Saturday summertime lunches around our place consist of the same meals as most others across the nation...including burgers and potato salad. One huge difference--the ingredients. Fresh, wholesome, living, and nutritious generally describe our dining table digs.
Take for example, our potato salad. They will never even notice the eggs are replaced with cauliflower. Or that the mayo is a thick, creamy homemade dressing with lots of herbs.
(Almost) Raw Food Vegan Potato Salad:
- potato, grilled & chopped (nope, it's not raw, but I know what my boys will eat)
- cauliflower, chopped
- red peppers, chopped
- pickles, diced (don't skimp here...make your own or buy a health food store brand like Strub's or Bubbies) - celery, chopped
- fresh herbs to taste--we love cilantro around here (some came up from last year already, but if you prefer a more traditional taste, use dill)
fake mayo:
- about 1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
- about 1/3 cup cold-pressed olive oil
- a handful of raw sunflower seeds
- touch of brown rice syrup or honey
- lots of dill
- big blob of mustard
- a dash of salt
Blend in high speed blender until creamy; taste and adjust ingredients to your liking.
Add all veggie ingredients in one big bowl. Stir. Add fake mayo to the texture and taste that suites your fancy. Viola, that is one healthy bowl of potato salad.
Then comes the burger. You can make raw food burgers. They do take time and pre-planning, neither of which was handy last Saturday. So, my boys ate this store-bought non-soy, no junk variety (Bahama Rice Burger). As for me, I just eat my fixings as my burger atop a big piece of lettuce. Want to add some tongue tantalizers to the burger? Take some of the fake mayo and add mustard & ketchup to it. And please, use home made or health food store variety condiments without the high fructose corn syrup or anything gross like that. Now, that is a burger sauce worth biting into!
As I previously shared, my 'lil spud doesn't fancy raw onions like his Raw Food Mamma, so I grill those for him and his daddy. Add a touch of olive oil and they gobble 'em up. Prepare all the fixings and stack on a plate. Half the fun is stacking the burger high with piles of veggies.
Of course one could ruin the whole healthy meal with bad bread or yucky buns. Buy some of this (Dave's Killer Bread) or make some of your own. My little fella and I baked whole wheat bread together and it was so fun. His is the mini-loaf with all the fresh herbs.
Include your kids in the food prep and meal assembly. They will eat more of these delicious veggies if they partake in the preparations. My guy loves gathering herbs from the raised beds while the dough is rising. I let him pick his own herbs, rinse them, cut them (with scissors), and knead them into the dough. It's okay if they don't do it your way or the "right" way, just let them try.
So, make your next summertime Saturday lunch so packed full of living foods nutrients, that they won't know what him 'em. But, they will certainly be back for more!
