WE MADE IT! We’ve survived Day 1 of our raw food experience. This isn’t going to be easy, but we’re committed!

I already recounted what we had for breakfast and lunch. Alyssa ate some dried cherries after school (she LOVES them!) and some GORAW cookies with coconut, sesame seeds and dates. I had a banana. For dinner I had another first (consistent with my 2010 objectives 🙂 ). I cracked a coconut. It was a young Thai coconut and I got about 1/2 cup of meat from it (expected more) and 1- 1/2 cups of coconut water. The coconut meat made a yummy smoothie when combined with coconut water, pineapple, a bit of honey, a touch of salt and lime and coconut butter. I adapted it a bit from the Kenney et al cookbook recipe for a pina colada smoothie. I also made guacamole from scratch and it turned out pretty yummy if I do say so myself. I cut cucumber, bell pepper and carrots for dipping and opened a bag of spicy GORAW crackers. Note to self: I need to figure out how to make my own seed and nut crackers pretty quickly. The GORAW food is tasty, but expensive. $5 for 3 ozs. Not going to be buying a lot of that! I cut up some apples and washed some grapes and that was dinner. Alyssa wasn’t too thrilled with the guacamole, so she had a bowl of GORAW chocolate granola with coconut milk and a banana. We’re splurging a bit to get this first week off the ground. We had a lot of variety in our diet today. We’re going to need to keep the variety and find ways to keep the food interesting. So far I’ve invested about $200 in food. We’re eating organic where possible as well. Got some great deals on fruit at Green Acres in Bradley Fair, for example, chunks of pineapple at 99 cents a pint.

We lost Steven today. His mom doesn’t want to “cook” for him and is worried about expense and nutrition, so he’s going to give up meat and sugar for Lent instead of going raw. Still a significant decision, but we’re sorry he won’t be with us on this adventure. Alyssa says she felt hungry all day, but I think she got more filled up tonight. I borrowed a juicer from my friend Kara  and plan to juice watermelon and honeydew tomorrow. We loved those juices when we were in Mexico several years ago.

Cut up a bunch of veggies for tomorrow. Also planning to take guac for lunch with spicy crackers. About to make more nut, seed and dried cherry trail mix. Going to leave out the shredded coconut for tomorrow. It was just messy and didn’t add much to the flavor. For tomorrow I’ll try sunflower seeds, but keep the pecans and cherries. They worked well today. I’ll review in my next entry what else I come up with.

Deborah’s Observations on Day 1: 1) I need to remember to drink a LOT of water (Alyssa says she did this well today). 2) We need to have as much variety as possible in what we eat, color, taste, texture. 3) Smoothies will likely play a significant role in our raw food adventure. 4) it’s all about grazing and feeling comfortable. 5) I need to make sure Alyssa gets enough protein in her diet. 6) Eating raw is expensive – at least to get started.

Alyssa’s Observations on Day 1: 1) It was hard and I’m really tired. 2) That’s all I got.

Question: Does anyone know if there’s a way to manage the temperature of foods so that they don’t get warmer than 116 degrees aside from a food dehydrator?