When I last posted, I was about to make a raw food meal for my family - Rainbow Salad, Miso Soup, and Ginger-Wasabe paté sushi rolls — all from the The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw
Rainbow salad is a Japanese style salad made from arame (a sea vegetable), shredded carrots, cabbage, and green onion, with a dressing of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, ginger, garlic, nama shoyu, and a little crushed red pepper. If you’ve ever had wakame salad in a sushi bar, the concept is similar.
The end result, in this case, had mixed reviews. The dressing was good, though a little tart, and none of us like the taste of the arame. Compared with wakame, arame really smells and tastes like kelp. When eating it, I couldn’t get away from associating it with the odor of rotting kelp on the beach, which definitely had an off-putting sense about it. I would try it again with wakame — definitely not arame; it must be an acquired taste.
The miso soup was okay, but not as good as the miso soup I made from the recipe in Living Cuisine by Renée Loux Underkoffler
The ginger wasabe paté sushi rolls were, again, just okay. I enjoyed the rolls I made last time much more. I thought the wasabi/ginger flavors in this paté were too strong and overwhelmed the palette. But, I have to say that my family seemed to enjoy the sushi — even my 13-year-old son, and that’s saying something.
That day, which was actually day 93 of this year-long experiment was the first 100% raw food day since Thanksgiving, and it felt good to return to it.
Day 94 was also 100% raw for me, though I made an alternative meal for my family that night.
I’m finding that it’s relatively easy to eat raw for breakfast and lunch. Breakfasts, such as smoothies, variations of oatmeal, and muesli, are easy. Lunches tend to be leftovers, or raw crackers and dips supplemented with large salads. I eat fruit throughout the day, whenever I get a little bit hungry.
Dinner is another story. When I’m organized and plan well, I usually make something that I can offer the whole family and than serves as my main entrée will functioning as a side dish for them. When I don’t plan well, I find that I’m making a big salad and trying to make that my meal, while I eat as little as possible of the cooked food. I am definitely more lenient with myself about eating cooked food during dinner with my family.
Eating out and staying raw is nearly impossible, unless I want to eat only salads with lemon juice on them instead of dressing. (If you have a better, alternative idea, please let me know what it is!) I do look for the freshest vegetarian food on the menu when I eat out.
Of the last three days, two have been 100% raw, and on the third day I ate cooked salmon with steamed cauliflower and a large spinach salad for dinner. I don’t mind that once in a while.
Today, so far, I’m doing well. I had a big, blueberry smoothie for breakfast this morning. For lunch, I had a big bowl of spinach salad (leftover from last night) and raw flaxseed crackers, with a macadamia nut-based dip. Very satisfying. But, it’s Friday, and Rich is making noises about going out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. I love Mexican food … and it’s all very cooked (except ceviche, perhaps).
How do I feel about this? Well, I don’t want to be a “stick in the mud,” by insisting that we eat at home, and I’m grateful that he likes to take me out for dinner. So I’ll probably go and have a good time.
Verdict, for days 93 through mid-day 96 — 8 meals all raw, 1 meal with cooked food. I’d say that’s pretty darn good.
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