ADULT'S BREAKFAST
Us adults usually have only citrus and or hot herbal teas or Chai tea (spiced) in the morning. Our digestive powers are not as great as the children nor are our nutritional needs as we are developed humans. As we help prepare children's breakfasts, we may nibble at fruit but rarely eat a full breakfast. For adults it is usually best to not "break" 'fast" and wait to eat a meal until closer to 10 am to noon. This gives the body extra time needed to cleanse, heal, and completely digest and move through the intestinal system the prior day's food, especially if a meal is eaten after 6 pm. Skipping breakfast can do so much in giving the body a good rest from the energy sapping process of digestion. If you desire 3 meals you can have fruit between 10 and 11 am and then a big salad between 1 and 2pm and still have another meal from 5 to 6pm.
LUNCHES
. Gourmet salads that include onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado, olives, walnuts, sprinkled ground seeds and wonderful dressings (see section on Gourmet salads). Kids usually pick exactly what they want and often demand for Mom or Dad to make a past other favorite dressing. They like decorating the salads themselves when they have time.
. Nori Rolls (raw sea veggie Nori sheet wrapped around combinations of avocado, bean sprouts, red pepper, tomato, carrot and cucumber with long slivers of lettuce or herbs) dipped in tamari w/ Stone ground mustard or wasabi. "Wet" end of Nori sheet w/ Stone Ground Mustard , any dressing, hummus or pate to seal.
. Spring Rolls - Use thin rice flour sheets. Wet in warm water in a wide pan. Use fresh thin veggies, sliced cabbage and lettuce & herbs like basil and mint. Place veggies close to you on rice flour sheet, roll in sides, then roll spring roll keeping pressure on the top side being rolled in, not the underneath side which is against the table and will rip.
. Wraps (for kid's at school) - lettuce, cucumber, tomato & red onion and choice of avocado, sautéed tofu, or Organic Garden raw dehydrated Falafel balls or Veggie Burger. We often make a delicious sauce with lemon/sesame seed /Tamari/Olive Oil/ peeled garlic/onion powder (which we vary with adding cucumber, mint or dill). We use organic whole-wheat wraps with no artificial ingredients or hydrogenated oils.
. Fruit salads with fresh raw nuts ; almond, walnut, pecan, macadamia.
DINNER
Dinner is usually also a gourmet salad (see gourmet salads below) or uses other items listed with Lunch.
Sometimes this meal is skipped when not enough family members are hungry. This generally occurs when a) too much cooked food is consumed that day or the day before (from being on a predominantly raw food diet for roughly 5 years, our bodies are sensitive to knowing when it has any real hunger or when it needs to wait and cleanse). Or b) kids eat fruit or other snacks in the afternoon Generally they are not supposed snack since it often does result in no appetite for a supper.
A word about the transition for kids
While we encourage the children to eat regular meals, they are never forced to eat at a certain mealtime or to eat a particular food.
Since they do eat healthy most of the time we have come to trust that their own intuition about what is right for them is accurate. When we first transitioned to a vibrant vegetarian predominantly raw food organic diet, the children required more guidance and gentle prodding, but ultimately it is what you stock in the house, the recipes and your example that will determine how quickly they (you) transition .
It is amazing how when you take junk food out of the house and leave luscious ripe soft fruits around children will eventually go for them. I still remember the first time we threw out all the junk, chips, cookies, pastries and breads.
For 2 days they didn't go for the raw fruits, but on day 3 they were absolutely bonkers for the fruit. Once in while we allow some organic rye bread into the house or organic crackers with raw almond butter or jam, organic popcorn, rice cakes or trial mix with organic chocolate.
When you have taken out all the real junk these become unbelievable treats for the children when raw snacks won't do it for them that day, such as; fruit, trail mix, apples or banana with almond butter, banana pudding or sorbet (see snacks and desserts below) .
Dinner is more likely to include cooked food than other meals, since there is tendency for cravings to sometimes get the upper hand at this time as the day progresses. Your goal is go as raw as possible and it is very good to catch streaks of days or weeks in a row totally raw. Below is a sample of items that we have used in our family to overcome strong cooked food urges. Also Organic Garden Veggie Burgers, Falafel and "Meat" loaf go over well.
These cooked foods are not to be over eaten and always go with a proper salad:
. Roasted garlic (put in oven unpeeled with olive oil in a pan).
. Toasted whole wheat or rye bread slice dipped in olive oil. Also goes great with roasted garlic squished onto it.
. Roasted sweet potato (way more healthful than white potato) quartered with onion, spices and olive oil. Steamed squash.
. Baked Sweet Potato with olive oil and pure moist sea salt or tamari as a substitute for butter.
. Tofu stir-fried with no liquid (extra firm tofu is wet and water needs to burn off for it to brown a little. Add at the last 30 seconds; olive oil, a touch of toasted sesame oil, sesame seed, garlic flakes, pepper or other seasonings. Add at the very end an ounce of tamari. Pour into a bowl and stir lightly.
. Somen (thin Japanese noodle) boiled for 3 minutes and a) seasoned in a bowl similar to Tofu just mentioned or b) topped with a fresh raw tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes, soaked sun-dried tomato & olive oil, sea salt, pepper, fresh and dried herbs. Add chopped onion & tomato after blending the prior ingredients. Or use organic store bought tomato sauce. Or make raw tomato sauce but add stir fried garlic and onion for more "cooked " flavor.
SNACKS
. Trail mixes - add your favorite mix of any nut, seed and dried fruit.
Example 1 : 2 Part Sunflower Seed, 2P Raisin, 1P Walnuts, 1P Almond, 1P Pecans, 1P Raw Pumpkin Seed (also known as Pepitas), ½ P Raw Fruit Sweetened Cranberry, Diced Dried Apricots or Figs.
Example 2: Equal parts Pumpkin Seed (Pepitas), Sunflower Seeds, Raisons and Cranberry.
NOTE: To start kids off in the beginning you may add organic chocolate chips to the trail mix or chocolate covered raisons and gradually decrease the amount of chocolate over time. Then you simply run out of chocolate and take a week(s) to replace it.
. Dried Fruits
. Raw Almond Butter on anything, apples and bananas are good choices. Almond butter is the only truly raw and healthful nut butter you can buy in a health food store
. Raw jam - handful of soaked apricots, 1 soaked fig, and berries to taste - you can do this in a blender or cusinart and might have to ad a touch of water. Or organic jam from the store.
. Organic rice cake with raw almond butter and or/jam. If no home made jam use organic Cascadian Farms.
. Whole wheat organic crackers with raw almond butter and or/jam
. Puddings - throw bananas (at least 2 or 3) in a blender or food processor (easier) and blend with combinations of berries, or soaked almonds or walnuts, almond butter, coconut meat or sun-dried coconut. Add a touch of organic vanilla extract, carob powder or cinnamon if desired. Make this and clean it up in less than 5 minutes. Try a real simple one first; slice bananas, almond butter with a touch a water to get it blending.
. Sorbet - The same as puddings except use frozen bananas and food processor is a must.
. Raw cookies, brownies and macaroons from Organic Garden
. Organic Popcorn - combine Olive Oil and a touch of toasted sesame oil for real butter flavor and sprinkle with pure Celtic Sea Salt. You'll be amazed at his one!
EVENING SNACKS
Should always be juicy fruits that will not weigh you down with digestion.
It is very important to allow the body proper time to digest before going to bed.
When you sleep, your body may cleanse and heal only if does not have to digest food at night, which it does not do well. That is one good reason why you will feel tired, sluggish, groggy, hung over, and maybe filled with mucus in the morning.
If you do not overeat and eat at night you should wake more easily and feel good unless you are going through a greater cleansing cycle. Over sleeping and improper sleep patterns will of course also result in grogginess. I firmly recommend retiring by 10pm if possible and arising before the sunrise; this is the most natural and healing of all sleep patterns.
All ancient healing systems including Chinese and Ayrurveda It taps us into the biorhythms of nature.
GOURMET SALADS
With savory salads coming into play at potentially 2 meals, you can see how it may be important to keep them exciting. Use culinary art (beautiful decorating) on your plates.
Kid's love to decorate their salads with garnishments of their choice.
Keep experimenting with dressings and build up a good repertoire . The dressing (and crisp greens) is the key to making your salads so appetizing.
Use Romaine, Red Leaf and Green Leaf (always organic). Kale is excellent with a good dressing to "hide" the slight bitterness you may not be used to.
- Spinach is wonderful with this simple vinaigrette. 1 C Olive Oil, ½ C Tamari, ½ C Apple Cider Vinegar, 2 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil. A great Spinach salad also includes, crushed walnut, marinated sun-dried tomato and red onion slivers.
- Mustard Balsamic Vinaigrette is 2 Tblsp (or more) Eden Stone Ground Mustard, 1 C Olive Oil, Flax Oil to taste, ½ C Tamari, ½ C Balsamic Vinegar, 2 tsp (or less) Toasted Sesame Oil. Substitute Flax oil for Olive Oil (all or a portion of it) and this will still taste great!
- Add ground flax seed or combination of ground flax, sesame and sunflower. Use a small coffee grinder to grind. Sprinkle on salads for a wonderful nutty flavor.
- Alfalfa sprout, mung bean (bean sprouts), and sunflower sprouts are excellent and very gourmet.
- Thinly sliced red or yellow onion are great for any salad
- Olives - the kids love olives. Kalamata and Green Olives are favorites.
- Marinated Sun-Dried Tomato - Soak for 2 to 3 hours in water. Marinate in olive oil with sea salt and Italian seasoning to taste.
- Marinate almost any raw veggie in Olive Oil, Tamari, Lemon Pepper, Onion Powder and other seasonings. Asparagus, Zucchini, Mushrooms
CLOSING REMARKS
Eat core diet from convenience; learn to enjoy eating simple, quick but wholesome meals. It doesn't take long at all to get very good at making gourmet salads and easy delicious dressings and sauces.Shopping well is one of the keys to your success. Stock a variety of ORGANIC fruit, greens, veggies (incl, onion, garlic, ginger root), dried-fruit, nuts, seeds, olives and condiments/grocery including; olive oil, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, tamari, sea salt, stone ground mustard, wasabi, sea veggies, nori rolls, rice wrapping paper (spring roll).
Develop good repertoire of dressings. Establish a rhythm.
You can see how cooked food is entertainment. Dining out is the hands down #1 form of entertainment. Of course it is going to be hard to get to the highest levels of raw food diet when you have so many social occasions, but don't worry about that. When you do eat out, just try to make lighter choices, eat a salad with the meal, chew the cooked food very well. Don't order an entrée for yourself but split one to cut down on the temptation of eating too much. Your stomach and your wallet will thank you. Make the most of every bite so you will be satisfied, and save the guilt
Above all learn to tap into your body's natural instincts about what foods are for you. Different Foods have eliminative or reconstructive properties. Your body knows best what it is trying to do; cleanse or rebuild, heat up or cool down. So over the course of the year you will naturally be drawn to a variety of different foods. But only if you stay predominantly raw will you be able to tap into this instinct!
