vegan cheese: I'm wanting to go raw, so I'm curious if anyone knows of any raw products that are already on the market. I know Dr. Cows has raw vegan cheese but I'm interested in things like crackers, wraps, breads etc. And if you have any advice in general about going raw I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for the help.|||Hi there, I'm not raw vegan all the time, I have a couple of friends who are and I've done raw stints of about 1 month a few times! I don't know where you live, but I have seen things like crackers, activated almonds, raw dehydrated vegetable chips being sold in wholefood stores. I have a dehydrator from a friend and use it to make my own crackers (it was 2nd hand and very cheap) but if you don't have a dehydrator then an oven on low with the door propped slightly open can work too. Basically all I do is soak a whole lot of flaxseed, or chia seeds, or buckwheat and/or sunflower seeds overnight, then put it in the food processor with things like lemon juice, onion, grated carrot, tomato, sea salt, then spread the pulp out and dehydrate it to make crackers. I also love to make my own Essene bread by sprouting grain for a few days, putting it in the food processor and then dehydrating it on low. By using a mixture of sprouted chickpeas and sunflower seeds you can make raw falafel - or even raw hummous dip! My friend warned me that over the first couple of days of raw you can go through emotional detox (basically when you're not eating cooked food, your body starts flushing a whole lot of toxins out of the body that you've had stored there for years, but it passes and then you feel great). Do you do green smoothies? I can't recommend them enough. A drink made out of greens and fruit blended up together - my favourite recipe is a generous bunch of kale or spinach, 1/2 an avocado, 2 bananas and an orange. A green drink that tastes sweet and fruity and is packed with highly absorbable minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients from the greens. Basically green smoothies are really really easy - all you do is take any sort of greens (great if it's dark and nutritious, not too sour or bitter) and any sort of fruit and put them in the blender together with a bit of water! The drink that comes out is green but it tastes sweet because of the fruit. Greens are the most nutritious healthy food by far, and these smoothies make it very easy and fun to eat lots of them! The vitamin C in the fruit also makes all those minerals in the greens - eg. calcium, iron - really absorbable. Greens that are perfect for green smoothies are things like kale, spinach, cos lettuce. I often drink a glass (or 2!) of this in the morning and it gives me a kick of energy in the morning. When I started making these I had a very high proportion of fruits vs greens, in order to get used to it... and then I gradually upped the greens until it was about 50-50. During winter you can also make it more warming by upping the fat content - eg. with avocado, sunflower oil, virgin coconut oil, soaked nuts etc - and/or adding warming spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, or grated/ground ginger. I also sometimes have a savoury version with "non-sweet fruits" like avocado, tomato, capsicum and lemon. This morning I'm about to make a blended soup modelled on this idea - out of silverbeet and herbs (parsley/basil), tomato and capsicum, grated carrot, curry powder, avocado, olive oil, lemon and sea salt! (If I'm using hard roots like carrots/beetroot/ginger I grate them before blending to make it easier on the blender - and don't use too much in one go) This link has a few more recipes: Banana, Berry Blast, and Warming Ginger http://www.greensmoothiechallenge.com/in鈥?/a> "Ode to a Green Smoothie" by Victoria Boutenko: talks about reasons to drink green smoothies - http://greensmoothiesblog.com/green-smoo鈥?/a> More recipes at http://www.greensmoothie.com/blend/green鈥?/a> Here are some more useful links about raw food in general: http://www.raw-pleasure.com.au/ http://www.rawpower.com.au/ http://www.fromsadtoraw.com/ http://www.newliving.com/issues/july_200鈥?/a>|||there is a whole fridge full of raw meals at whole foods. stuff like raw lasagne, hummus|||Im a vegan, but not a raw one