Anyone do a lot of raw with their family?

[Kimmiepie]

I am currently thinking of trying to incorporate a lot of raw foods into our diet. We do eat mostly home cooked meals, as much organic as possible. However, we rarely eat anything raw and don't eat enough fruits, vegetables etc.

I've seen some info online but it is all so overwhelming. My main goals are as follows:

1. Keep it affordable. Since organic veggies, fruits, grains etc. are so much more expensive, I fear that eating more of them will up our grocery bill when we actually need to be reducing it right now!

2. Make it family friendly. I see all this info online for a raw diet, but nothing mentioned about feeding a family. We have four children and I would like to know of some "kid friendly" ideas for meals and snacks.

3. We will be eating organic chicken and beef about twice a month (like we do right now) and will still be eating some cooked foods, raw milk, and other things. I don't want to go completely raw, just mostly.

Does anyone do this, or know of any helpful resources?

Thank you so much!!!

[marimara]

Hi Kim,
I do. What you described is basically how I eat except I probably cook meat/seafood more often than that (except we don't eat beef/pork). In the summer I plan on being high raw but for now while it's still cold season and it's still chilly out I keep a lot of cooked food on the menu. I've thought about the things you mentioned and here's what I came up with.

1. Keeping it affordable. I'd like to keep it affordable too, since I've been eating more raw our grocery bill has only gone up about $20/week for a family of 3. I do a combo of shopping in grocery stores and the Farmer's Market (where it's cheaper). Currently I do not have a source of local/organic poultry/seafood. There is place 2 hours from here but they are sooo expensive we can't really afford it. We do have a source of free range eggs that are affordable so we eat eggs a lot. So that being said, I still buy regular chicken and seafood from the grocery store. We just don't eat it in huge quantities but do include it fairly often (2-3 times a week).

2. Family Friendly. Here are some raw things I make that my kid will eat.
Fruit of all kinds, w/ nut butters (apples and almond butter, bowl of mango, etc.)
She's eaten raw spaghetti before, sliced zucchini and tomato sauce over it.
Sliced raw vegetables, sliced really thin (like carrots, zucchini, squash)
Smoothies
Salads
For my 3 yo, I usually have to offer something cooked (hardboiled eggs, pasta, toast, rice) because she's afraid of choking and won't eat raw veggies unless they are sliced very thin.
Summer rolls


There is a thread in Vegetarian and Vegan forum about mixing Raw and TF. There are some good ideas on there.

[dentmom]

I've seen alot of recipes for making your own Larabars as well-yum!

[Kimmiepie]

marimara-

Thanks so much for your reply. We don't eat pork either, but really we are just not big meat eaters. Chicken or beef every once and a while, but it's just not our thing. Thank goodness because it is expensive to get good quality meats!

After I posted I remembered that our costs will go down significantly pretty soon. We have started a garden, and some fruit trees/bushes, herbs etc. So it will definitely be easier to incorporate more raw things when we have them growing here. We are also going to be getting chickens in the summer, for eggs.

I love the idea of morning smoothies. Thanks for the tip on the TF/raw food thread, I will check it out!

dentmom-

Oh my goodness I LOVE Larabars!!! Where did you find these recipes??