The Oh She Glows challenge has begun! Day 2 of 30

Hey everyone! I just want to firstly say thank you so much for everyone’s support so far, I have been overwhelmed by the feedback and how many new friends I’ve made in the past couple weeks.  I have met people from around the world on my new Instagram account (link here) – and am thinking up so many recipes to try in the coming weeks. It’s been so fun.

Sorry I have been a bit MIA on the blog world, I was hoping to post yesterday but I got side tracked by April Fools – did everyone see my joke?

The best part was so many people believed it! I had to be sure to clarify it was a joke ASAP before I gave someone food poisoning 😉

Also, being the graduate student I am, I have decided to take this Oh She Glows 30 day challenge even further, I am going to use a review system to accurately evaluate each recipe I make.  Why? Well, sometimes when I am reading the comments on her blog, I get annoyed when people say “It’s great” or “It’s okay” but don’t give the details! Did it turn out the way Angela planned?  Could you make it that day? Did it taste good as a leftover?  What was the overall cost for the recipe, and can items be used for other recipes in her blog/cookbook?  So many levels to evaluate!! My dream one day is to be a recipe tester for her cookbook, but for now I will do it on my own.

Thanks to some brainstorming with my foodie friends, these are the categories I have:

1.  Ingredients
   1. How easy were the ingredients to find? Did I have on hand already?
   2. Are ingredients transferable to other recipes?
   3. Were the ingredients easy to cook and prepare?
2. Preparation
   1. How easy was the recipe to follow and prepare ingredients?
   2. Were there steps missing, or not well explained?
3. Cost
   1. Was the item fair in price?
   2. Were there ingredients that could have been swapped for cheaper ingredients?
4. Time
   1. Did it take the amount of time indicated?
   2. Was it time consuming?
   3. Did it take only one day to prepare?
5. Appearance
   1. Did the end product look appealing?
   2. Did it have a good smell?
6. Taste/Flavour
   1. How did finished recipe taste?
   2. Did flavors require modifying?
   3. Was there a secondary person to take a taste test? 😉
7. Texture
   1. Was there a good amount of texture in the meal?
   2. Were their competing elements that distract from the recipe?
8. Satiety Level
   1. Did I feel fulfilled at the end of the meal?
   2. How long was it after eating the recipe until I had to eat again?
9. Nutrition
   1. How much of the daily recommendations of protein/fat/carbohydrates were in the meal?
   2. Were there any high allergens in the meal?
   3. Any ingredients that could be omitted?
10. Longevity
    1. Could this item be made into a leftover?
    2. If so, how does it taste the next day, the day after?
    3. Are there certain instructions that need following (ie. keep in freezer?)

The overall score will be out of 50 (with 5 marks each) and then I will give my final verdict: Will I make this recipe again?

Okay, hopefully I didn’t lose some of you with my intense categories  🙂 My plan is to just give a graph with the overall scores, and then the final score and notes on the item.

For instance, I got around to test out the Mushroom Walnut Pesto Tart (found in Oh She Glows Cookbook) but I put it on spelt flatbread (see recipe here) – because I couldn’t find a healthy pastry that wasn’t super expensive.  Here are some of the results:

  First I made some spelt flour flatbread, and made three little personalized pizzas (I made half of the recipe)

After baking as directed, here is the final product.  The onions and mushrooms were nice and caramelized from frying in the pan, to save a step you can just fry them up together.  I also felt that the pesto was missing something… not sure what but it didn’t have the usual tang that the pestos I’ve made before have.  Perhaps because there was no lemon juice or acidic base?

It was a great recipe all in all, but I do think that if I made it again I would add some sun-dried tomato or something.  It worked really well as a leftover, in fact the sauce seemed to sink into the flatbread a bit more and the flavour was more noticeable.

Here is my overall chart rating the pesto flatbread…

The overall rating was 38.5 out of 50, making it a B academically 😉

So yes, I would definitely make again, I am really curious to try it with the pastry, and this made me realize that all other recipes I do for the challenge I want to follow exactly, to see if others find similar results.

Stay tuned this week, I will be updating even more reviews of the different things I eat 🙂 If you are really curious how I came up with my overall score, I have attached my full review here.

Let me know what you think of this system.  Am I missing anything, or is it too complicated?

xox Hannah

ps. I’m working on Facebook and Twitter accounts this week, I will update you when they are ready to go!