunseed or rye or one of the other plainer varieties and break it up into pieces to put on the family salad to make the cooked fooders here happy with my salads. It works wonders.

There are definitely some great cooked yet vegan and healthy Hellman's alternatives. I used to buy one all the time when I was vegan that was delicious, but that was so many years ago at this point that I forgot the name. There is one that is sold in the refrigerated section that is amazing. Hellman's might taste good but is (as I'm sure you know) on the junk food list of foods as it's filled with sugars and saturated fats and all sorts of stuff that a raw foodist would run from. Those vegan mayonnaises on the other hand have some pretty simple and basic ingredients that aren't raw - but aren't saturated or sugared. I don't have a clue how one would go about making raw mayonnaise. I think I have figured out how to make raw mustard, and I'm working on raw ketchup, but if someone knows how to make raw mayonnaise I'd love to hear about it.

Now, that being said, if Hellman's is the only alternative to you feeling delighted and happy with your food - then so be it. I agree with you that feeling good about what we are eating and enjoying it are important. Especially at the beginning of eating raw, unless you can find a good enough alternative to your very favorite foods, it's my opinion that forcing yourself to give them up prematurely can set you up for self-sabotage from your inner self. You can always change everything else first and then see how you feel about it after you are solid in your transition. I think it's safer.

You also might be surprised how your tastes change over time as you eat more and more raw over a longer and longer time. Things that I used to think were incredibly delicious gross me out now. Helman's eventually might lose it's best customer like mudpie has lost it's most ardent fan here. Processed deserts are now disgusting to me when I thought I could never live without them before. It took time, but the transformation did happen without forcing it.

Greenbunny

nothinkingbehind · 11-03-2007

Hey there Raw Newbie,

First, no one is going to flip out on here or tell you what you should or shouldn't do. This is a pretty non-judgemental group. We share our thoughts and ideas, and give info when asked, but I think that we are prety good about not judging anyone's else's journey. That's not what this is here for. At least that's my take on it!

Let's see... mayo is easy, and it's actually raw to start with if you make it at home, you dopn't have to adapt anything. I don't have the recipe right here, but I'll find it and post it. It's basically olive oil and an egg with a bit of flavor thrown in.

Raw food books.... I have 3 so far, and I like all of them. I can't remembr if I posted that somewhere else here, or whether I was talking to someone else about it.... anyway, I have Raw Food, Real World. I like this one for the photos that are very inspiring, and the recipes and methods that they share. I also have RawSome: which is packed with recipes, but not a lot of methods. Raw Food Real World was very clear about how to open and use a thai coconut for example. RawSome has some nice recipes for it, but no method for getting into the thing! I also have Raw Food. It's excellent in terms of talking about how to do things, and then has some very nice recipes, many of them simple.

Time to go play with some food....

Melissa

Double Helix · 11-03-2007

Over time you find that eating raw is very pleasurable. Right now you are transitioning and using some cooked still and that is okay. Different people with different methods, right?

You can blend a cup of soaked cashews or macadamia nuts with enough water to make a thick dressing and season it according to your taste = good substitute for mayo & dressings.

Or you can do like I do and imagine that a giant ogre comes around the mayo factory at midnight and pops his zits into glass jars aka ogre puss...I'm sorry I couldn't help that one, but that really keeps me away from most white creamy dressings!

Avocado is another great substitute for mayo. Just mash it up and plop it in your sammich.

You are moving forward and that's great! Direction, not speed will stick!

nothinkingbehind · 11-03-2007

All I can say is EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW

Good visual on what kind of crap might be in processed foods of any kind....

I make a dressing/dip/spread stuff out of avocado, OJ, some cilantro, and a bit of onion,garlic, and i can't remember what else. Avocado is a great base for those kind of things.

Have you frozen portions of that kind of dressing? I'm wondering how it would hold up. Part of my struggle is being able to have things already done on weeks that I am super busy.

Melissa

greenbunny · 11-03-2007

Double Helix you gave me a great big belly laugh!

Melissa sure knows the scoop here. We try to leave all the "shoulding" to the cooked foodists!

Greenbunny

Double Helix · 11-03-2007

Sure you could try to freeze in ice cube trays or something for individual portion sizes. Not a bad idea!

Glad I got a laught out of you GB, I really do think ogre puss. A friend told me that story and it has stuck with me.

JK013 · 01-21-2008

I don't know of a recipe, but have tried Nanonaise which is vegan mayo and taste about the same as Hellmans.

peaceripples · 01-23-2008

I'm almost gagging after the zit-popping ogre image.... thank goodness I wasn't eating anything with a white sauce on it!