It's Not So Hard

Going "raw" has presented many challenges and has forced me to really think about things differently. One of the chief objections that people have for my raw-ed-ness is that they have heard it is "so much work". I would not say that doing this is more work but it is more thought. I don't think that is such a bad thing, either. I think processed food and the marketing that has surrounded it keeps getting more and more thoughtless, more and more unconcscious and more about quick, thoughtless, brain dead, instant gratification meals. Raw is quite the opposite. So here I go swimming up stream.

There are aspects of raw food that are easy, fruits, veggies, salads, etc but then there are aspects that take more thought. In order to plan several recipes, one can not just go pull the ingredients out of the cupboard, add water and go. Several recipes call for sprouted nuts or seeds. Well, who do you think sprouts them? Yep, I do. Sprouting by the way is a lot easier then I first gave it credit. Rinse, cover and go-repeat several times a day and like MAGIC...little sprouts appear. It's kind of fun to watch and if left over time the smallest amount of food multiplies like little aliens taking over your bowls.

For example, to make the muffins my kids seem to like so much, I must first sprout wheat berries. Now, as I mentioned earlier, this is not difficult but it does take planning. At least two days prior to wanting to prepare these muffins I must start the sprouting process. Then I must remain concious enough so that whenever I walk through my kitchen I give them a little rinse once in awhile. This part makes me smile as I sometimes tell them hello...of course I lead a lonely life of a single Mom, work-a-holic and speaking to sprouting seeds is probably not a necessary part of the process.

After achieving sprout I then get to mix the ingredients in a food processor but alas, no muffins today. I roll them into cute little balls and put them in my handy dandy dehydrator and wait one more day. Now we have achieved muffin. Now, none of that was difficult but staying conscious of timing and such was a different use of my energy. Once it came down to the food processor, it only took a few minutes. All in all, I've prepared casseroles that have taken longer when actual time is stacked against actual time but casseroles are a wham bam thank you ma'am kinda meal...boil it, blend it, throw it in a dish, bake it and be done. Rawkin muffins take my brain power.

One of the benefits of rawkin is that the kids become more self-sufficient. My son now gets up and makes his own breakfast and has a variety of options adding dehydrated sprouted buckwheat or sprouted granole mixes into fruit or a muffin or more. My daughter is still switching back and forth between steel cut oats and rawkin breakfast combos like her brother makes. The oatmeal lasts longer and longer as time goes on. The rawkin breakfast is beginning to taste better.

Throughout the day, they snack on raw food items like flax crackers or other recipes with some sort of dip or even have some veggies and dip. My son and I are quite pleased with sprouted almonds because just a few of them satiate the appetite and give lots of energy. I read that the sprouting process wakes up some enzymes that actually help the body digest more of the protein and amino acids so it takes less food to satiate the body. This brings me to my last point that raw food seems to be cheaper or equivelant in groceries.

The initial outlay for rawkin was uncomfortable but now that we are used to it and getting into a rhythym it is actually seeming less then typical or regular groceries. Because we are more satiated, we are eating less. Food is going much farther and we are getting a lot more out of it. The down fall is that rawkin makes more trips to the grocery store to buy fresh produce more often. We are going through our fresh fruits and veggies quicker and need to keep fresh and yummy stuff on hand. I find that keeping a variety of fresh fruits and veggies on hand is helping my mind stay focused and not wander into the processed food it sometimes misses because it is bored or feeling lonely. That's a subject for another day but making sure I can pull out a handful of grapes or grab some quick carrots on the go is helping keep my focus.

I understand from reading books on the subject that our impulsive eating will pretty much go away and the desires will change so I suppose my brain power will change, too. So, I wouldn't say there is a lot more work involved in rawkin but I would say there is more thought. I'm not sure how this will pan out in the scheme of things but I am feeling like it is just going to require a shift in thinking as opposed to thinking more.

Currently in the making are some beanless falafels, some peach muffins and the crust of mini toaster tarts...I am sprouting barley and rice for gourmet pizza crusts (never knew you could sprout rice) and have on hand almond meal from fresh made almond milk and soaked dates and sprouted wheat berries to make cinnamon rolls. Trying to keep the varieties up a bit and kids full and happy.

What is RAW food and for heaven's sake WHY?

Whenever I tell people that I am or have gone "raw" I usually get contorted faces of disgust wondering why I would ever want to subject myself to such a thing. Many think I am eating raw eggs and meat. I am not eating raw eggs or meat. I have no intention of subjecting myself to food poisoning. Raw food is a way of eating that is all nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies in various forms and combinations.
I was first subjected to "raw" food when I was studying kundalini yoga and sound healing. Most of what I experienced was made in a blender and was a bit too spicy for my taste. I usually went to these events smuggling in granola bars to sustain me as I politely sipped my baby food. I'm not saying what I was served was not good, it probably was delicious but I could not tolerate it for whatever reasons being physical, emotional, spiritual or just plain not my desired food combinations.
Working in the "wellness" industry, I have lots of folks in various stages of seeking health. Very few come in with McDonald's and there is a lot of discussion about nutrition. As I am a larger kinda gal who works out regularly, eats pretty darn healthy but still battles a slower then average thyroid and genetics that really like fat to stay on my body, I prompt a great deal of critiques from my yoga students, pilates students and bodywork clients. Still big and bending like a pretzel don't seem to match in peoples minds, but possible none the less.
I have been all organic or at least mostly organic for years. I believe in the power of nutrition. My son, who has autism, has taught me the power of nutrition in healing. Modifying his diet early on changed his behavior dramatically. Dieting has been in and out of my life more than men or good dates and I have tried everything to break my sugar habit (sometimes successful-sometimes not) from Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, medicine, herbs, standing on my head and whistling dixie.
One day a yoga student told me that her daughter had gone all "raw" and was eating delicious recipes. She asked me if I had ever heard of the program, which I had not and later brought me a DVD of this woman cooking raw food. It looked so easy and delicious but I still had a bad taste in my mouth from kundalini. I held off but it ate at my brain.
Several months later, I decided I would buy some equipment to head into the raw direction. For my birthday, I got a dehydrator. Not your average birthday present but it meant I did not have to commit right away because I had not spent MY money on it. My dehydrator sat in it's box for months. Maybe half a year later, I decided to go on some websites and find a class. I took my tax return money and signed up. At this point, I got the dehydrator out of the box and gave my first go at "going raw".
The class was SO MUCH FUN! I enjoyed learning the basics that I was fumbling over and we made delicious raw italian food. I went 100% raw for about two and a half weeks until my children got a pizza and my will power went down the toilet. The pizza won. It tasted AWFUL but I stomached it and then convinced myself that I could live in both worlds. I took another class and became certified to teach raw food cooking to others. I had so much fun but I found it extremely difficult to prepare raw foods for myself while preparing regular foods for the kids. Not only was I doing twice the work but my old programming went the way of tortellini before it went the way of raw. I tip-toed in and out of raw-ness for the next several months with varying reactions in my body but never stayed there long enough to really go for it.
Recently my daughter seemed to start getting sick on most dairy products which prompted me to re-examine our diet and nutrition. My son's fixation is global warming so we are already mostly vegetarian to reduce our carbon foot print. He has been asking to go vegan for awhile but I did not support it because I wanted to make sure he would get enough protein. With my daughter's intestinal objections to dairy and meat already pretty much out of the picture, I picked up my books on raw food and re-examined the issue.
I called a family meeting and asked the kids if they wanted to go for it and got a thumbs up from my son and a pensive thumbs up from my daughter as long as I still allowed oatmeal and brown rice in case she didn't like what was being served. I agreed and three weeks ago we began our journey as a family into being raw. Being hip and cool to my pre-adolecent children and building my own enthusiasm for this new lifestyle, we have titled our journey together as the RAWKIN ADVENTURE! Did you hear the enthusiasm? We make RAWKIN food! We are a RAWKIN family! You gotta feel it by now.
It has been an interesting three weeks so far with some success and some failure but our commitment grows stronger as our journey goes on. I want to chronicle this journey as we examine how changing our perspective on food, it's preperation, our health and the social impact we face doing it "different" then the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet) and all that society places on it's importance. Take what you like and leave the rest but know that I am NOT preaching nor trying to be idealistic, I am simply trying to do what is best for my kids, myself and be honest about the ups, the downs and the all the way arounds. Hopefully with some humor and a lot of reality.