Eat Simpler, Save Money 3

My menu plan...

What I eat for breakfast:

1/2c uncooked old fashioned oatmeal **
1/2 to 3/4 of an apple, chopped
3 raw walnuts, broken into bits
4 raw almonds
1/8c raisins
tsp raw honey
tsp raw sunflower seeds
2tbs ground flax seeds
8oz yogurt or soy/nut/rice/oat milk

** I eat the oatmeal raw; I like the taste and texture just fine this way. Feel free to cook yours if you'd like. Sometimes I change the recipe by exchanging the raw oatmeal with 1/2c steel cut Irish oatmeal. Soak the steel cut oats overnight in water (pour off any excess liquid before eating) and you won't need to buy the yogurt or 'milk'. Other times I exchange the chopped apple for sliced banana.

I reuse small ziplock baggies that I fill once a week with my dry breakfast mixture. On a weekday morning I simply put some chopped apple in a bowl, sprinkle my dry mixture over the top, add the yogurt or fake milk, mix, then drizzle some honey on top.

Using raw, old fashioned oatmeal reminds me of cold cereal with milk. If I use the soaked raw steel cut oats then it has a coarser texture reminding me of slow cooked oatmeal. I eat these at room temperature but you could gently warm the soaked steel cut oats in the microwave then add the dry mixture, apple and honey. You could also choose to cook the old fashioned oats then stir in your favorite ingredients. Jeff doesn't like honey so instead he adds some real maple syrup to his.

For snacks:

* apple slices with nut butter
or
* orange with a palm full of mixed raw nuts
or
* banana sliced and mixed in a bowl with sunflower seeds and raisins

For lunch:

A huge salad with lots of different fresh vegetables, sliced avocado, nuts, seeds, raisins, some chopped apple, sprouts of any kind, a tbs of cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkle of some nutritional yeast flakes on top for some added flavor. Sometimes I add some soaked, raw lentils too. Get creative and you'll never be bored with salad.

For those of you who cook, you could eat salad for lunch and cook the vegetables in a stir fry or make a soup from them for dinner.

For dinner:

A green smoothie. I vary what I put in it depending on what I've bought that week. One week will include some broccoli, kale, apple, celery and carrot blended with water and the next week will be completely different. Google 'green smoothie recipe' and you'll find lots of variations.

Occasionally I actually take the time to make a recipe instead of simply eating a salad. My favorite raw recipes (surprisingly good and fun like a little science experiment) can be found in:

- The Complete Book of Raw Food by Julie Rodwell (if you buy only one 'raw' book, get this one)

- The Raw Food Gourmet by Gabrielle Chavez

Get creative and have a little fun with your food! There's no end to the way you could use the items on my food list while keeping meals quick, simple, tasty and inexpensive.