RAW Food - More Than Just Rabbit Food

In January, 2011, I will be assisting 1-4 people in completing a Raw Food Challenge.  After seeing the movie 'Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days', I wanted to try this in our local community for those interested to eliminate/reduce the medications they were on.  One friend is diabetic and wants to get off all her medications.  Tonight she came over, and we tried two recipes from the book 'Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People' by Jennifer Cornbleet (She also has a DVD).  These were the Ranch Dressing and Pasta with Marinara Sauce.  I will attach the YouTube videos on how to prepare them below.


I was really surprised at how good they tasted.  We dipped raw veggies in the Ranch Dressing, and to me it was just as good as commercial.  The only thing I had to do in advance was soak the cashews for 2 hours in water at room temperature.  This can also be done a couple of days in advance...say over the weekend in preparation for the week and refrigerated.

The marinara & pasta looked like it would be good, but I had reservations about eating them cold.  One thing Jennifer says is people really want to have the same consistency and flavor as what they are replacing....whether it's raw or not.  The pasta is replaced with spiral cuts of zucchini.  I purchased the spiraler below from Amazon, and really liked it.  It didn't have much of a manual with it (1 sheet), but it was pretty self-explanatory.  The marinara tasted to me like store-bought, and then I combined it with the pasta which was pretty bland (like real pasta).

At first, the pasta was a little crunchy, but as it marinated, it became softer.  The longer it sat, the better it tasted to me, even cold.  She says you can warm it up 1-2 minutes on the stove if you prefer.  The main thing is to keep it under 118 degrees F; otherwise, you will kill the enzymes.

As Hippocrates said, 'Let medicine be thy food, and food thy medicine.'  There are so many nutrients that we miss out on daily by cooking and microwaving our food, as well as not getting enough fruits and vegetables.  It's no wonder we have to take supplements....we're not getting them from our food.  Overall, I'm very pleased with the Raw start, and hope to find many more recipes that we like so this Challenge is actually pretty easy. I'm not trying to turn anyone into a Raw Foodist, but I do believe that adding more raw foods into your diet can help you become healthier.  If you can find recipes that are easy to make and taste just as good, why not?