Getting home after a long day at work is a killer for inspiration. It often feels easier to cook up something familiar than to try something new and raw. When I first got into raw food, dinner was the most challenging meal to eat healthily. I’d be eating pretty much raw all day and I just didn’t want to eat salad in the evenings. I’d end up eating my usual cooked favourites. It wasn’t how I wanted to be eating but I found it a real challenge to do anything different. I didn’t know what to make that would be in line with my new knowledge around food and well-being that would also meet that quick-and-satisfying food need in the evenings.
Little by little
Gradually, bit by bit, I started to incorporate raw dishes for supper. I created recipes that felt satisfying and that were super healthy too. I wanted them to be filling but not stodgy. I wanted interesting flavours that hit the comfort spot too. I wanted to be re-energised for my evening rather than feeling fit only for the TV and sofa.
Making healthy choices (most of the time 😉 )
After a while I came to the conclusion that, on a normal day, raw up until supper was an easy no-brainer for me. Raw breakfast, raw lunch and raw snacks are relatively easy to master, especially if you add in a few rice cakes or oat cakes. But, in order to stay eating healthily in the evening, Supper for me needs to be a combination of cooked and raw. So, some evenings I’ll have a raw meal (something like the courgette/zucchini pasta with alfredo sauce and cherry tomatoes that you see in the photo); some evenings I’ll have a fully cooked diary-free, wheat-free, meat-free supper (something like steamed cauliflower with cashew cheese sauce and roast potatoes); and some evenings it will be a combination (raw Thai curry with brown rice is a current favourite :)). This approach suits me perfectly. Giving myself this level of choice and flexibility means that I rarely veer off the healthy-eating path in the evenings now. I am not vegan or even vegetarian, but I usually eat vegan or vegetarian food. 7 years ago I would never have believed that I would choose these options naturally.
I’ve come a long way
Sometimes I look at the food on my plate and remember that only a few years ago I would not have thought a plateful of vegetables was a ‘meal’. I would never have thought that just a salad would be satisfying. I would never have imagined I’d be choosing dairy-free raw ‘cheese’ sauce instead of traditional cheese sauce.
What inspires me to keep eating more raw is just how DELICIOUS raw food is. It also just happens to be gluten-free, dairy-free, meat-free, dairy-free, refined fat-free, mostly vegan, and higher in vitamins, minerals, live water, essential fatty acids and all kinds of other goodness, and keeps me feeling and looking great too 🙂
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