Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I'm putting this here as opposed to Exercise or Nutrition because I'm curious what people thing of the various recipes.

I tried making the yam pancakes yesterday and they were a failure! They instantly spread out super thin and didn't really cook. The first batch I sort of shoved them into fatter piles after they started to cook a little and they they finally came out like pancakes and then they were okay.

I've made the apple cinnamon energy bars, the ginger pear,



and the chocolate (I used raw carob) blueberry.



They were all really good! I wasn't so sure after the first bite but the more I ate the more I liked them.

I've made the Blood Builder smoothie too and it was okay but I refrigerated the rest and had that the 2nd day. I normally don't do that with smoothies, but the directions said I could so I tried it. It was gross the 2nd day.

Anyone else making anything out of this?

Karma007 mailed me some of the chocolate whole food optimizer and it smells pretty gross - anyone want to share their feelings on official Thrive products?

I haven't tried anything but the chocolate whole food optimizer (they gave out sample packets at my Whole Foods) and it is one of the worst things I ever ate. I hardly ever throw anything away, but I couldn't handle more than three sips of that stuff.

I love the recovery pudding, but I usually make it thinner and more smoothie-like. I haven't tried very many of the recipes - I know I tried popping amaranth in my air popper for something and it scorched and smelled awful and made me mad at Brendan Brazier. I made some energy bite things (possibly with mango?) for my husband to take on a long ride, but they just turned to mush. I don't think he was a fan.

I actually really liked the chocolate optimizer, but maybe because I used it in the pudding? I never buy it because it's a billion dollars, like all Vega stuff, but I thought it was tasty.

I love Thrive in principle, and had some success with the energy bars, although they're too soft to eat on the bike. I find that a lot of the 'additions' (not to use the word supplements) to be expensive, if you add them all up. And after trying that terrible mess I pawned off on Appifanie, I'm hesitant to buy another product. It DID turn me on to chia seeds, which I love. I never learned to pop amaranth though.

I normally make pretty darn good pancakes. These were such a failure - yam, wild rice, quinoa...

Hi!

I'm actually training for a marathon now and recently returned to my copy of the Thrive book for some ideas.

When I first got the book about a year ago, I tried several of the pizzas and they were all delicious. Very filling - what with the amount of sunflower seeds in the crust, etc. I ended up using more veggies and less of the dense, calorie-rich stuff in the crust (just used the seeds as a flavor enhancer) and less oil than called for. The beet and the chickpea ones were especially good. A good food-processor handled it all well. If you have one of those rubber spatulas, that works well for scraping the contents out afterwards. I usually cut the recipe in half and used those 9-inch aluminum pie tins to bake it all in. Perfect single-serving, I thought.

The Nutritional Yeast sauce (can't remember what the name of the recipe is exactly in the book) that has a little cayenne, paprika, salt, oil is super good on top of the pizzas. Just whip all the ingredients together in a bowl and then heat in a pan until it thickens up. Cheese-like.

I had good luck with the mango-coconut-macadamia energy bars. And, like another poster, really liked the recovery pudding.

I haven't tried the pancakes but I recall reading the recipe and not having any desire to try to cook them :) So I can understand if they didn't come out that great!

Definitely share any of your findings, dislikes/likes! Thanks!

Amanda

Thank YOU Amanda! I've tried 3 of the energy bars and really liked them. I thought the pancaksed seemed odd but I hoped for the best. Alas!

I've read it, but the only recipe I've made is the coconut date ball things. I would individually cling-wrap them. They were great for quick energy when I was riding centuries & a lot easier to chew while under physical stress that Clif bars & such.

I just tried stove top popping amaranth - fail.

I have not made any of the recipes from this book, but I like the Vega Whole Food Smoothie Infusion. I try to layer fruit and other ingredients on top of it when I add it to the blender, or all the powder sticks to the lid when I turn it on. I was lucky enough to find it on sale locally, or I might not have purchased it. It's pricey.

We'll see how it works in a recovery drink after P90X workouts. (Day 2 today!)

Does anyone have both Thrive Foods and Thrive? I have read Thrive, and was interested in ordering Thrive Foods, but not if it's mostly the same recipes.

So far I like the Cool Coconut Orange Squares, Breakfast Blueberry Chia Pudding, Beet Salad with Lemon Herb Cream Cheese, Red Lentil Dahl, and Chocolate Chip Maple Maca ice cream. These are from Thrive Foods, and now looking at your original post I see it just said Thrive so not sure this is helpful aarrghh

I couldn't do this, and nearly ruined my popcorn popper trying it that way as well. Kinda bummed, because popped amaranth sounds like such a useful thing.

I've had popped amaranth and it's tasty, but I've never figured out how to do it myself.

I like the Vega powder in smoothies -- I use the plain one.

Just got this book and am making my way through it. I haven't made any recipes yet but the pizza ones look easy and good as well as the burgers.

I think I will buy the full recipe book once I've read the whole thing.

Started using the Vega smoothie infusion packs in my morning smoothie and I like them. Mixed with hemp milk, a frozen banana, frozen berries, and some OJ they are really good. I do add some stevia though cause I like my smoothies sweet.