Alissa and Annie - NOT Julie and Julia

[IamLoved]

I love Alissa's mock salmon pate. It is so good!

I am enjoying reading about your eating adventures too.

[anniez]

Last night I had the Mock Salmon Pate over a large but simple romaine, kale, mushroom, and cucumber salad. I made Alissa's Honey Mustard Salad Dressing and it was soooooo good on this salad. That was dinner. Even in my Dad diet I love fish or brown rice on a salad. I may sprout some lentils and wild rice to try for the brown rice texture. I'm still at a stage where I want to re-create what I'm used to a bit.

I look forward to seeing how you like the pineapple apple salad. Today I will be eating cantaloupe all day till it's gone, mostly so it won't go bad. I'm still raw, day 6, and feeling good. A few sniffles.

Thanks for the salad suggestion. I love Alissa's Honey Mustard Dressing, as I said in an earlier post, so I will make more today and try your salad. Just used greens yesterday.

Stay raw. You will probably feel worse at some point, when detox kicks in, so be ready for it and don't give in to any SAD cravings. Keep making food from Alissa's book!

Annie

[anniez]

Hi, Iamloved. Good to know you’re here. What do you do with the Mock Salmon Pate?

A big thank you to all of you checking in to let me know you’re here. It’s good to know I’m not in this alone! Please, suggestions for your favorites from Alissa’s book. I AM going to make every recipe, I just don’t know when I’m going to make what. A lot is driven by what is good and on sale at the supermarket. For example, today mangoes were $1 apiece – a really good price. They are rock hard, so I have to wait for them to ripen. But the Mango Pie is definitely on the agenda for the first ripe mango. I just hope they don’t all ripen at once! And avocados are also $1 apiece, so look for some avo dishes coming up.

Green Apple Parsley Drink I did something really wrong here. I must have had the wrong kind of apples, and I think I used too much parsley. I didn’t really understand what ½ head meant. I kept trying to redeem the recipe and just got in deeper and deeper. I don’t know how I could mess up apples and parsley, but I did! Any tips? I will try this again, because I trust Alissa that it’s good, but I’m going to pay attention to what kind of apple I have, and I will measure the parsley and taste as I go, not when I’m finished. I think I was in to too much of a mess to redeem it. Help, please, if you have made this!

Pineapple Apple Salad Some pineapple Tips: I have no clue if these tips on choosing a pineapple are legit or not, but I got a really good pineapple this time. Here’s what I’ve heard: It should have a lot of gold on it. Sniff the base and if it smells pineapply, it is probably ripe. Finally, pull out a leaf; if it is ripe, the leaf will pull out easily. Here is how I now prepare it: I cut off the top and I cut off the bottom. Then I stand it up and follow the shape cutting down the fruit to cut off the skin. Then I cut it in quarters and cut out the core. Works well and as painless as any method I’ve used.
I tasted my pineapple and apple separately and both were sweet and yummy, But when I got the salad put together, it was too acidic for me. So, next time I will use less ACV. I have one caveat and that is that I only ate half of it and the other half is waiting for me tomorrow. I will see how it ages, and will maybe decide that it does need all the ACV. This will be another staple.

Mock Salmon Pate Wow, Cenaw, thanks for suggesting this. Here’s another staple. It is really, really good. It’s also quick and easy (very important for me!). I think next time I will try it with some dulse or kelp, or some sea veggie to make it saltier without using more salt. I can only begin to imagine the versatility. I ate it yesterday as Alissa suggests, and as I said yesterday. Those of you who are into pates, please give some input for uses. Here’s a way I will use it: I will make a Salmon Salad Sandwich on whatever bread I happen to have with fresh juicy tomato slices and crisp lettuce leaves. Gotta make some bread now! Since I don’t have any bread right now, tomorrow I will have it in a romaine leaf with the tomato and lettuce! Hmm! Wonder about a few of those marinated onions. What do you think?

Dill Vinaigrette Another big hit! I made the full recipe of this, but it was still too small for my Blendtec, so I made it in my mini food processor. The Blendtec would have done a better job, I think, but I would have probably had to triple the recipe. I used fresh dill and fresh parsley, because I am pretty sure that’s what Alissa meant. She does say in her tips that even though each recipe won’t say it, that all ingredients are to be raw, so that’s what I used raw instead of dried. (There is at least one recipe, which one escapes me right now, that calls for dried dill.) I didn’t know if it was supposed to be measured before or after chopping, so I winged it. In other words, I used a big bunch of whole dill and not quite as much whole parsley. The processor didn’t do a real good job of pulverizing the dill and parsley, but it did chop them quite fine. And that’s what this dressing is – quite fine. Oh, I also cut back on the ACV because of my experience with the Pineapple Apple Salad. I am thinking that Alissa likes her dressings a little more tart than I like mine.

Do you know how some plastics just don’t want to give up oils that are in them? That is how the container is for my Black and Decker mini food-processor. It’s really hard to get all the oil out of it and get it clean. Next time I make this I will use my Slap and Chop to chop the dill and parsley. I will use a technique I used on the Food Network for the garlic: mash it with the side of the knife with the salt. Then I will shake everything together in a glass jar. Or, I might try it in a quart jar with my immersion blender. At any rate, I won’t be making it in my mini food processor again. But I WILL be making it again!

Un-cooking only Alissa’s recipes is really a good thing for me. I am learning so much from the variety of recipes, and I am learning a lot about my taste vs. hers. Case in point: the ACV. Also, she has been raw so much longer than I have that I am sure her tastes are quite refined. I can’t say the same about mine! And Alissa makes it clear that she spends a lot of time doing heavy-duty workouts! (Just look at her if you doubt it!) I do NOT spend a lot of time working out! So, it’s no wonder that I eat a lot less than she does.

OK, on to today:

Yay! One mango is ripe. Also, the market had big bunches of really ripe bananas marked way down, so I got a couple of bunches. So, today is all about mango and banana!

Recipe 38 Mango Pie Pg 496

Recipe 39 Banana-Avo Dip Pg. 308 (I don’t quite know what I will do with this. Alissa gives no suggestions. I think it might be too sweet for veggies, but maybe not. When I taste it, I will know what to do with it. I’m open to ideas from all of you.

Recipe 40 Banana Leather

More mango and banana coming up. Stay tuned!

Annie

[IamLoved]

Annie, My children love to eat the salmon pate right out of the food processor with some cut up veggies or raw crackers. I also make them into little patties and dehydrate them. They are good like that too. Sort of like crab cakes or something.

[cenaw/10]

Iamloved, crab cakes, I need to get a dehydrator.

[cenaw/10]

Tried the Tomato, Onion, and Avocado Sandwich (pg 439) and it was simple and delicious. I have several avocados ripe, so I looked them up in the index. I may try the Lemon Pudding (pg518) tonight to use another one...

[anniez]

Iamloved: Love the idea to dehydrate the Salmon Pate. Will try that. When I make this again, I will make the full recipe and dehydrate some. I love doing things like this that will keep the food longer and make it seem like a different recipe. Although, I love this just the way it is!

Cenaw/10: Did you make the Lemon Pudding? Check in on the results. Thanks for the review of the Tomato Avo Onion Sandwich. Don’t ya just love those quick, easy, delicious recipes? There’s a place in my life for more complicated food, but on a daily basis I like quick and easy!

Update on the Pineapple Apple Salad: I didn’t like this so much on the 2nd day. The apples didn’t turn brown, but they got quite soft. I liked the texture better on the 1st day when the apple was still crisp. I will only make enough of this to eat at one time. If I want to keep an apple salad for the next day I will make Waldorf Salad.

Banana Leather: Renee, here’s a great travel food! I always take bananas when I fly because they are easy and substantial. But how great is this????? It took less than 5 minutes to blend and get on the teflex. It is quite liquidy. I used two trays because I was uncertain if it would spread any more, but maybe it would only take one. I do wonder, though, if a regular blender would be strong enough to get the banana started. My BlendTec did it beautifully. Anybody done this with a regular blender? It took about 18 hours. I rolled it up and cut it into bite-sized pieces.

Mango Pie: Wowsers, this looks like the SAD version of the banana cream pie made with the vanilla wafer crust. I made just the pudding since I have already made the crust and I didn’t want the nuts today. But when I poured it in the bowl over the sliced bananas and stirred it up, I couldn’t believe how it looked! I’m gonna try some of this on the Grands and see how it goes over. A tip I learned from Renee: Make this after you make the Banana Leather and you don’t have to wash the blender. This is also delicious and quick. Another staple! (If you’re making this and trying to get your blender to do triple duty like I did, make your crust last. You’ll need to wash the blender, though, because of the garlic in the dip.

Banana-Avo Dip I segued right to this from the Mango Pie without rinsing the blender. The mango may have made it a little sweeter, but I doubt it because the mango wasn’t exceptionally sweet. That’s another thing I have learned on this journey: taste the raw ingredients first! This is so-o-o-o good, I can’t even tell you. The garlic adds such an interesting note! And so quick! All told yesterday, I spent less than 30 minutes in the kitchen. I ate some of this rolled up in a romaine leaf and it was really good that way. Then for dinner I had it with raw carrots and that was out of this world. But, it did darken during the afternoon. If you don’t eat it all at one meal, try putting the avo pit on top of it and then put plastic wrap (I know, I know!) right on top of it. I think this is a recipe that is best when freshly made.
I am going to be looking for more combinations where I can use the blender or food processor without having to wash up every time, because it saves so much time!

Yesterday was a really great day – good food and very little kitchen time.
For today:

Very busy day so I am trying two simple recipes. I have some leftovers that need to be eaten.

Recipe 325 Pineapple Nut Cream P 325

Recipe 42 Walnut Fudge P 501

Let me know what you’re liking from Alissa’s book!

Annie

[IamLoved]

ok, I am going to have to look up that mango pie recipe and make some today. I will probably just do a pudding too because I have not felt like a lot of nuts lately either. But I DO have 4 ripe mangos that I just stuck in my fridge. Now they are just staring at me and I was just wondering what to do with them.

Off to look up that recipe.......

[somelikeitraw]

Update on the Pineapple Apple Salad: I didn’t like this so much on the 2nd day. The apples didn’t turn brown, but they got quite soft. I liked the texture better on the 1st day when the apple was still crisp. I will only make enough of this to eat at one time. If I want to keep an apple salad for the next day I will make Waldorf Salad.

Annie you are SO inspiring! As I was reading this I wondered about just blending the second day pineapple apple salad into a sauce. It might be nice over a slice of cheesecake or maybe even just a bowl of pineapple apple sauce?

Whats going on out front? OMG! It's the FedEx guy! YES!!!! My Excalibur is here!!!

WHEEEHAAAA!!! I'm off to have some fun!

[joya]

Just checking in. I love reading about everyone's recipe preparation.

I bought a ton of ingredients, but haven't had the urge to make anything yet in the month of November. I've been sticking to simple things (green smoothies) and made yet another batch of the mock salmon pate.

Perhaps tonight I will attempt the pasta & marinara sauce. I don't have a saladacco though, so I'll be working with larger zucchini pieces.

[cenaw/10]

Joya, that's funny I just made the pasta with marinara sauce (pg 395) a 1/2 hour ago. It's very good, and I want a saladacco too. I used my potato peeler for fettuccine type pasta and it was delicious. My 10 year old dd liked her little taste and promptly went out to the garden to hunt for any zucchini still lurking out there. She found a handful of tiny ones and made herself lunch. No PBJ for her today. I love that. I found the zucchini strips a little big, and took my kitchen scissors and snipped it up right in the bowl with sauce already on it. I could and probably will eat this weekly. I need to make some pesto very soon with the last of my garden basil. Saladacco, saladacco, saladacco, I chant.

[cenaw/10]

Oh, I failed to mention that I made Alissa's Ginger Vinaigrette yesterday to marinate cauliflower, broccoli and mushrooms in. I had a bowl of that for dinner last night. It's good. I think I would add a dash of sesame oil to use it as a salad dressing.

[IamLoved]

In case any of you are interested I have learned that the fettucine alfredo taste even more awesome (if that is possible) after it has spent some time in the dehydrator. It gets really thick and has a definate "cooked" texture. I like to eat this in the winter when it is cold outside and I am craving something really substantial.

BTW I just made the mango pie filling. I didn't add the sliced bananas though and I am just eating it out of a bowl as a pudding. It is really yummy and so simple. I love simple and yummy!

[anniez]

Woo Hoo! You guys are doing what I hoped would happen – getting a dialogue going. Thanks! I’m hoping we can get more people talking specifics!
Iamloved: Glad you tried the Mango Pie. No kidding, when I put the sliced banana in the pudding it looked just like SAD vanilla pudding with bananas sliced in it. But it sure tasted better than that ever did. And I just felt so joyful knowing every bite was seriously good for my body! And thanks for the tip about the Fetuccine Alfredo. I made a note in my book to dehydrate some when I make it. For how long did you leave it? Has anybody tried freezing this?

A side note: I love the wide margins in the book to make notes! And I really love the comprehensive index. (Which reminds me, the Kale Salad is not in the Index.) I like to fix food based on what is on sale! I do NOT like the recipes where you have to turn the page, though. Hope her next book is laid out better.

Somelikeitraw, thanks so much for the kind words. I want to inspire everyone to stay raw, and these delicious recipes can’t do anything but help! And I LOVE your idea about blending the Pineapple Apple salad into a sauce. That never occurred to me. I am writing your suggestions in my book. Do tell, what is in your dehydrator!!! I know how much fun you are having, because I remember the day I got mine. I hope you got the teflex sheets with it.

Joya, thanks for checking in. Have you tried using your food processor to make pasta? It’s not the same, the strands are lots shorter, but it night work for you. You can also use your peeler to make thin slices, stack them up, and slice them.

Cenaw/10: Love that your dd scrounged the garden because she liked your food. What a joy that must have been for you. Try Gus’s Pesto. It’s really good. If you still have some zucc, try it over that. I see all kinds of Pesto Pasta on the Food Network. And thanks for the suggestion of veggies to marinate in the Ginger Vinaigrette. I wrote that in my book also. How long did you let it marinate? Did you have any left, and if so, how was it the 2nd day?

Pineapple Apple Salad: Something I forgot to say and just noticed when I went to the recipe to write Somelikeitraw’s ideas. I don’t peel organic apples. I think there’s a lot of nutrition in the skin, but I could be wrong about that. I used some kind of red apple, and the skin gave it a pretty color! I soaked the raisins, but in retrospect, it might have been better the
2nd day if I hadn’t.

Yesterday: The Pineapple Nut Cream is really good. I used it as a dip for sliced apples. Let me know what you are doing with it.
As Rachael Ray would say, “Yummo” for the Walnut Fudge! It doesn’t have any kind of chocolate ingredient. I didn’t eat much of it yesterday, because I wanted to take it with me today to get me into the afternoon. I think this needs refrigeration, or it would be good travel food. Any ideas on the refrigeration?

OK, now for the Time Out! Hubby hit me with a surprise yesterday: We are leaving early this morning with a group of friends for a 4-day weekend. It will be a lot of fun, but I have mixed emotions because I have been doing so well staying all raw and eating great food. Breakfast will be fine, because I know the hotel’s Breakfast Buffet will have fruit. The other meals will be a challenge, I’m sure! I’m going to stay as raw as I can, but I’m not comfortable with making it a challenge for a waiter or chef. Maybe someday I will be, but maybe I won’t. That’s not really my personality, and it would make my husband very uncomfortable. So, I will be eating lots of salads and not making a fuss! Wish me well.

I don’t know if I’ll even have Internet Access, so I will definitely be going through withdrawal. Keep the conversation going, folks, so I’ll know what to make when I get back! I hope there’s lots of good reading here for me.

Out the door….

Annie

[Veganforlife]

Oh Annie - we'll keep it RAWkin' - promise. Have FUN!!!