Recipe Review: Cashew Ranch Dressing and Fudgy Black Bean Brownies

I am not a talented cook--but by golly, my reading skills are above average so hopefully I can follow a recipe accurately! I had a great grandmother who never needed a recipe book--she cooked from her heart. Me, I'm a technical writer by trade and need to read the manual! I enjoy getting recipes from all over the Internet and various cook books. However, my favorite two sources are: 

Website: Susan Voisin's FatFree Vegan Kitchen, http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ Susan blogs from the Deep South and develops yummy vegan recipes. Much of her work falls within Dr. Fuhrman's Eat-to-Live nutritarian diet. Susan gives practical tips for the preparation of each recipe. For example, if you're making the Cashew Ranch Dressing, she advises you soak the cashews for a few hours if you don't have a powerful blender like the Vitamix. Because I am not a divinely talented cook, I appreciate instructions like this!

Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live Cookbook. This cookbook contains about 200 recipes from smoothies to salads to main entrees such as stews, soups, and more. I have this fantasy of making a recipe from his book each day and blogging about it--as did that young woman in the movie who blogged about cooking Julia Child's recipes. I'd really like to take a shot at it as it will give me a reason to really stick to the Eat-to-Live regime and get some writing practice in. I don't think there is a movie deal in it for me, but becoming healthier and getting off my pre-diabetes medicine is a good possibility.  

Today's recipe review includes: 

* Cashew Ranch Dressing, from Susan Voisin's FatFree Vegan Kitchen. The main ingredients are cashews and non-dairy milk with seasonings. The surprise ingredient for those unfamiliar with it is chia seeds. These little babies are packed with protein and fiber. The seeds are small and grind up well. You won't taste them. I diverted from Susan's recipe by adding a bit of Mrs. Dash instead of chives. This dressing was cool and creamy on my salad. I don't miss the bottled ranch dressing from the store--fresh, home-made is so much better. Aside from soaking the cashews for four hours, this recipe took less than five minutes to whip up in the blender. Don't worry--you don't need a Vitamix to do this. (I don't have one either.) My good old Osterizer blender worked. 

* Fudgy Black Bean Brownies, from Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live Cookbook. I made this in my food processor. I used the S blade and processed the ingredients until they were smooth and were starting to form a heavy ball of dough. The batter had the texture of fudge, heavy fudge, more than it did that of traditional brownie batter. I was skeptical at first because there is no liquid ingredient or oil in the recipe except that of the small amount of almond butter. There's no sugar--dates take the place of that.
      My teenagers refused to try the brownies. My son held up a small pot of dirt next to the brownies. "Hm, there's no difference," he said. I had to laugh. My daughter smiled politely and said she didn't want to try them. My husband took one bite and said with great feeling, "YUCK." I am not sure I will make these again
--I think they'd be nice with walnuts. 

Looks like I'll have those brownies all to myself. Have you made this recipe? And did your family like it?