yum!
Inspired by my 1 week raw fast in a few months ago, I decided to break my eating routine (consisting largely of beans on toast and bagels) and go back to the Light (the light here meaning Uncooked foods).
I am now living in London, as opposed to NYC, so I was feeling a little handicapped from the start. For instance, there is no Trader Joe’s in London, and how anyone can pay 7 pounds for raw almond butter is beyond me.
Stepping into the Whole Foods on Portabella market with my fiancee, I eagerly procured what I considered to be staples of my raw foods diet. Raw flax seed crackers, a huge bag of almonds, some seed butter, and some cold pressed olive oil. I showed my items to my beutiful fiancee. “Look honey! It’s everything I need.” To which he raised the eyebrow. “What do you need these five pound crackers for? Those almonds are ten pounds!!!” He scoffed at me.
Here is a good time to let you know that my fiancee is not a cranky miser, but that we are on a strict budget. Not too strict. We do allow ourselves little treats.
“If we get that stuff we can’t afford to have a pint after this.”
Now I, like all good Americans trying to assimilate to life in London, try to drink as much beer as the next guy. I have made it a priority to give Americans a good name by throwing pints down with grace and panache. So I sadly placed my items back on the shelf, and admitted defeat in the pub.
The question that filled my head, as I sipped my Leffe, was how can I go Raw for Less?
In New York I had navigated my diet change with relative ease. I knew all the places to get the deals, and I would carry around shopping bags filled with bananas and almond butter and celery and so on. Here, I felt crippled! Not only we’re almonds more expensive, but everything is more expensive! And forget about those specialty items. In London, they will make you Pay and Pay.
Nevertheless, I set off on my diet. I went ahead and made my smoothie every morning. Smoothies in the morning are an absolute no-brainer. Quick, easy, and delicious, you can get in 2 fruits and a serving of protein.
There are some raw food experts that claim that mixing certain foods, (in this case, fruit and seeds) creates a hard digestion process, but I have not noticed that with this smoothie (or at all, to be perfectly honest.)
Meg’s Morning Smoothie
1 banana
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
Splash of almond milk
3 tablespoons sunflower seeds.
Because of the frozen blueberries, this smoothie tends to be thick. If you’d like it to be runnier, do not be afraid to add some water or ice. It will not taste diluted.
There are 3 good things about this smoothie. 1. All ingredients can be found relatively cheaply and easily. 2. The only fancy tool you need is a blender, which (lets face it) is not all that fancy. 3. It tastes deliciouso!!
**when you are done, put the blender in the sink before you drink. Filling up the blender with warm water immediately makes cleaning up after you smoothie a breeze.
So that was breakfast sorted. And with a couple of variations to the smoothie (frozen mango, some almonds instead of sunflower seeds, fresh ginger and orange juice) I can drink them every morning and not get sick of them. But then what?
A large salad is something that I can eat and eat and eat. I never get sick of a big salad, and often at the end of the salad, you can find me stabbing every doomed carrot shred with my fork proclaiming “I love me some salad, I could eat another!”
So eating raw for lunch for me equaled Salad Salad Salad. Spinach salad with honey mustard dressing, romaine salad with raw pine nuts and ginger dressing, mesclun salad with red onion and cucumber, oh man, I could list them all day. If you don’t make your own salad dressings you are a fool! So easy and so much tastier than in the bottle. Fresh ingredients make a salad, and a fresh raw dressing can be the icing on the cake. Here is a wonderful raw salad dressing recipe I stumbled upon that will have you singing some salad praises yourself:
The Good Stuff Dressing
Juice of 4 Lemons
3 garlic cloves
3 tblespoons minced fresh ginger
3 tblespoons soy sauce
3 tblespoons honey
1 1/2 cup cold pressed olive oil
Blend it all up except for the olive oil, and add in the oil slowly. This is such a wonderful zingy and zesty dressing! I love it even when I am not on the raw wagon…
SO that just really left the dinner time when I was full of quandary. You want something filling? Something warm, damnit! Well you are stuck out of luck in that department. I experimented with making my own homemade raw broccili quiche with a seed crust… It wasn’t worth noting. Also tried out this raw zucchini pasta with basil dish, but I didn’t like it. I didn’t follow an exact recipe so it might be worth trying again. Most of the time I just rocked salad part duex, with variations on the toppings.
I did come across another recipe that is worth sharing, and it’s a dessert. A brazilian friend told me about this favorite indigenous treat, and it is smooth, creamy, and delightful. Don’t be afraid, fellow Vegans. This recipe for an avocado milkshake is Yummy and totally easy to prepare.
Avocado Milkshake
1 whole avocado
1 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons honey
Just blend it up! Word of caution as it tends to go right thru you if you know what I mean.
So I wish this raw fast would have been easier, and I only hung in there for three days before caving and preparing some tomato orzo soup (v. delicious as well). Totally recommend giving it a go though! To recap, smoothies are cheap and raw! Salads are cheap and raw! And am still searching for a dinner that makes me go wow. I’m planning on doing raw once a month for a few days, just to keep me on track. Raw all the way, get the universe humming! For less!