Alissa and Annie - NOT Julie and Julia

[Veganforlife]

Annie? That spinach dip is easy, pretty, and REALLY good!!!

[anniez]

Annie? That spinach dip is easy, pretty, and REALLY good!!!

I agree on all fronts!

Annie

[anniez]

My numbering was off yesterday. The Cream Cheese was Recipe 74 and the Spinach Dip was Recipe 75. OK, back on track.

My breads are still in the dehyd. Will try to report later. They look wonderful!

I realized that when I am finished with this project every one of the recipes in Alissa’s book will have been reviewed on this board. That may have happened already. I’m not going to take the time to research it out! But at any rate, if someone wants to find out about doing a particular recipe doing a search, they will at the least find it in this thread.

Spinach Dip: Well, I really messed this one up, but it was redeemable. I tightly packed the spinach, which was a BIG mistake. I had to add more of everything! It’s good, but make sure you add enough Herbamare because that’s the only seasoning. It has a strong spinach flavor, but I like it. I kept some for today to see how it keeps. I think it will because of the lemon juice, but I want to be sure.

Hummus – This is the garbanzo hummus and I’m not sure I like it. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t like me! I didn’t eat a lot of it, but my stomach just felt heavy. I ate it with carrot sticks, celery sticks, and pepper chunks. I just think I don’t like garbanzos. I’m not crazy about regular hummus – the only time I ever liked it was when I ate it in Greece, and I don’t know what they did to it but I really liked it there. I don’t think I will make this again. I kept some just so I could report how it keeps overnight. I’ll try it later today.

Cream Cheese – This is just macadamias and water and while it’s OK, it’s kind of bland. Of course, I just tasted it because I’m waiting for my breads to come out of the dehyd. Maybe it’ll come alive on a slice of bread. If any of you have made this and made some additions I’d like to hear what you’ve done!

For Today:

Recipe 76 – Lime Pepper Crackers Pg 348

Recipe 77 – Crepes Pg 379 The base of these is the Banana Leather which
I have already made and loved. They sound really good! Alissa has them in the entrée section, but they sure sound like a dessert.

Recipe 78 – Raspberry Vinaigrette Pg 478

Today will be fun.

Annie

[katchmoleen]

Anniez, I figured if macadamia nuts made a nice sour cream, it would also make a nice cream for pie on TG. So I bought a few ($11/pound ). So what is the texture like? Is it nice and creamy? Would be good with honey and vanilla for a pie?

[RawHealthyBeauty]

I just made the cream cheese and to me it tasted like plain whipped cream. The texture is pretty close to it except a little thicker.
So right now, I'm tweaking it a little bit by juicing a whole grapefruit and mixed that in. And letting it ferment for now. So I'll have to see how it turns out. Once I'm done with it, I'll be posting later. ;)
So Annie, I know what you mean about the cream cheese. It's missing something and I'm trying to figure out what that is.
I think I may used it in the future for whipped cream with added raw sweeteners. :)

[anniez]

Anniez, I figured if macadamia nuts made a nice sour cream, it would also make a nice cream for pie on TG. So I bought a few ($11/pound ). So what is the texture like? Is it nice and creamy? Would be good with honey and vanilla for a pie?

It is a very creamy texture, and with the honey and vanilla it would be good on a pie. It definitely needs the addition of something!

Annie

[anniez]

I just made the cream cheese and to me it tasted like plain whipped cream. The texture is pretty close to it except a little thicker.
So right now, I'm tweaking it a little bit by juicing a whole grapefruit and mixed that in. And letting it ferment for now. So I'll have to see how it turns out. Once I'm done with it, I'll be posting later. ;)
So Annie, I know what you mean about the cream cheese. It's missing something and I'm trying to figure out what that is.
I think I may used it in the future for whipped cream with added raw sweeteners. :)

Be sure and let me know how this works. I added some cinnamon to part of it, and some honey to part of it when I ate it on bread, and I liked it better that way. Sorry to say it didn't taste the way I remember whipped cream tasting!

Annie

[anniez]

Absolutely divine: the three breads I made. I had them with some of the Cream Cheese, but after eating a bite with plain cream cheese I doctored it up with some honey in part of it and some cinnamon in part of it, and I liked that a lot better. I really love the addition of walnuts to the Banana Bread. But here is something interesting: after I ate just one slice of each bread for lunch, I had cravings for cookies (of all things!) all afternoon. I wonder if it was the wheat!

Breads in the dehyd – After some reflection on this I have decided that I am going to dehydrate “slices” rather than a “loaf.” I can better tell when it’s dry, and it will be a lot quicker than a loaf.

Raspberry Vinaigrette – I thought this was just too tart for me, so I added a little honey. Alissa says somewhere in the book that every time you make a recipe it will be different because of the differences in the raw ingredients. My raspberries were a little tart, which is why I needed the honey. This makes a little over a cup, and I made the entire recipe. It’s a beautiful pink color, and was delicious on a green salad with some raw veggies.

Crepes – Well, folks, let’s face it: I am just a slow learner. After my experience with soft bananas and the Banana Bread, you would think I would have learned. But, oh, no, not Annie! The leather batter for the crepes was quite runny, and did its own thing on the teflex sheet. I wanted to shape it into an 8”X8” square to make for easier slicing, but it didn’t want to cooperate. So, I let it do it’s own thing and cut it into the strips. Can you say “sublime?” That’s what these are! I did the Strawberry Sauce before the Filling, and didn’t wash the processor. The filling had a very slight pink cast, which was fine. Alissa says these are good the next day, so I kept a couple for today. I think these would make great party food, albeit they are a bit messy! I would make the strips 2” wide (which would mean cutting squares rather than strips). The filling is thick and holds the roll together well. I would put a toothpick in each one which would make a bite-sized serving. Alissa says to put on a white plate and surround with whole strawberries. Would make a gorgeous presentation. And I certainly wouldn’t tell anyone it was “raw.” This goes on the BBQ Potluck list for next summer. BBQ’s are somewhat messy anyway.

Lime Pepper Crackers – Wow! These are good. They aren’t completely dry, but the flavor is wonderful and they are very pretty with all the different colors. I made a half recipe and got two trays of crackers. I wish I had scored them, because I will just have to break them apart, and scoring would have probably looked better. They will be great with almost anything (maybe even hummus)!

For today:

Recipe 79 – Easy Slaw Pg 458


Recipe 80 – Sweet and Sour Cole Slaw Pg 468

Recipe 81 – Broccoli Soup Pg 355

Recipe 82 Cucumber Wheels Pg 300 I want to see if I like the Hummus eaten like this.

Have a great day!

Annie

[RawHealthyBeauty]

Hi Annie, I have to try the sour cream recipe again and start over. I don't think it's fermented long enough, since the climate it's so dry here. So I'm thinking maybe that has something to with it. When I make this recipe again, I'm gonna leave it out to ferment longer to see if that is the case.

I think with added vanilla, it might've tasted like the actual whipped cream. :)

[Lara]

O.M.G. I love it. Primarily I love the blueberry filling. the crust plus the filling is too many nuts for me. Annie, I think you mentioned this earlier in one thread or the other and I agree.
Next time, I'll just make the blueberry filling as "blueberry cheesecake pudding". It was delicious!
Last night, I made Alissa's eggplant roulade. Really good. My husband actually thought it was puff pastry! I'm not kidding. It was quite labor intensive for me, with peeling the eggplants. Actually I bought all four eggplants as per the recipe but only used one 'cause I was tired of peeling! So I still have 3 more eggplants sitting in my fridge that need to be used up. Any suggestions? I don't have a dehydrator yet, but I do have a vitamix and a food processor and willingness. Or maybe I'll just make one eggplant roulade per evening for the next 3 days! LOL! I don't know how my 8 year old daughter would feel about that! But she and DH loved it!
Thanks. Enjoy your raw day!

[anniez]

Hi Annie, I have to try the sour cream recipe again and start over. I don't think it's fermented long enough, since the climate it's so dry here. So I'm thinking maybe that has something to with it. When I make this recipe again, I'm gonna leave it out to ferment longer to see if that is the case.

I think with added vanilla, it might've tasted like the actual whipped cream. :)

Be sure and let us know if fermenting longer helps. And I added vanilla. Didn't really think it tasted like whipped cream, but it did help.

Annie

[anniez]

O.M.G. I love it. Primarily I love the blueberry filling. the crust plus the filling is too many nuts for me. Annie, I think you mentioned this earlier in one thread or the other and I agree.
Next time, I'll just make the blueberry filling as "blueberry cheesecake pudding". It was delicious!
Last night, I made Alissa's eggplant roulade. Really good. My husband actually thought it was puff pastry! I'm not kidding. It was quite labor intensive for me, with peeling the eggplants. Actually I bought all four eggplants as per the recipe but only used one 'cause I was tired of peeling! So I still have 3 more eggplants sitting in my fridge that need to be used up. Any suggestions? I don't have a dehydrator yet, but I do have a vitamix and a food processor and willingness. Or maybe I'll just make one eggplant roulade per evening for the next 3 days! LOL! I don't know how my 8 year old daughter would feel about that! But she and DH loved it!
Thanks. Enjoy your raw day!

Some of Alissa's recipes are pretty labor intensive, I agree. They are balanced out by the quick and easy ones.

I'm putting the roulade on my list! Thanks for the suggestion.

Why don't you try Alissa's Crunchy Thai Salad? I haven't made it yet, but it looks good and doesn't call for dehydrating.

Annie

[anniez]

Thanks to whoa-raw and Lara for getting some dialogue going. That's what I was hoping would happen. Please keep it up. It gets lonesome when I'm the only one here. LOL!!

Hummus Update - I forgot to tell you that I liked the Hummus much, much better on the 2nd day. All the flavors had a chance to meld. I still have some, so the jury is still out as to whether I will make it again. I ate some yesterday on the Lime Pepper Crackers and it was good. Those crackers are just awesome!

Crepes – Well, these were just as good yesterday as they were a couple of hours after being made. And I froze one, too, to see how it is after being frozen. This is something I’d like to have in the freezer to pull out occasionally. There is something about the banana softening and the yummy filling and the strawberries that is really good. Actually, these are as good as any crepe I’ve ever had, and I’ve had some mighty fine ones in Paris! This is another one of those things that I just kept reminding myself, “And this is good for me!”

Easy Slaw – This was good. I like the addition of the caraway – really bumps up the flavors. I think it needs more moistening, so next time I think I will double the ACV and honey. I kept some of this for today. I think it should keep well. I like recipes that I can eat the next day.

Sweet and Sour Slaw - The allspice adds an interesting flavor to this slaw. It was also good. It needs to marinate for an hour before adding the raisins and eating it. I also kept some of this for tomorrow. The simple fact is: I like cabbage! Good thing, since I keep getting so much of it in my CSA share.

Broccoli Soup – I got too much cumin in this and it was really spicy. Cumin isn’t one of my favorite flavors anyway, so next time I make this I will use either ginger or caraway, both of which go well with broccoli. It’s a really pretty color – a light minty green. It looks very appetizing and would have been really good without all the cumin! It is very creamy and kind of thick. This is a keeper. I really like raw soups. This one has a longer ingredient list than a lot of them, but it went together pretty quick in spite of it! I ate all of it, so I don’t know if it would keep, or freeze.

Cucumber Wheels – I liked the Hummus this way, maybe the best. I used an English cuke and left the peel on and the juicyness of the cuke really enhanced the Hummus. If I make the Hummus again, and I probably will, I will make a much smaller quantity. I need to get used to garbanzos!

Yesterday was a real “green” day for me, and I really felt good. I didn’t eat very much hummus or all of the crepes because the hummus didn’t agree with me first time around and the crepes have nuts, so I didn’t give my body a chance to get “off.” The soup also had nuts, but not many.

OK, for today:

I am kicking into high gear with my SAD family’s Thanksgiving, so only two recipes.

Recipe 83 – Broccomole P 315

Recipe 84 – Strawberry Pie P 522
Have a fabulous day. I’m planning on it!

Annie

[Lara]

So I had some leftover "filling #1" from the eggplant roulade recipe and lots of leftover "filling #2" which are both quite delicious, especially when combined together! So last night and this morning I got creative....
Last night we had Nori Rolls stuffed with a Tablespoon full or so of the filling #1 (avocado base) and then on top a full Tbsp at least of the #2 filling. Then I added chopped cucumbers and lots of fresh basil and this a romaine leaf. Dipped into bragg's... we all loved it!
So this morning, I cut "cucumber coins" and put a dollop of the filling #1 and then #2 on it and a little sea salt. SCRUMPTIOUS!
Our daughter had some blueberry cheesecake for breakfast- she was so happy to have "dessert" for breakfast! LOL!
I'll check in later...
today I'm making the zucchini hummus again and doubling the recipe. Last time it didn't last a full day around here. And then a big huge salad for dinner.
Have a rawlicious day!

[RawHealthyBeauty]

Hey Annie, I'm going to try the Stuffed Portobella Mushrooms tomorrow. :)