Review of the Deliciously Ella Mexican Quinoa Bowl and Chocolate Mousse

Apr 12, 2016Deliciously Ella Challenge0 comments

Ladies and Gentleman, today is the final day of the Deliciously Ella 14 Day Challenge – where has time gone? I am going to now post all the reviews of the food I have eaten for the past two weeks.

Today I will be reviewing the Mexican Quinoa Bowl (found in the cookbook), and sub out the quinoa for brown rice. As you will see by my review below, it was quite a bigger meal than I anticipated, so I would suggest either omitting the cashew cream, or making about half of it. I also added Field Roast vegan sausages to it, which probably added to how full I was. I also tried the Healthy Chocolate Mousse for dessert, which was an interesting addition!

Let’s start with the Mexican Quinoa (or should I say brown rice) bowl…

Deliciously Ella Mexican Quinoa Bowl

  1. Ingredients = 4 stars

There were lots of ingredients in this recipe, but then again you can easily take out parts of it if you wanted to lessen the cost and amount of preparation.

  1. Preparation = 2.5 stars

The recipe book had an interesting way of laying out the preparation of this recipe. I would have liked to see a section on what you can do in advance before making the bowl (soaking the nuts and quinoa). I felt a little bit scrambled when I was making the recipe in the end because of all the moving parts to it.

  1. Cost = 2 starsDeliciously Ella Quinoa Bowl

I found this recipe extremely expensive, with the cashews, quinoa and many, many avocados and tomatoes. Like I said, it could serve a lot more people than I thought however, so you could easily cut down the amount of salsa or guacamole you make.

  1. Time – 2.5 stars

This recipe had a lot of little parts to it, and it would be nice to show how it was prepared all at once. The recipe book has it laid out so that you make the various parts when you want to.

  1. Appearance – 4 stars

The bowl had a great appearance in the end, with the variety of different toppings that you could separate into sections. I gave it one less star because the guacamole only really looked good when first served (as it tends to brown over time). It would even be nice simply with sliced avocado on top.

  1. Taste and Texture – 4 stars

The overall taste of this bowl was quite nice, with lots of contrasting flavors and textures. I really liked the salsa in particular mixed with the brown rice. I found that it didn’t even need the cashew cream as the guacamole and salsa was quite saucy to begin with.

  1. Satiety Level – 4.5 stars

This bowl was incredibly filling, almost too filling in a way. I definitely think with all the flavors and the cream it can feed more like 6 then four.

  1. Longevity – 4.5 stars

This bowl lasts a long time, if kept in its respective containers. I made so much of the cashew cream that I ended up freezing some, which was fine defrosted later. I also found that the salsa hardened slightly in the fridge with the oil, and the guacamole browned (hence not a perfect score).

Deliciously Ella Mexican Quinoa Bowl

 

 

 

 

 

Now for a review of the Healthy Chocolate Mousse:

Deliciously Ella Chocolate Mousse

 

  1. Ingredients = 4.5 stars

There were five ingredients in the chocolate mousse, all easy to find at a grocery store and mostly fresh. All the ingredients are gluten free, refined sugar free and vegan. I wonder if you could omit the almond butter for a seed butter if you are allergic? I would have to try next time. That would be my one suggestion with this recipe, is to include a swapped ingredient for the nut butter.

  1. Preparation = 5 stars

This was extremely easy to prepare if you have a proper food processor, I do think that soaking the dates prior to blending them makes a world of a difference as well.

  1. Cost = 4 starsDeliciously Ella Chocolate Mousse

This recipe is surprisingly not that bad in price, especially if you cut it down to two serving sizes. The avocado and the dates are the most expensive additions.

  1. Time – 4 stars

This is a pretty fast recipe, the only reason I gave it four stars is my food processor had some fun and was hard to clean afterwards. I find date juice really is fun to clean! Not…

  1. Appearance – 4 stars

It looks like regular pudding to me – nothing too different about it, I would add some toppings (ie. cocoa nibs to add some textural contrast).

  1. Taste and Texture – 4.5 stars

I really liked the taste of this! It was so thick and creamy, you do not need very much. It makes a difference to have a good food processor so that all the flavors meld together. Otherwise I would make sure to blend for a long period of time.

  1. Satiety Level – 5 stars

This is a perfect snack if you want something to tide you over to your next meal, like I said it was thick and creamy and great for a satisfying dessert (after a lighter meal).

  1. Longevity – 4 stars

Great longevity on this pudding, because of the avocado I noticed it did tend to discolour a bit over time, so I would suggest remixing it when you have it a day or two later. That is the only reason it lost a point there!

Deliciously Ella Chocolate Mousse

There you have it, two reviews for you today. I will try to update as many as possible in the coming days, I have about 10 recipes left to review!

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