This is an example of how we usually pursue our week. We take our Raw Veganism a week at a time, because we eat A LOT so it’s hard to plan too far into the future. We end up eating it all sooner rather than later. During a week or monthly planning, it’s important to take into account needing more foods or snacks to supplement, provided that you are still hungry after eating what you’ve prepared.
Friday & Saturday:
Recipe scouting and design. This includes our finding inspiration from the internet and creating a list of recipes for the week. We usually try sticking to a theme, common ingredient, what’s in season or on sale where we shop. For example, we’ve had “teriyaki” as a theme and will make asian inspired dishes for the week that all use or can be accompanied by a bulk amount of teriyaki sauce. We love taking one item or concept and stretching it to show how versatile some elements can be with a little creative energy. (That week we made Teriyaki Meatballs, Tempura Vegetables, Asian Noodles, Stir-fry, and MeatBall Subs)
After coming up with the recipes and meals for the week, we tally up the ingredients to add to a master shopping list. This way we stay organized, don’t over spend and can edit amounts wherever needed dependent on what we might already have in our kitchen.
*We’re considering posting these in the future if there is enough interest where we’ll share our recipe list, ingredient/shopping list, and plan for the week. Let us know your thoughts on this!
Sunday:
SHOPPING DAY! We chose Sunday as our shopping day because this is the Farmer’s Market day near us. There are many cities with Farmer’s Markets on other days of the week, so it would be logical to make your shopping day that day too if you’re able and wanting to shop locally. We love our Farmer’s Market because we get produce at least a quarter of the price cheaper than stores. Except for ALDI, they give them a run for their money sometimes!
By this point we have our list ready and know exactly how much of everything we need to get, making shopping a breeze! Whatever we aren’t able to get there, we go to our local bulk grocer for nuts, seeds, and spices. This is HUGELY CHEAPER than purchasing anything packaged.. literally anything of that sort. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND exploring the bulk section of your local health food or grocer to see what bulk items you can start purchasing and replacing from packaged items to save some money. We’re all about shopping mindfully!
When we’re done with this part we take our goods home and store them. This is also the time where we soak our nuts and seeds! As soon as we get them home they’re in a container with water overnight in the fridge. This is SO IMPORTANT TOO! As it “activates” them, aka removing the harmful (toxic) coating that leads to nutrient deficiency after consumption. The nutrients within them become bioavailable during this process so that your body can assimilate them instead of being attacked by them!
There are charts all over the internet that can be of good help to knowing just how long this process is needed for specific nuts or seeds. We like this one. We just use overnight because it’s easy to let be until the morning and drain for use immediately.
Monday/Tuesday:
These are usually the prep days. Most of our recipes have various elements to them which we approach systematically. We’ll do sauces on one day and get things ready in the dehydrator to leave until the following. If the dish is ready by Tuesday, we’ll compile the plate and shoot it. If not, we’ll continue to prep and do more until Wednesday. This is the time where some extra elements are available and turn into our additional dishes that weren’t planned but usually turn out super yum! (Aka stir-fry or sandwiches with extra veg and breads.)
We spend a lot of time prepping, but that’s because we produce a high volume of content thats divided between our blog, instagram, recipe books, and future challenges. Your schedule could be much less intensive like making one batch of raw bread on Monday that lasts you until Friday that you use to make a different sandwich everyday. A lot less involved than creating 9-12 recipes that are all diverse with complexity. But if you’re as enthusiastic as we are.. go for it! Start at recipe one and don’t stop until you’ve tried them all!
Wednesday/Thursday:
These are our work days. We spend these days shooting the content we’ve produced, writing narratives, working on the blog, or anything else on our list of things to do. Most importantly, these are our days for EATING! Usually we pig out on everything we’ve made after we’ve photographed it. Quality control, duh!
If we didn’t like it, it doesn’t get posted. We eat everything you see on the site and blog; it’s made from the heart and deeply enjoyed personally. This is our time to enjoy the fruits of our labor while continuing to labor.. haha. Only thing is we can usually start to run low and need to keep the production going or snack content HIGH after this until shopping again on Sunday.
We don’t deprive ourselves and eat whatever we need whenever we need. True to us, we still work on this weekly because we love how our Raw Lifestyle makes us feel and never try to restrict our intake. It’s not necessary. So we keep the snack factor as high as possible with additional carrots, dried or fresh fruits, and nuts to supplement!
(REPEAT WEEKLY)
For more info or input, contact us or visit our page @rawfoodrevive. We’d love to hear from you!