Moments in Thyme . . . Six Tips For Enjoying Great Meals

By Joyce Wiatroski

Many of us single seniors are apt to find ourselves eating the same old salad day after day.  I often hear, “I don’t like to fuss.”  “I can’t be bothered.”  “I don’t know what to have.”

Sadly, many of us starting out on a raw food- vegan lifestyle, eat the same thing day in and day out and quickly find it boring or not quite satisfying.  It becomes a great excuse to cheat a bit.  Then it becomes easier to cheat a bit more and a little bit more, until we’re back to our old ways of eating cooked, dead foods, despite our best intentions.

Everyone new to the lifestyle needs direction along with a workable plan.  And we don’t have to be new to the lifestyle to benefit from having a surefire, yet simple meal plan that offers interesting variety to please the palate while giving our body the nutrition it needs.

Here are six tips that I’ve found really help to make the transition to a raw foods lifestyle fun, easy and fulfilling.

• Plan a weekly menuI start on the day when the grocery store flyers come out in the newspaper.
  I plan meals based on which produce items are on sale and find that buying from the rotating sales items ensures variety while eliminating a strain on my budget.

  I plan my morning green smoothies around the fruit that’s on sale, and make a list
  of  3 or 4 different leafy greens to rotate during the week— both in smoothies and for salads. Then based on the veggies that are on sale, I plan how they will be used and check to see what else I’ll need to go with them.

• Keep basic produce on hand This helps to make meal preparation simple yet satisfying.
  A variety of leafy greens, cucumbers, garlic, celery, carrots, apples,
  bananas, parsley, cilantro and tomatoes are basics for me.  I replenish weekly as
  each gets low. Choose your favorites and keep well stocked
• Set aside a block of timeWhether it’s an hour or two or a whole morning, take the time to wash and prep the produce and to make dressings and sauces to have on hand when meal time rolls around. This is time well spent.
• Enlarge your repertoireTry a new dish with a familiar fruit or vegetable.  At a minimum, try your hand at two new recipes a month using fruits or vegetables you often use, but use them in different ways. Check out raw food recipes in books from the library, from raw food websites or watch some accomplished chefs prepare simple veggie dishes on YouTube.  I’ve found that simply “googling” an item gives me more choices than I can use!  There’s a raft of raw food instruction on the internet. Don’t forget to share and learn with other raw foodies in the Powder Room or other forums.
• Vary those veggiesTry an unusual fruit or an unfamiliar vegetable.  Learn about its nutrient content and check out different ways to use it. Talk with the produce manager or the grower at the farmer’s market.  I’ve also been inspired by browsing through un-cook books by gourmet chefs and watching how-to videos on YouTube.
• Keep a food diary or how-to folderWhen you find a dish that you really like, be sure to document how
  you made it, or print out the instructions and add to a folder of favorites.
  It won’t take long to build a short list of special treats — one of mine is Angela Elliot’s Satay Sauce. I think Angela’s great book, Alive in Five is a kitchen must.

Here’s an example of prep time based on recent produce purchases:

Besides berries, fruit and leafy greens, I bought corn on the cob, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, broccoli and plump beefsteak tomatoes with the intention to use them to provide some tasty main courses and side dishes.

I spent a little over two hours in the kitchen prepping the veggies and making two sauces and a salsa.  Now, along with green juices, green smoothies, fruit salads and big bowl savory salads, these extras are ready and waiting to give variety and interest to the week’s meals.

Here’s what I did:

• Husk and decob 2 ears of corn.
  The corn will be used in salads.
• Head, tail, wash and blanch green beans. Ready to make:
  Cabbage/onion/green bean salad with satay sauce.
• Peel and spiral cut 3 zucchini into angel hair pasta.
  Tossed with a little olive oil and stored covered, these keep well in the
  fridge for a couple days. The spiral cut zucchini can be served as pasta
  with marinara sauce and fresh basil and at another meal, as a Thai dish, with minced cilantro and Satay sauce.
• Wash and cut broccoli into florets.  Peel, then slice the stems.
  Make broccoli salad with red onion, raisins, pine nuts and
  Satay sauce.
• Make Salsa Fresca (diced tomatoes, onion, jalepeño, cilantro and lime juice.)
  Great snack with flax crackers or add to a green leafy salad.
• Make a simple raw Marina Sauce* in blender.
• Make Satay Sauce*.

*See Alive in Five for directions for both sauces.

Two hours of simple prep work provides a fridge filled with interesting food.

Eating a variety of living foods provides more than super nutrition.  It’s fun, easy and very satisfying.  Living food is more than a bowl of Romaine.  Though I have to admit, a big crisp juicy green leaf wrapped around a ripe banana sure makes a wonderful snack!

Eating living foods, enjoying each meal, preparing it with love, sharing it with family and friends contributes to the enjoyment we experience in life while adding to our overall well-being. Don’t miss out!  Make a plan!

As you continue to manifest . . .

Like fine wine, women grow better with thyme. 

Joyce Wiatroski is the wit and wisdom found on the foodiefumblings blog.  You can watch for her contributions on the Diva blog on Tuesdays.