school class trip...help!! - Raw Food Chat

malsprower · 03-13-2008

im going on a field trip for a week and my dad won't buy me a dehyderater to make dry foods for the trip. I'm on a raw vegan diet and have no clue what to bring on this trip, i need help!! what foods should i bring, how much food, for a 2000 calorie diet for five days. where can i order cheap raw dried foods off the internet such as raw granola bars, cookies, crackers, etc?

RawFoodGrl · 03-13-2008

I got a brand new dehydrator cheap at a thrift store - brand new for $3.00. True, it's not the kind with a temperature control, but it works!!

Perhaps your dad will buy you a less expensive one like that?

For other options, you can certainly get a lot of raw food bars, flax seed bars, crackers, dehydrated fruits, along with raw nuts and seeds at any health food store.

Raw Revolution is my favorite raw food bar - perhaps you can order online.

Another option you can also get at health food stores are envelopes of shake mix. Nutiva has various hemp shakes you can get in single serving envelope. They travel well and are great!

How are the other kids eating? Is everyone bringing food or are you wanting to bring food to be sure you can stay with your raw lifestyle?

If everyone will be eating at restaurants, then there's a lot you can do there. I started a topic called Restaurants and Eating Out for some ideas about how to deal with these situations. I posted my own ideas, and I'm hoping other people will post some too.

You can use things like sheets of nori and lettuce to wrap veggies - I posted a Raw Sushi recipe here which is yummy and travels well. For a day, but it's an option. It's easy to carry nori with you, so you always have that as a wrap for things like tomato, avocado, alfalfa, cucumber and anything else you like.

malsprower · 03-13-2008

the trip is in NYC. mmmmmmmmm, nori and raw hummus...........mmmmm....... thank you sooooo much of the suggestions!!!!! to answer your questions the other kids eat a SAD diet....opposite of me, i know no healthy vegan..... and never met a raw foodist in person....i may pack my own food.... my teacher told me to.... i might end up having to eat some cooked foods there until i get better at this.

jroo · 03-13-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by malsprower

the trip is in NYC.

My guess is that NYC would be your best resource for finding raw food on the road.

Does your group have any free time when you first get there? See if you can get to a food co-op, health food store, or grocery store and stock up on anything that will keep at room temperature (apples, bananas, tomatoes, peppers, citrus, nuts). Then stick it all in a corner in your hotel room. You should be able to use Google Maps to find something near your hotel.

Use Google Maps again and find out if there are any raw restaurants that are nearby the restaurants your group will be eating at. Barring that, bring a small container of raw nut butter or homemade salad dressing to normal restaurants and just order the biggest salad you can get.

Here's a restaurant tip from Victoria Boutenko. Make several copies of the following on a note card and hand it to your server:

I EAT ONLY RAW, UNCOOKED FOODS

I would like a salad or vegetable plate with only fresh, uncooked items:

lettuce, tomato, avocado, carrot, zucchini, sprouts, cucumber, celery, broccoli, scallions, radish, onion, cauliflower, parsley, cabbage, kale, spinach, cilantro, bell pepper, beets, mushrooms, bok choy, arugula, chard.

Thank you for your creative effort. *

Of course, you should customize it to your favorite foods.

* Source: Boutenko, Victora. 12 Steps to Raw Foods: how to end your dependency on cooked food. Revised and expanded edition. Berkely, California: North Atlantic Books, 2007. p 167.

jroo · 03-13-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by jroo

where can i order cheap raw dried foods off the internet such as raw granola bars, cookies, crackers, etc?

While there may be better places to order from in the long run, for now you could buy a case of Larabars off of Amazon for about $1.14 per bar (that's not figuring shipping). The fruit & nut ones are raw. The chocolate ones are only mostly raw. Amazon also has the Raw Revolution bars.

RawFoodGrl · 03-14-2008

Go to www.happycow.com and you can find some health food stores (as well as restaurants) in NYC which might help - and there are green grocers everwhere.

I eat raw at SAD restaurants all the time. Take Denny's, not known for it 's raw fare. But reading the ingredients listed with other things, there's an egg scramble with onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and tomatoes. A chicken sandwhich as avocado on it, as well as tomatoes and generally other-than-iceberg lettuce. Scope the side dishes, ask what the side veggies are, if it's not specific. I have found broccoli, zucchini and other summer squash, and spinach hidden amongst all the entrees. Even if it's not listed, ask!

So, you could certainly say you want the caesar salad (or any other salad), for instance, without the chicken, cheese or dressing, topped with the lettuce and tomatoes they use in their burgers, some avocado from the chicken sandwich and all the veggies in the vegi egg scramble, and any other tidbits of things like broccoli, zucchini, and spinach you can find, but all raw please. Then you can use salad dressing you bring, or simply squeeze lemon juice on it (if you have the avocado, you've got some good fats, and may not need dressing), or ask if they have olive oil.

The letter described above is much the same as the letter in the book I was referencing. I am updating my post under Restaurants and Eating Out to add the book's information.

Also, in terms of food dehydrators, you might try looking at www.craigslist.com or www.freecycle.com to find one that's really inexpensive. I know when we move up to the Excalibur, I want to give my current dehydrator to someone who could really appreciate and value it.

RawFoodGrl · 03-21-2008

After going out of town for a few days myself recently, I would HIGHLY recommend bringing a small cooler, like a lunch cooler or lunch tote, and bringing food from home.

I've seen some small soft-sided lunch totes that have a zippered bottom so you could put ice in there and keep it from your food, and also some backpack style ones (definitely what I would use, and am looking into getting for myself).

We had an easy time getting a cup of ice here and there, and I would next time bring zip-top baggies to hold the ice and catch drips. I would also double bag the ice so drips are minimized.

I would keep everything in bags, not hard sided containers, so you can fit things here and there, and maximize the space and what you could bring.

On our trip, whole tomatoes and avocados held up well, as did some leftover salad (we did have that in a hard-sided container), and dandelion. I would think broccoli florettes would hold up well, and lettuce and spinach for the most part too. Well, probably most veggies and fruit, since you're only talking 5 days. We were gone a total of 4 days, and things held up quite well.

I am updating my experience in the Restaurants thread, which also might have helpful information: http://www.rawfoodchat.com/forums/ra...-out-1191.html

malsprower · 03-22-2008

thank you so much for the suggestions this information is really helpful to me, i may use a cooler which is a great idea raw food girl. i also printed off the list that you gave me Jroo and gave it to my teacher, thank you very much. but i agree raw food girl, coolers work well, my mom uses them all the time when we go camping, i may use hers. the raw food diet is a bit of a struggle for me today, im having a hard time finding foods that will keep me full. i always feel so hungry. it is difficult to stay away from cooked pancakes and shaw's tortilla chips and salsa which i guiltily ate today. my dad is so angry at me for starting this diet. also he thinks i am spoiled because he has to make "special" trips every other week to buy me raw foods, and many times i run out of the fresh foods such as fruit and veggies so i have to live off of dry raw foods and that makes me crave "wet" cooked foods such as salsa and filling foods such as tortillas and pancakes. i try to eat as little food as possible to save my dads money and so that i dont run out of my raw foods so my dad doesnt have to go grocery shopping as much. i also really need a dehyderator so i can make raw tortillas. my dad is also mad at me because i eat a lot of fruits which he thinks are extremely expensive. sorry i feel really sad because i snacked on cooked foods.

RawFoodGrl · 03-23-2008