How to feed your non-raw/non-vegan family

I know a lot of people are in this position, so I thought it was worth writing a post about it. 

Here are some tips if the people you live with and prepare meals for are NOT willing to give up meat, cheese, and cooked food, even though you are trying to eat more raw and vegan meals yourself.

Salads
As often as you can, have big main course salads for dinner, and set them up salad bar style. Include dark leafy greens (organic Spring Mix is great because it has a variety of greens, spinach is also always a winner) and lots of different colored vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers (orange, red and yellow add sweetness), grated beets (raw). Include some high protein and more filling items, such as beans, hemp seed, avocados, sprouts, nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews...), and other seeds (sunflower, pumpkin...). 
This way they can pick what they want, so they won't feel like you are forcing them to eat "healthy."

(Of course for those family members who can't imagine not having any meat or dairy, you could put a small side of hard boiled eggs, shredded cheese, chicken, etc, but hopefully there will be more of the veggies so they will have to fill up on the good stuff, with only a small amount of animal products.)

At first everyone will want their favorite dressing (which is hopefully organic, since you can find most for the same price as regular these days, and you don't want the bad ingredients that regular dressings have, such as MSG in Ranch). But I would highly encourage them to just squeeze some lemon juice on top instead of dressing. I have been doing that (no oil is necessary) and it tastes great! It also helps you to taste the natural flavor of the vegetables so your taste buds start to crave that natural, fresh taste. 

The prep is simply washing and chopping vegetables. Get the whole family involved and do it while you talk about how your day went.

See, this is a way for vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores to all eat the same meal. :)
(Note: This is also a great idea for having guests over. I recently went over to a friend's house and they did a salad bar dinner with a lot of people and it worked great! Everyone brought a salad topping so there was really something for everyone's taste.)

Smoothies
Make smoothies for everyone daily. If someone isn't around, save theirs in the fridge so they can have it when they get home. Smoothies make great snacks, or I like to have mine with lunch. Put in dark leafy greens, carrots, and then banana for sweetener, along with other frozen fruits like strawberries, mangoes, blueberries, peaches, pineapple, etc. Add in a splash of lemon (natural antibacterial- great for your body), some flax seed oil (for Omega 3s), hemp seeds for protein (they completely blend in by the way), and if needed, a scoop of frozen 100% juice (like Dole Orange Peach  Mango) and water. You can always add other things too, such as the superfoods Spirulina, goji berries, etc. You can play around with different veggies to see how they affect the taste, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, and cabbage (I have tried them all and my son actually really liked the broccoli/cabbage smoothies we used to do!). Most people (and kids) love these smoothies because they taste just like fruit! (Blueberries hide the green color, if that's an issue.)

I suggest getting BPA free plastic 16 oz cups with lids and straws to make it fun and less messy if your kids will be drinking them.

Other dinners ideas
Make dishes that they can add meat or dairy to if needed, such as:

Enchiladas- just make them with rice, beans, bell pepper, etc, and if they really want, they can add cheese on top to their own individual enchilada and melt in the microwave (or you could put cheese on some of the enchiladas...but then that doesn't give them the opportunity to try it the way you made it, which they might actually like.

Veggie Pizza- you can add cheese to half of the pizza, and eat yours without cheese. However, I suggest that before cooking the pizza, you cut your part out to eat raw and put your own raw "cheese" on (consisting of: cashews, nutritional yeast, water, lemon juice, salt). I just did this and it was amazing. I will post about it soon.

Really, they can add dairy or meat to pretty much anything you make. So, I suggest making it your way, then if they want to add something to it, they can. Or they can just eat it the way you made it.  Don't judge or make them feel bad if they want to add some cheese or meat to the food you made. You don't want tension while trying to enjoy a wonderful fresh salad. Negative emotions affect our health anyway, so try to be positive and happy in the kitchen and around the dinner table. :)

Here are some tips on breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast- If everyone normally eats cereal, see if they are willing to try almond, coconut, rice, or hemp milk in place of cows milk. Also always offer lots of fruit for breakfast (and if possible, have them eat it first, or they might get filled up on cereal before a piece of fruit even enters their thoughts). Also make sure the cereals they are eating are free of preservatives, artificial ingredients, GMOs, etc. which means it should probably be organic. I try to look for low sugar (under 4g per serving) and high protein & fiber.

Lunch- veggie sandwiches (there is protein in the bread, you don't need meat or cheese- make sure it is whole grain bread, sprouted is best). Mash an avocado (add salt, pepper, garlic, etc) and spread generously on each slice (in place of mayo), then put in sprouts, tomato, cucumbers, spinach, etc.

Other ideas: raw almond butter and sugar free (Polaner's) jam sandwich, veggies and hummus, leftover dinner, etc.

Hope this helps!

Day 27- Satisfied with fruit for breakfast

I have been eating a big fruit salad every morning for the past 27 days or so, with about 3 whole fruits (pear, apple, banana, or orange) chopped up, and sometimes hemp seed, sometimes sunflower or pumpkin seeds, sometimes walnuts or almonds. My goal was to eat the fruit first, then eat any type of grain if I was still hungry (oatmeal, toast, cereal with almond milk, etc). At first this felt strange to eat fruit first- I was accustomed to eating cereal to fill me up, and then a little fruit afterwards. But after a big bowl of fruit & nuts, there is not much room for anything else. And since eating this way, I have started to feel amazingly satisfied with simply fruit & nuts for breakfast.

So, I think the key is to eat your fruits & vegetables first! That way you will make sure you get them, and they will fill you up so you won't have much room for the other processed, sugary, chemical-laden food you may be used to eating.

Another thing is that in order to get more nutrients from vegetables without consuming so many (which is hard to do), I plan on juicing. So I will have a cup of juice in the morning (I will include some fruits too, such as apples) and then have my breakfast. Can't wait to get a good juicer soon!


***Update 1/3/13:
Although I loved eating my fruit salad for breakfast, it took awhile to chew it all up. And since I have a toddler and an infant, I don't have the luxury of sitting down to eat for a long time, so I would usually take my bowl into the bathroom and have bites in between showering and getting ready for the day. Sometimes I even had to finish eating it in the car on the way to our playgroup or other errand. So when I read about Fruit Porridge in my my book "Raw Food" by Erica Palmcrantz, I realized I needed to try it out.

Porridge didn't exactly sound exciting and delicious when I first read about it. Sounds like that boring stuff the 3 bears ate in the woods. But it's anything but boring. Basically you take a fruit salad (plus nuts/seeds) and blend it up in the food processor to whatever consistency you like. I like to add ground flax seed & sunflower seeds to mine. The fruits can vary from day to day so you have a good variety for your taste buds. The very first one I made was this:

Winter breakfast porridge

1 orange

1 pear

1 banana

1-3 Tbsp ground flaxseeds

1-3 Tbsp sunflower seeds

a sprinkle of craisins

My latest favorite:

Goji Sunshine

(wow, you can almost feel the light and energy of the goji berries radiating from this picture!)

2 oranges

1 banana

1 apple

1/4 cup goji berries (soaked 20 minutes)

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

To sum it up...

Fruit porridge- wow! It's so simple, yet so flavorful & satisfying! Way tastier than plain old oatmeal, and my body feels energized and ready for the day. 

I used to get this feeling in my head after breakfast- when I used to mostly eat cold cereal with milk. My head hurt, not like a headache, it was more of a dull ache and I felt tired and sluggish. I had tried eating different foods to see if it would go away, but I never found anything until I started eating just fruit & nuts/seeds for breakfast. Maybe it was the sugar in the cold cereal, or something in the milk. Whatever it was, it is gone now, and I'm so glad that I can finally start my day feeling great!