Newbie: long time vegan and yoga devotee aiming for gradual raw transition! - Raw Food Chat

bekuchan · 10-25-2007

Hi, i'm bek and have been reading up on this raw food thing for a while now and am really keen up my rawness!

i'm nearly 30 and have been vegetarian for 20 years, vegan for 7. i'm also really into yoga - i started practising it when my son was born 11 years ago. i've felt increasingly drawn to raw foods lately as they seem to suit me (i have a fast metabolism and am a little and often eater) and also seem like the next logical ethical step in my food consumption.

Only trouble is,

a) i don't know any other raw foodists (hence joining here!)

b) My main problem now is the evening meal, which is the only cooked meal i have. i live with my partner and son, and while i'm not the servile wifey (heh) i don't want to leave them to it cooking wise every night - i'm alright jack style! Tho i'm worried that doing two separate meals will get the better of my time, energy and patience!

i'm a pretty busy working-mother-student (teacher training)

Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Both my partner and son are vegan and pretty open minded and willing to try raw dishes, which is great! The only point my partner makes against raw food is that it's too cold in winter and you want a nice warming meal! Oh and he loves potatoes!! My son's a sugar fiend

greenbunny · 10-27-2007

Your partner is right - raw foods are often too cold in winter. It is importnat not to eat your fruits or veggies cold right out of the fridge in winter. Dehydrated warm foods are great. Warmed soups also work and dishes with lots of cayenne and garlic and other warming herbs are great. Miso is also very warming. Dates believe it or not are also warming for me. In winter it takes some effort to be raw, but it's possible.

Your son should be easy if he likes sweets because you can make all sorts of fab raw deserts that he will probably love and then he can eat things like fudge, icecream and pie for dinner and be in heaven!

A soup and salad might be the ticket at night. You can add just a little warm potato or pasta to your sweetie's salad and warm some raw soup up just a bit and then you can have almost the same meal together. As far as your son goes, if he wants to skip dinner and just eat desert he will probably love you all the more for it!!!! Then you and sweetie can have the desert later if you like.

I got my hubbie addicted to having a salad at night by adding meat to his salad (he's a carnivore). He now eats more salad than I do!

Go with what they like and adapt it to incorporate as much raw as works comfortably for them. That's the ticket!

Greenbunny

bekuchan · 10-30-2007

Hehe, thanks greenbunny, you've certainly got my son sussed!

i'm very lucky as my partner has offered to do most of the cooking (especially while i am getting used to all these new techniques and recipes!) and they have both said they're keen to try the things i make too (my partner likes a "side salad" aswell!) so i'm feeling pretty well supported now.

i haven't got a dehydrator and will probably not be getting one (i imagine they're pretty costly??) but i did order a little hand operated thing that works like the food processor attachments you can get for grating and slicing etc. It makes "spaghetti" from courgettes etc! i might try that with a warm tomato sauce...
That's a good tip about making sure the veggies have been out of the fridge for a while too. Thanks a lot for all the suggestions

bekuchan

greenbunny · 10-30-2007

Sure thing Bek.

The holidays are coming and "expensive" is a relative term. The smallest Excalibur dehydrator isn't all that steep a price for what it is and considering that it will basically be your new stove. Not many people would expect to eat cooked food without a stove or stove top and being raw a dehydrator is basically your stove. That being said, it's only important to have if you really need some warm raw things for partner and pies and cookies and such for son.

Sounds like you have it made now with all that support!

Greenbunny

bekuchan · 11-09-2007

Hey again Greenbunny

Yeah i'm not sure how i feel about dehydrators yet... when i went vegan you couldn't get much in the way of substitutes for cheese, eggs etc and i prefer it that way really, without sounding like too much of a purist. i'm quite simple when it comes to food and as it's just me who's doing this, i don't think i could justify the cost either. Eating raw is one of those things that (i think) should be cheaper in it's simplicity, but i feel it's a natural thing being sold back to us in a similar way as organic food is. It shouldn't be a preserve of the wealthy (or semi-wealthy!)

But anyway, sorry, i didn't mean that to turn into a bit of a rant!

i'm getting there, i think am almost always 99% raw now. i'm trying lots of new recipes and making a lot of my own up. It's working well for everyone too, not just me, so that makes me feel even better!

Thanks again

bekuchan