If I was making the transition to a raw food diet, I would start with one meal a day and reduce the amount of meat that I consumed in the other two meals.

The transition phase, for me, is important to make sure that I move from eating mostly cooked food with a few raw foods (apples, oranges, bananas, carrots, celery) each day and keep my blood glucose levels in line.

I believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day so raw food smoothie would be my choice.

Banana-Orange smoothie:

Ingredients:

1 medium banana, peeled sliced

1 medium orange, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup orange juice,

4 ice cubes

1/2 cup seasonal berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)

1 teaspoon raw carob powder

Preparation:

Add Ingredients to blender and process.

Pour into glass and yum.

There are other possibilities for raw food smoothies, use what you like.

Salads are incredibly diverse and you can choose from a wide array of ingredients. Fresh baby spinach, arugula, and romaine lettuce can be combined to make a delicious base for a salad. Shred the leafy greens into bit size pieces and palce them in a salad bowl. Salads let you be creative so there is no need to make the bits equal size but you do want them to be chewable and not have to tuck them into yoru mouth.

Add raw vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and radishes, plus alfalfa sprouts. Make sure to cut the vegetables into bit sized pieces and add the sprouts last. Mix and you have a very healthy meal.

Lime and lemon juice can be trickled over the salad for a dressing. If you have a salad twirler put the ingredients in all but the lime or lemon juice, than trickle your choice of juice over and give it a spin.

These two dishes, smoothies and salads offer great diversity and as you adapt to this change you can begin to explore the possibilities by using foods that may be new to you, there is much to choose from so enjoy.