This is the big question. If you’re going high-raw, mostly-vegan, gluten-free and organic, what can you eat?

The short answer is leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices. But there are many other ingredients which are in there too, such as cold-pressed oils, raw cacao powder, sprouts, nori and so on. The combinations of ingredients are virtually endless.

Standard meals are likely going to include:

• Oat cakes (are oats classified as “raw”? I need to look into that…)
• Green smoothies
• Salads
• Chocolate!
• Fruits and veggies
• Nuts and nut butter
• Vegetable chips (dehydrated!)

I expect that I’ll be eating higher amounts of nuts and chocolate or dessert type things in the beginning, which I am hoping to phase out as the weeks continue. I’ve also stocked up on a few pre-packaged raw foods, from kale chips to spirulina “super chips” to a couple raw food bars. By no means do I want to make them a mainstay of my diet, but I feel that it’s a good idea to have a few of these in my kitchen to deal with any cravings or hunger that may come up. I’m prepared 😀

Mimi requested that I give you all an idea of a “day in the life of Sagan” in terms of my raw vegan eating habits, so I figured I’d do one better and do a whole week of documenting my food for you! Since I always schedule my blog posts to publish early in the morning, every day I’ll write a blog post of what I ate the day before.

If you’re interested in continuing to see how my raw vegan adventure goes beyond this week in terms of what I eat on a daily basis, please visit my food diary blog, Health Writer Eats! I always appreciate any recipe ideas or encouragement to stay on the healthy track over there 🙂

Keep in mind that when I’m with others – such as the boyfriend – I’m willing to eat non-raw and non-vegan. I am a firm believer that by doing this I’ll be better equipped to really enjoy the raw vegan adventure and be able to carry it out without feeling deprived or without binging etc.

Beginning with yesterday, Sunday, this is what I ate:

9:15am Cafe Breakfast at Stella’s Cafe with the boyfriend: 1 slice dry multigrain toast, 2 free-range soft-poached eggs, hashbrowns with ketchup, and ham. All of this food was local and I believe it was mostly organic, too. None of it was raw, obviously.

1:15pm 40 grams sugar snap peas. These are great for munching on!

2pm Salad with organic mixed spring greens, homemade dressing (cold-pressed local sunflower seed oil, local honey, Bragg's soy sauce, garlic, lemon juice), 1/4 sliced pear, 1/4 avocado, a few sliced local organic crimini mushrooms. This was really delicious! The dressing was a variation of the Liquid Gold recipe from "The Raw Food Detox Diet".

2:30pm The rest of the pear and 1/2 banana dipped in homemade chocolate sauce (a combo of organic local maple syrup and cocoa powder). Super yummy!

3pm 0.25 oz Go Raw Spirulina Super Chips, 5 grapes and 30 grams sugar snap peas. The spirulina chips are made of sprouted organic sesame seeds, organic banana, organic unsulphured coconut, organic dates, and organic spirulina.

3:45pm Five of the above chocolate chip cookie dough balls. I made them using 1.25 oz cashews, 15 grams local oats, 1 tbsp local honey, 1/2 tbsp local organic maple syrup, vanilla extract, and homemade raw chocolate chopped into little pieces. I made the chocolate by combining coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup together, and then freezing it before chopping it into chunks.

4:15pm 30 grams Raw Vitality kale chips. The ingredients include organic kale, raw organic cashews, Berkey filtered water, organic pumpkin seeds, organic red onion, nutritional yeast, organic garlic, organic sprouted sunflower seeds, organic spices, organic cayenne pepper, organic apple cider vinegar, and Himalayan crystal salt.

4:30pm 3 organic romaine lettuce wraps smeared with homemade walnut butter and local honey (I also had 1/4 banana with chocolate sauce, unpictured).

My total calories for the day were between 1,700 and 1,800. It was a little bit too much – I probably could have done easily with just one or two lettuce wraps. But it was all very tasty! What delicious foods did you eat yesterday?