Vegetarian Sushi & Indonesian Tofu Salad

I've been having a lot of fun experimenting as a week-long vegetarian. Cutting out meat has made me try to cook more international cuisines than I'd ever really tried before.

Let's start off with Monday's dinner. I'm still learning as I go on the sushi-making. As in, I've only ever made California rolls before. But without imitation crab at my disposal, I had to get a little creative and think up new sushi fillings.

So I went with the sweet potato, avocado and asparagus roll with sprouts:

I've ordered tempura sweet potato rolls before, so that was a part of the inspiration behind my vegetarian roll. And it was delicious! To the very last bite...

Maybe I just really wanted to show off my new sushi plate and dipping bowls :)

Now on to yesterday's vegetarian fare. Post-workout lunch I was in the mood for a panini!

Into this little guy went (shockingly) sweet potatoes, tomato, mozzerella, fresh basil, spinach, sprouts, onion and a drizzling of fig balsamic vinegar & oil.

It was essentially a Caprese salad wedged between two pieces of wheat bread! I think the next time I make one of these sandwiches, I'm going to drizzle the oil and vinegar inside the veggies and not on the bread side of the sandwich! It got everywhere, but trust me, it was worth it. I feel as if this has become a new staple in my life, vegetarian or not, I'm going to be eating more of these sandwiches!

Which brings us back to last night's dinner. I went to Japan on Monday, so I decided to continue my culinary tour through Asia, specifically Indonesia for dinner. Enter the modified tofu gado gado salad (with spicy peanut dressing).

Salad ingredients:

• 1/2 package of tofu
• 1 small sweet potato
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cucumber
• handful of bean sprouts
• 1/2 carrot
• 1 c spinach

This was super simple to make! All I did was press the tofu, cube it, then dry fried it on both sides. While that was going on, I set my oven to 375° and peeled/cubed the sweet potato before roasting it for about 20 minutes. No seasoning necessary, since then dressing was plenty salty for the entire dish. Finally, I hard boiled an egg while chopping up all the other ingredients. Everything all came together at once, including the dressing.

Dressing ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1/4 c roasted peanuts
• 5 t soy sauce
• 3 T lime juice
• 4 t brown sugar
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper or pepper flakes
• 2 T water

All of the ingredients went into the blender until all the chunks were gone.

This made an overflowing ramekin of dressing, so if you're feeding one or two, definitely cut that amount in half. It is fairly salty and spicy, so I actually added more water and less soy sauce to cut down on the salt. Now you understand why I said not to season any of the salad ingredients!

WORKOUT

About that workout I alluded to earlier... As I've mentioned on this blog before, my knee is absolutely wrecked. I was training for a half marathon from May to July of 2010 but added mileage way too fast for my body. It felt good at the time of my running, but one day I woke up and literally couldn't walk without pain. This was after I quit my job and right before I moved to Arizona. AKA no health insurance. Since then, I've been trying to take it easy, and probably haven't run more than 10 miles total. I have shoe inserts for my arches, a knee brace and rock tape for my knee, but none of it helps. Every time I run, even if it's half a mile, I have shooting pain inside and underneath my left kneecap. That means, until I find a full-time job with health insurance, my running is going to have to end.

If you can imagine, I was depressed for weeks, if not months. I tried willing my knee back. It hurt me to learn other people I knew were training for marathons for the first time and successfully completing them. I followed a proven guide and wound up hurt. And may have possibly ruined my knee for life. I was eating and eating, and not working out.

Until this week. I'm walking more and watching/doing Yoga on Demand from Exercise TV. It is my new goal then, to get strong with yoga, and to be able to hold poses for more than a few seconds! I've always liked yoga, but it was generally a leisure activity. From today forward, I'm making it my main source of exercise.

Even Woodstock wants to try it :)

This pose is called Get Off My Mat, You Lazy Dog

I hope I can continue strong with both yoga and my week without meat! Since both are new, I'm eager to try and progress through the week. I suppose I'll have a better idea of what I am capable of at the conclusion of this week.

Have a great day, friends! xx

Week 4: Make California Rolls yourself

It's no secret that I LOVE sushi. Actually, I didn't always. I hated the idea of raw fish up until -- you guessed it -- college, when everyone ate sushi and drank coffee at co-op coffee houses. What can I say, I'm a slave to the trends...

I pretty much eat sushi everywhere I go. I even once had it in Nashville (please don't judge, I know it's NOWHERE near an ocean, but imitation crab is readily available anywhere). I've tried so many different kinds, fish, textures and sauces, but would you believe I've never actually made it myself?

Which is why I decided to read up on sushi making and prepared my very own California Roll for my new thing this week. Looks like I'm chugging along pretty well with my "resolution" huh? The biggest surprise is how easy and delicious sushi-making can be! The hardest part was probably finding all the specialty ingredients.

Clearly I need to work on my rolling and cutting. But give me a break, it was my first-ever try!

After looking up how-to videos on YouTube (click on the link and it'll take you to the wealth of sushi-rolling knowledge YouTube has to offer), I got the general idea of the roll down. My next task was finding a place that sold sushi rolling mats. I looked at a few kitchen and home good stores and couldn't find it. Luckily a quick Internet search back at home pointed me in the direction of Sur la Table. A kitchen store I probably could live in. Kind of like Where the Heart Is, but less white trashy ;)

Next up, the recipe. I went with Alton Brown's California Roll recipe. Lucky for you, he also provides a sweet how-to video to brush up on sushi rolling skills.

Ingredients:

• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 medium avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced into 1/4-inch thick pieces
• 4 sheets nori (seaweed wraps)
• 1/2 batch sushi rice, recipe follows
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into matchstick-size pieces
• 4 crabsticks, torn into pieces
• Pickled ginger, for serving
• Wasabi, for serving
• Soy sauce, for serving

(I omitted the sesame seeds and pickled ginger, can't stand the stuff)

Sushi Rice Recipe (start here first):

• 2 cups sushi or short grain rice
• 2 cups water, plus extra for rinsing rice
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Place the rice into a mixing bowl and cover with cool water. Swirl the rice in the water, pour off and repeat 2 to 3 times or until the water is clear.

Place the rice and 2 cups of water into a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, uncovered. Once it begins to boil, reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover. Cook for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes.

Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl and heat in the microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds. Transfer the rice into a large wooden or glass mixing bowl and add the vinegar mixture. Fold thoroughly to combine and coat each grain of rice with the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature before using to make sushi or sashimi.

Directions for the sushi roll:

Squeeze the lemon juice over the avocado to prevent browning.

Cover a bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap. Cut nori sheets in half crosswise. Lay 1 sheet of nori, shiny side down, on the plastic covered mat.Wet your fingers with water and spread about 1/2 cup of the rice evenly onto the nori.

Sprinkle the rice with sesame seeds. Turn the sheet of nori over so that the rice side is down. Place 1/8 of the cucumber, avocado and crab sticks in the center of the sheet.

This was for J.D.'s "man roll" -- I wouldn't suggest making yours this size. Follow the directions and cut the nori in half, otherwise you'll be so full you won't be able to finish your roll. And there's also a logistical problem with fitting one of these bad boys into your mouth [[that's what she said]].

Grab the edge of the mat closest to you, keeping the fillings in place with your fingers, and roll it into a tight cylinder, using the mat to shape the cylinder.

Pull away the mat and set aside. Cover with a damp cloth. Repeat until all of the rice has been used. Cut each roll into 6 pieces. Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The rolling part took me a while and I didn't quite master it. When I make sushi again -- and trust me, I plan to soon -- I'll try to roll it super, super tight. It also needs a liberal spread of rice on the outside of the roll, that's why mine looks so tiny. And that's probably why it was sort of difficult for me to cut. Either way, it was delicious! I can't wait to play around with new flavors and fillings.

Next time you're craving sushi, why not try to make some yourself?! :) And be sure to catch up on all of my new weekly things in 2011!

Eating Nemo was amazing

After turning down a job last week I've been a train wreck. When I was 20 and my first boyfriend broke up with me, I couldn't eat for days. Anytime I tried my stomach was just a big mess. Five years later, I had that feeling again. Not regret for having turned down a job after interviewing for 21 in this economy, but more so that disgusting sick feeling inside, like you know you've done something totally wrong you can't take back.

Clearly, I need to lighten up. But finances are a BIG deal when you don't have any. However, this week I've been lining up a few more part time gigs and interviews. I think something is bound to fall into my lap one day soon. That being said, I'm starting to eat again.

And man did I ever eat yesterday. J.D. and I went to the Arizona State Fair and then kept the day going by celebrating the 3rd of the month, which we do every month for obvious reasons, at a fancy-looking sushi place near our house. Thank God my boyfriend has a job...

We kicked the fair's festivities off with some lunch, a compromise between disturbing fried stations (for J.D.) and something healthy (for me). BBQ it was!

Then we made our way to the midway and I desperately wanted to search for the livestock area to catch a glimpse of the -- wait for it -- WIENER DOG RACES!

Eeeeeeee they were so cute!!!!!(#*&&#^@%%@!!!!!!! The wieners were dressed up in hot dog costumes, just like little Woodstock was for Halloween :) There were also tiny piggy races too. The guy running the show explained to us that pigs are the fourth smartest animals in the world, behind humans, primates and dolphins. Dogs were all the way down to No. 9 or something like that. So basically, anything you could teach a dog, he could teach his pigs in half the time. Man those suckers were fast. Just wait a couple of months before they hit the 1,000 lb. mark....

They were so fast I couldn't even get a decent picture. Oh well.

After seeing the country's largest Ferris wheel on wheels -- no way I'm getting on a ride that can be taken down and shipped off in a day -- we finally made it the livestock area.

And in the petting zoo area they had kangaroos! I really wanted to go in and pet one, but I would have felt weird being the only person over 8 without a child in there.

After the fair, we went home to feed Woodstock and cool off for a little bit since it had been close to 90 degrees outside. J.D. looked up a local sushi/martini bar and discovered it features a 50% off menu from Tuesday until Saturday during Happy Hour! By the time we made our way over, there was still over an hour left! :)

We sat down at our table at Blue Wasabi and checked out the drink menu while they actually brought us blue wasabi for the sushi.

As much as I had wanted to order the Nice Melons, it wasn't half off for Happy Hour. So I went with the Berry White instead. Good Lord that thing was dangerous and tasted like a Jolly Rancher.

Then back to the menu we went to figure out our dinner:

While I would have loved to order the Dirty Sanchez or Me Soy Horny rolls just for the sheer comedic value of saying those in public, at a classy bar no less, I wasn't too thrilled with the ingredients. So instead we split the Eating Nemo and the Wango Mango rolls. Along with a slew of appetizers.

We had two 8-piece rolls, three appetizers and three drinks for under $40 (and enough leftovers for a third lunch/dinner)! I think if we'd paid full price beyond Happy Hour it would have cost over $70 without the tax. Yikes! If ANYONE ever comes to visit me in Arizona, we're going to this place between Tuesday and Saturday, no questions asked!!! It was really amazing sushi. And it led to waaay too many inappropriate jokes.

Now I think it's time for me to get back to my writing. I'm at 2,080 words with a long road ahead of me....