Going Raw

About two months ago, my boyfriend surprised me with the purchase of about 5 raw food cookbooks. I wasn't sold on the whole raw idea, since having eaten at a few strictly raw restaurants in the past, while my taste buds were impressed, my stomach, the following few days was a mess. Nevertheless, my interest was piqued. I know, I know, the raw food craze hit years ago, but I never said I was one to follow fads. Being a vegetarian for over 10 years, a vegan for almost 3, going raw seems like a natural progression.
I'd given up fried foods over two years ago, with the very very occasional indulgence. I make the effort to incorporate a salad with every meal, something I learned from my mother and have carried with me for life. I add fresh fruit to every breakfast. Keeping those ideals in minds, the transition to raw is easy!
At first, I curled up each night with a new book, reading the recipes, swallowing advice, trying out salads and other simple, basic recipes, all the while becoming really intimidated. Eating raw food seems expensive! You need a good food processor, a high-powered blender, a food dehydrator, sprouters, and a juicer. All in all expect to drop about $1000 to truly benefit from raw food and start living with ease. I found it extremely difficult to practice raw food living without any major kitchen appliances other than my dilapidated old blender, so the first big purchase I made was a decent food processor. I cannot tell you how much easier it all became. I also bought a sprouting jar, (or you could just put cheesecloth over an existing jar) and before you know it, you'll be munching on your very own fresh sprouts that you can add to salads and wraps! It's easy and fun to watch them grow.
I've been living pretty healthy for a while, so the transition for me was pretty easy. Every day or so, I'd wander into the grocery store and stock up on a few more items from the bulk section; almonds, cashews, dates, unsulphered dried fruits and raw nut butters and before you know it, I had a pretty well-stocked pantry. Going raw means I had to give up a lot of my favorite foods: rice, grains, peanut butter, noodles but I also discovered that I got to keep a lot of familiar foods around, like miso, steamed greens, raw nut butters, and off course nuts, fruits and vegetables.
Tofu, I learned, is highly processed and hasn't been fitting into my life style for a while, so giving that up was a snap. Besides being highly processed, soy is also one of the largest commercially grown crops around and if not organic, you are literally welcoming pesticides into your body. No thanks! Most raw foodies say that tempeh (organic) is okay, on occasion, because, it's fermented whole soy beans with some enzymes preserved. Steam it lightly for easy digestibility. Although I hardly ever go out to dinner anymore, I know that I can choose tempeh and feel pretty good about my choice.
I would say I'm at about 80% raw right now. I'm waiting for my dehydrator to be delivered as I write, and that should open up another door. It's nearly impossible to make breads without the dehydrator, so for sandwiches, everything is raw but the wrap.
So far I've made my all-time favorite Kale Salad (watch for recipe later this week, it's too delicious not to share), A sausage-like pate made with fennel and sunflower seeds, (I can't get enough, makes great sandwiches and tastes amazing), beanless hummus, a strawberry pie with raw almond crust and cashew lemon creme (helloooo!), Broccoli mashed 'potatoes' with miso gravy, the list goes on. Making raw food is trial and error too, expect to be disappointed until you get it down. I made a raw cous-cous out of cauliflower and couldn't even eat it, I added too much lemon and ruined it. Last night I added hemp oil to my favorite Kale Salad and had to fight off a gag-reflex (hemp oil is fishy to me and I never liked seafood). Raw garlic can be a shock to your system, so you might want to cut the amount to a quarter of the recommended serving.
I thought it would be expensive, keeping all these nuts and seeds on hand, but its really not, you just have to learn to anticipate what you'll be eating later in the week and learn to plan a little bit better. I haven't had too much difficulty throwing together a last-minute meal with a well-stocked pantry.
Watch for more stories as I delve further into my foray with raw foods.