A Day in the life of a "Raw-Foodist"

Okay, while I know you are all just dying to see more pictures of my sweet little Atticus, I am going to instead inundate you with raw food info this weekend.  I figure you will either be ready to take the plunge, or never want to hear the words raw and food side by side again by the end of the weekend. I've been asked by friends to provide it so often, and with Atticus soundly asleep on my shoulders, so I can't do anything else at the moment, now's the time.

There are many ways to eat raw, but Jared and I have kind of fallen into our groove of how to do it, and do it easily.  So, here's what we do:

Breakfast: Jared is the smoothie chef (mine are usually much "greener" than his, so he's happy to take over the smoothie making).  He makes an entirely full Vita-Mix container of green smoothie every morning, and we split it between us.  We drink our smoothies first, before we eat anything else for the day.  I will often make another throughout the day and split it with the boys, who love, love, love smoothies.  Our typical green smoothie consists of half of a 1 lb package of organic spinach (or about half of the Vita-mix, tightly packed with any other greens we happen to have), two bananas, frozen fruit, some powdered probiotics and magnesium, and occasionally a pack or two of Emergen-C, if we are fighting something off.  We add water to consistency, and blend it up!  Delish.  Smoothies are a great way to use fruit and veggies that are going bad.  If my apples are getting a bit wrinkly, I throw them in a smoothie.  If I have some cilantro left over from salsa I made a few nights before, a cilantro smoothie it is!  Even avocados are great in smoothie form.  If you are scared of drinking your greens, I suggest starting with spinach with lots of fruit, as it's the most mild green.

Lunch: Usually leftovers from the night before.  I'm not a big fan of leftovers, so I often have a bowl of granola or muesli, topped with some fresh almond milk and lots of fresh or frozen berries, or just snack throughout the day on fruit and veggies with raw almond butter. 

Dinner: We always have a big salad - and I mean HUGE.  I typically fill my entire dinner plate with salad before I eat anything else.  There are many great raw dressing recipes, but Jared often just makes a oil and vinegar type dressing with all sorts of herbs in it.  Then we usually have a raw dish as well, our favourites being: mock tuna or chicken salad in lettuce wraps, quiche, tomato soup, tacos, falafel and mango chutney, nut or beet burgers, nori wraps (sushi)... Oh, there's so much more, but those are a few of our staples. 

And, we always have dessert!  Banana chocolate smoothies, chocolate chia puddings, fudge, brownies, chocolate ganache, or even just apples and almond butter.

Throughout the day we snack as much as we feel we need to.  Yesterday when I was talking about food prep I mentioned the things I always have on the go or prepared.  That mostly consists of snack food (and onion bread):  kale chips, crackers made from dressings and sauces, granola of any sort, tamari almonds, macaroons, even just a handful of nuts and dried fruit.  I have jars of soaked and dehydrated nuts, ready to grab for a quick snack.

And that's about it.  Because my boys don't eat 100% raw with us, I usually make them something besides our meal.  I am trying to keep them away from wheat in general, and prepare them fresh food as well.  If we are having raw tacos, they will have taco salad with corn chips.  Or, I will often cook up some rice, quinoa or other grain, chop up any and all fresh veggies in my food processor, make a raw peanut sauce or curry sauce, and throw it all together.  Rice noodles with raw marinara or alfredo sauce is definitely a fan favourite.  My boys are self proclaimed "salad monsters," so they love it.