|
Keep lots of fresh fruits for snacks and have carrot and celery sticks and other healthy vegetables available for quick snacks too. Even if they have SAD dressing on it they will be lots better off.
Goddess chips are raved about on every raw food site I have been to. If you don't have a dehydrator you can use a low set oven. Use search function for recipe. The tahini is not cheap but the kale can be and the tahini goes a long way.
I can get my dh to eat lots of huge salads but he is stuck in his SAD way of eating even after a triple bypass so I cannot give you alot of encouragement there.
Honestly I don't know how you do it on that budget. I really shop sales for the SAD items and stock up when I can. For myself I do sprouts which is an acquired taste that I do not expect anyone else in the house to appreciate but I do put them in dh's salads. Whenever there is a really good sale - like 4 mangos for a dollar I stock up and freeze. Every banana that gets a little too ripe goes into a smoothie or in the freezer. The parsley gets juiced first and then the pieces get put in the dehydrator for flakes for recipes. Carrot pulp goes in the freezer for whatever I can think to put it in. I do alot of effort of packaging and freezing and thawing but it is necessary to get the most bang for my buck.
I do alot of other saving things that are not raw either - like cooking the rice until it is conjee - use alot more water - you will be surprised how much more the rice will blow up. I strain some for dh who does not like conjee or rice even for that matter.
In my case I am not fully raw so I include eggs. I keep hardboiled eggs around for the kids who love them. (I have had a major malnutrition problem so I am not willing to go all raw at this time.) I buy the range-free, antibiotic free. As a matter of fact I am contemplating getting some chicks again.
Some things I have to get regardless of price but the sale thing is huge. I am lucky because in 1 mile of my house there are 5 major supermarket chains so I can just do a loop driving with coolers in the car and catch all the sales. I am also fortunate to have a good selection of ethnic stores to choose from. The produce is often cheaper and many other items like sesame oil, dry mustard, seaweeds, tahini and so on are cheaper although one must be careful as some of the items are just not edible to our palate. I checked the Indian store for coconut oil and it reeked of petroleum byproduct so I do not know how they get that flavor in it and do not consider it edible.
I just read that chickpeas are considered a cool climate crop so I am about to sprout my last and plant them in the yard and see what I get. I read that the plants are really pretty. I LOVE green chickpeas and if they survive the AZ heat I will get to have them year-round just as I did with my green beans a few years ago. The vines lasted for a couple of years and kept producing. I really do not live in a neighborhood or city that allows gardening in the front yard but I am going to try anyway. Just hope people are kind enough to leave me my produce rather than steal as they walk by.
I do alot of oriental style cooking for the SAD part. A bit of this and a bit of that. Really it is soul food because for the millenia there has been a food shortage problem in China so they did not get to sit down to slabs of steak. So I slice and dice and chop and cut and they get a meal. Even if it is Ramen with alot of vegetables put in at the last minute just to get luke -warm it is closer to raw and healthy I figure. Raw and other healthminded folk really put that stuff down but as a base to feed a large group and get some healthy stuff in them as well - I have used it for alot of years to feed kids and get them their veggies. It is a compromise that has worked for me. Plus when I first came to raw I read a rant about how fruits and vegetables are brightly colored to attract us to them but really when the vegetables are slightly cooked they get even brighter so according to that theory slightly cooked would be optimum. Personally I have a problem with the kids nowadays eating too many soft foods. I think you have to chew and crunch to keep your teeth and gums healthy and that theory of mine also keeps me from processing too much raw foods. I do the smoothies and the soups but not to excess as for the time that I did do it alot I found that my gums itched to chew something.
Also I like the gorilla sandwich idea - hollowing out a cucumber and putting stuff inside. That appeals to kids and dh as well although their stuffing is not as raw as mine. So really anything that you can wrap and hide something in is good for at least one try. The cukes were 25 cents each and huge and sweet this last week.
Also when we do get pickles I save the juice and use it until it is no longer safe - for vegetables or eggs - and that is a taste variation and treat for them.
I try to trick them into thinking they got more of the SAD stuff than they actually did and so far it is working most of the time. By preparing lots of vegetable dishes for the table and putting them out first and encouraging them to start while I finish the SAD entree I get more mileage but it is also alot alot of work and I do not have six. In my case if it does not get eaten it goes into a smoothie so I know it will not go to waste. Plus lots of things are less nutritious after freezing but still good - like the grapes that were on sale. . . .I can freeze them and if they end up popping them in their mouths for a treat that is good but if not - smoothie again when it is a $ lean week.
I look for the fruit and vegetable sale items on the brochures that come in the mail - or look on-line for the weekly ad. Then I google search recipes so I know what condiments I need to go with and if the other ingredients are too exotic or too expensive I just figure something else out before I go to the store.
Last edited by luckitri : 02-16-2008 at 12:41 PM.
|
New transition, little support
Linear Mode
