Raising children is hard enough, but as we introduce more raw food into our diet, I must ask myself if this makes it harder or easier? It has been a year and a half since we began to focus on eating mainly raw foods as a family. I have three children, 4, 2 and 3 months and they eat mainly what we adults eat, so if I am eating raw, so are they. I never made them special meals when they were babies or had a special bottle or plastic cup at the table. They went straight from breastfeeding to eating with silverware and drinking out of glasses. So now we rarely make them meals that are different from ours. We always put everything on the children’s plates that we are having, yet we do not expect them to eat it all. This way they become accustomed to seeing greens on their plates every meal. My oldest daughter used to complain loudly about zucchini when it was cooked and wouldn’t touch it with a long handled broom. Now she will say “I love zucchini, but my favorite is salad” or something similar. She loves all vegetables, which is amazing and makes me super happy. My two year old had been stand offish about salads until a few months ago and now she will eat a few bites of lettuce at every meal if not more. Now my children like raw foods, but when they are given cooked vegetables they gobble them up as if they will never see cooked food again. My husband likes to point out how much they love cooked food and how they must need it as they eat so much of it. I tell him it is the same thing that happens when you stick cookies in front of them, and it doesn’t mean just because they eat them in a hurry with obvious pleasure that they are a healthy food. So here are a few things that I do with my family to help us eat raw foods as a group.
Put everything you eat on their plate: This gives them a chance to try a bite or two of a new food and get accustomed to its taste. It sometimes takes years to like a food, so we must continue this for a long time with patience. Like my daughter who is starting to eat her salads!
Make things they like: My children like rice and vegetables, whether raw or cooked. I make raw rice with celery root and lots of different asian vegetable dishes. They also love pasta. I either cook some kamut pasta and make a raw sauce for it (fresh pesto is best as I can add lots of greens) or spiralized celery root or zucchini pasta with a raw sauce. For cheese I use brazil nuts and some unpasteurized miso processed in the food processor.
Always have snacks around: This is very important in our house. I need to have cookies in the fridge, a raw humus, some dried fruits or crackers, as when the snack bug bites it is imperative that we can eat something in a jiffy.
Adrian, our latest addition to the family, drinks only 100% pure, raw, unadulterated breast milk, in fact.
While Elsa, our oldest (now 4 and a half years old) likes green smoothies more and more. This one is honeydew and spinach.
Have a lovely Sunday,
Nicole
Our garden gnomes have been busy helping the plants grow. Here is one of them as he takes a break.
I am starting to awaken from the dark cold of winter. Even though it was mild here during the winter months I really am excited that spring has come. I feel lighter and hopeful again about life. Everything is blossoming and I feel that I too am opening up again from a long hibernation of the soul. It has been a difficult transition for me going from two children to three and I have been dealing with a lot of overwhelmedness. Which is one of the reasons I have not been posting. Spring is letting me breath again! The farmers markets have melons, apricots, cherries and cilantro is back! I love cilantro and have missed it during the winter months when it is not sold here. I have made three gaucamoles already with lots of cilantro in each one. Happy Spring Everyone (Late Spring almost Summer).
