As you know, I wrote here about why I love the raw vegan diet so much and how I make it work for our family. Another way I stay on top of the raw lifestyle is making sure my home and kitchen support it. To do this, I actually have 2 refrigerator units (you know the normal kind... fridge on bottom, freezer on top), and I also have a large stand alone freezer. All of these are inside the house (I don't want to make a bunch of trips to the garage all the time which is what I'd have to do if I had any of these units out there). Our home is not conventional - lol - as you can imagine. But, then again, neither are we. :) So, it works and I love entertaining people here because it's always a talking point.
You want to stay inspired with raw? Here's a tip: Surround yourself with it. Throw out the crap that doesn't support it! Ditch it! Trash it! Play a theme song while you do it (the first time I did this, I listened to Eye Of The Tiger) - Seriously. Doesn't this just make you want to take charge?! Take control of your health? Your eating? Your destiny?! It's not rocket science... think about it. If it's not in your house, you won't eat it!
My latest addition to storing raw foods and snacks is a shelf unit I bought that is parked behind one of my refrigerators.
I don't have this completely stocked yet (it's a work in progress and some stuff I ordered hasn't arrived) but you can get a good idea of it with the picture below. I keep a few jars of nuts and seeds so they're room temperature when I need them. The remaining stock of them them I keep in the freezer. I keep bars and dehydrated snacks as well as granola and cereals here, too. Plus, I buy protein powder by the case, so that is stored here. Oh, and can you see my stash of Rawtella? Yum!!! I used to keep nut butters here (unopened), but I don't buy those much anymore. I make my own. I'll be blogging about that in the coming week so stay tuned.
Below is the first refrigerator (our main one that is always full)... For the most part, I keep citrus, greens, cucumbers, root veggies, apples, most fruits, kelp noodles, herbs, etc in the fridge. See my raw almond milk in the jars on the bottom right? Love that stuff! Can't get enough. When this refrigerator gets full, I store the overflow in the 2nd refrigerator.
And, I've shown you our freezer before... Here are pics of the door and body of it. (Oh, and the freezer sections on top of the refrigerators used above, well, I use those for frozen fruit and other raw items that I'm using daily, while the big stocked portions I keep in the big freezer unit. For example, when I open a bag of hemp protein powder, I pour it into a glass mason jar. This jar I keep in the kitchen refrigerator's freezer unit since I use it almost daily. The rest of the bagged hemp stays in the big freezer next to my office.)
Finally, here is my counter top (below). I keep onion, tomatoes, mango (until somewhat soft to the touch and then I eat it or put in the refrigerator), bananas, avocado (same rule as mango... counter then fridge when ripe), sweet potatoes/yams (don't eat these much and when I do, they're cooked), garlic, ginger, and sometimes I put the fruit that I might want for the day there so it's not real cold on my teeth when I bite into it, which is what happens if I take it straight from the refrigerator.
Oh, and that's bamboo in the background. We have a lot of bamboo in our house to help clean the air.
Now, I want to say that "NO" you do not need a big separate freezer and a 2nd refrigerator to enjoy a raw diet. These are things I do because it really helps me stay on track. When I'm loaded to the gills with raw goodness, it's damn near impossible for me to stray from my diet. That's not the only reason though. I love to buy in bulk (saves money which can pay for the second fridge). Buying in bulk means having a place for proper storage.
PS. For those of you wondering if those green produce bags really work... I'm not sure. According to Dr. Oz they do not extend the life of produce. What I have found is that my produce is extended if it's in some kind of container or bag, whether I use a big ziploc (open so some air can circulate) or the green bags. I'm going to buy some shelve/drawer things in the future and see if I can avoid using bags. An experiment I have yet to try.