*After The Cleanse*

[rain]

I'm poor, and have been raw for only a few months, and am determined to find a way to make it work for me. I have noticed that I've been spending more on food than i can afford long term (I'm eating into my small savings fund). The organic nuts seem to be the worst for this. But this is a transition period, and i think my appetite may already be diminishing.

I'm looking for some other raw foodists to place bulk food orders with, because I've found a raw food business to order from, and it's cheaper to buy large amounts. For a number of things, it works out much cheaper than any of the health food stores I've checked out. And I just buy the cheaper kinds of nuts and seeds.

I have a veggie garden that feeds me so well i can get away with buying almost no veggies for about half of the year. I'm planning on doing my fasting more in the winter, when produce is the most expensive (but, of course, I can't fast all winter). I also plan to learn which of the "weeds" that grow in my locale are edible. Wild edibles are many times more nutritious than the pampered veggies we're used to eating. (Just don't pick the ones that grow along busy streets, because they're really good at picking up the poisons from car exhaust.) Where I live, some wild edibles (ex: dandelion and chickweed) grow all year.

Finally: this doesn't help right now, but I've read that, as one's body adjusts to a raw food diet and becomes more efficient at assimilating nutrients, a person needs and wants less food.

[dkotschessa]

I see there are food dehydrators out there for as low as low as $40.00:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=3ULL0VEHI9NTX

Does anybody have any like this and use them? Any problems with them?

I'm getting all excited about the prospect of owning one now, so I don't want to be disappointed when I get it. I'm sure it'd be better to get a higher quality one - but maybe I can just hold off and save for one while using the cheaper brands.

-DaveK

[dkotschessa]

I'm poor, and have been raw for only a few months, and am determined to find a way to make it work for me.

Thanks for your input, I have this same determination! There's just gotta be a way. I'm glad I'm not alone.

I've been researching this all day. One idea that I'm excited about now is the idea of a dehydrator.

The dehydrator allows you the cost savings of buying in bulk, becuase you can preserve foods, and as long as you dry things under 116 degrees they're still "raw." So this is the idea I'm messing with now. Also when you wind up with an excess of one type of veggie or another in your garden you can dehydrate it.

If you're interested I've just started another thread on dehydrators that you'll want to check out. I think it will advance our cause considerably!

-DaveK

p.s.

The other thread isn't showing up yet - I guess new threads need to be approved.

I just found this http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo...torstryder.htm

If I can get the right kind of box somewhere, I am building this thing THIS WEEK!

It's a start until I can save up for something better.

[rain]

dkotschessa: I love being excited about raw (and i am!). When i was considering building a dehydrator, I didn't find that site you just gave. Those dehydrator-building instructions look easy! I spent some of my small savings on a dehydrator. There's a Yahoo group called "Freecycle" (there's a group for all of the larger cities) where people can offer things they don't need anymore and ask for things they want. This summer, I plan to ask to pick from people's backyards the fruit they're not using and dehydrate it (and will offer to give some of it back to them, dehydrated). So, hopefully, the dehydrator will pay for itself. I've only read a bit about dehydrating veggies, and it seemed they don't dehydrate as well as fruit, but I didn't read very much about veggies and will try them as well in my dehydrator. I'll have to check out the survival books mentioned on that site (the library in the city i live in has many books on raw food, including almost all of the best raw uncook books).

It really helps to have a blender to do raw. I read on another raw food forum that the old oster blenders (from the 70s) are better than the new ones (excluding the vitamix, of course!) because the working parts are metal, not plastic. So I found a 70s-vintage oster for $6 from a thrift store, bought a new sealing ring at a hardware store (about $5 for 2, I think) so it would stop leaking at the bottom, and it does do a pretty good job (and now only occasionally leaks a few drops from the bottom). It will make decent smoothies from kale if I let it run for 4-5 minutes.

Here's a thread on another raw forum called "raw food for poor folk" that I read some weeks ago and was impressed with:

http://www.createphpbb.com/phpbb/vie...=thegardendiet

Here's someone else who's done raw on a low budget:

http://frugalrawnews.blogspot.com/

I'm not going to pay $15 for her ebook, but it's good just to know it's possible (and she's posted some of her recipes).

[dkotschessa]

I love freecycle! I've been using it to get rid of a lot of clutter. (Cleaning my mind, body AND apartment!) So that's a great idea.

The best ideas I've seen about dehydrating vegetables involve a lot of cutting in certain ways (veggie chips mmmm) or blending and combining them into some kind of chip or roll. There seems to be a lot of good recipe books out there as well.

Interesting ideas on the blender. I'm pretty sure mine is cheap. It gets hot if I run it for more than a couple of minutes. A similar model I had before actually burned out from running too long. What crap they make these days! I have a goodwill outlet store near me... Maybe I'll check there or ask on freecycle for one.

Thanks for those other threads...Exactly what I need.

-DaveK

[Christa22]

Thanks for the opinions I can't seem to find much information on it! I was looking at your links, and i'm quite interested in getting a juicer. (as if i don't have enough contraptions around my kitchen) Does anyone know of a good wheatgrass juicer?

I'm halfway thru my (3rd!) cleanse right now.... so i'd actually kill just to chew on some wheatgrass right aobut now!

THanks again!

[dkotschessa]

Well I tried making the first part of my dehydrator today - hooked up the light bulb thing to a dimmer switch and a plug and...nothing happened. I really don't know what I'm doing. I spent about $23 on this stuff! I think it's the plug.. These things assume you alread know all about wiring I guess.

Sigh..

[BIGLU]

These are apart of my diet.

Please rank them as good or bad and if possible list a healthy alternative.

2% milk

Honey smacks cereal

7 pieces of fruit

Assorted mix nuts and dry fruit

Subway sandwich grilled chicken

Quiznoes sandwich grilled chicken

Grilled chicken salad no dressing

Tuna fish (Can)

Green peas (Can)

Campbell soup veggie or chicken

Ham and 2%cheese sandwich no mayo

whole wheat bread

Fajita Tacos

Chick-fil-a breaded chicken sandwich with fries

1 chocolate filled donut a week

Don't laugh please...

[Honey]

I finished my 12 days (5th MC) 2 days ago. I feel great! I went from 144 to 132 pounds and all my pants are too big!
I drank grapefruit juice yesterday and today I had grapefruit juice and a salad (my stomache hurts a bit as I ate too much). I will have tomatoe soup for dinner. I also started the probiotics today.
Will miss you all, but till next time HAPPY MCING!!!!
-- Honey

"It's always too early to quit!" -- Norman Vincent Peale

[dkotschessa]

Sooo to Answer my own question, in case anybody else that's reading is curious:

Ronco
The Ronco Dehydrator on amazon appears to get almost nothing but bad reviews. What cinched it for me was reading one customers attempt to get satisfaction from the company due to one of the products heating elements melting. No luck. When I read something like that I get very suspicious.

Nesco
For only $25 (or $20 if you get it used) more it seems the Nesco Dehydrator gets much better attention:

http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-American...m_cr_pr_sims_t

And I might just buy one on ebay anyway.

Home made
In the meantime, I've made the cardboard box, tinfoil and lightbulb dehydrator. Only food I even had in the house during my cleanse was some cherry tomatoes which, after 24 hours are barely wrinkled. lol It was a fun experiment anyway. I guess you have to slit tomatoes first and I don't think they're even the best kind for drying. I'll try some fruit later when I get home from work. I don't trust this thing when I'm not here!

-DaveK