Day Twenty-Eight: More Sushi Experiments and Pesto Bison Burgers

So these are some backlogged posts, as by now I have completed my thirty days! I had a few hiccups over the birthday weekend in Vegas, namely with corn chips and rice (guacamole and sushi!), but I plan on getting back on track as soon as possible!

With the sushi theme in mind (lets admit it, the kind with rice really really beats this), I whipped out my nori again and this time tried it with a can of tuna!


I wasn't as finicky with these, as I was hungry at the time, but they turned out well regarless!

I didn't even bother cutting these haha!

So for another meal I decided to use more of that great bison meat! I whipped up some pesto, garlic, paprika, pepper and egg, and added the ground goodness!
Then I split it in 4 and set it in the pan!

They didn't stick together extremely well, but They turned out pretty well regardless! I put them with some babaganouj,
almond butter, and grilled yellow zucchini and green peppers! They were great as leftovers as well, just reheat and serve up!

That concludes my recipe portion of the challenge, but I have decided that this is the lifestyle for me! I think I'll probably put a little less effort into meals, but there are a few that will absolutely be getting repeats!

I've decided to update infrequently, when I make something ESPECIALLY awesome and get excited enough to take pictures!
And now, onto the finale!

Day Seven: Paleo Beverages and Inside-Out Wraps

I woke up this morning still feeling full of sushi... mmmm!
Along with my egg muffin, I felt myself wishing I had some kind of juice to go with breakfast. Then, I spotted my collection of teas in the pantry: why not combine my organic Countess of Seville tea (a really delicious orange inspired green tea from Davids Tea), with a little lemon juice, and some ice? My own, paleo-friendly juice! After boiling water and using my handy tea infuser ball, I left it to sit and cool for an hour. Then, I transfered it to a pitcher with ice, the juice of a whole lemon and voila! Really tasty and refreshing!

Lettuce, Babaganouj and Mustard in Ham

For lunch, I grabbed my nitrate and preservative free blackforest ham from the package (president's choice baby!), and some sassy baby greens, including rockette, spinach and arugula. I assembled the lettuce, some babaganouj, and some brown mustard inside the cold cut, and rolled it as if it were a wrap (or in light of yesterday... a sushi roll!). These were really light and crunchy due to the filler, and I barely felt like I was missing out on a bread component at all!

Rolled up and ready for eating!

As dinner, I went simple as I was pressed for time. Two hard boiled eggs, some cherry tomatoes, red onion and sliced red peppers tossed with the same baby greens used in my inside-out wraps made for a great, filling meal to get me through the night at work in the bar!

Day Six: Sake and Super Easy Sushi

Hey,
So the site was right about the egg muffins, TOTALLY AWESOME COLD! I had two to tide me over at work last night (long shift until about 3 am), and really enjoyed them. The added paprika was really good too.

Sake w/ Peach Schnapps & Grapefruit

I was actually looking forward to dinner tonight, as I decided to go ahead and try something most people quail at: making sushi. With my nori (seaweed paper), gluten free soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi, I started thinking up ways I could make this happen. My adventurous friend Bryanna came by as well to join in the asian-inspired project, bringing along some sake!

cucumber, carrot, shallot, red pepper & avocado

We decided to make 4 types: almond butter and vegetables, lemon/pepper marinated tofu, shrimp, and egg. The egg one was internet-inspired, and involved replacing the rice with an egg "sheet" of sorts. After baking the tofu, defrosting some shrimp, and cutting up our veggies, with trepidation we started on our first roll.

Me laying out our veggies and almond butter on the nori.

perfecting the technique

Now you might think that almond butter is a really weird and obviously non-traditional sushi ingredient. You would be right... but it turned out to be my favorite. It was so GOOD! The nutty flavor that peanuts usually lend to asian stirfrys and the like was easily bested by the almonds, and with the soy sauce it was a good salty/sweet combination.

Rolled up!

The rolling actually went well for first-timers, and without the binding properties of rice, it was a little more difficult to keep all the ingredients in their proper places. After laying out your filling, on the last inch or so of nori place some lemon juice that will allow the seaweed to stick together and seal the roll up. When rolling keep a firm grip with your fingertips so that you can sort of pull the filler in towards you as you roll, keeping everything tight. What turned out to be crucial to the process was a really sharp knife so that when cutting no sawing is needed that would displace the whole delicate setup.

Egg sushi ready to be rolled

The egg roll also turned out well: after microwaving the filler on a plate to keep the round shape, I transfered it to the seaweed and topped it with cucumber, shallot and avocado.

Now of course any of these can be made with any kind of vegetables you can think of and any protein filler possible. The reality is that the possibilities are endless! This was a really fun way to use many types of good food, and have a lot of fun too (especially with sake involved)! I realize that tofu is not "paleo" per se, but I have a sort of relaxed "every once in a while" attitude towards legumes at this point.

Our masterpieces turned out beautifully! We used 10 sheets of seaweed, and stuffed them all full... and all of them were demolished handily soon thereafter:

Left to Right: Almond-Vegetable, Shrimp, Tofu, Egg, and Hand Roll

As a side-dish, and for a little extra protein, we also fried up some big, juicy scallops in garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes, which made an excellent accompaniment to our experiement, and added a little something warm to a primarily cold dinner!

If I can successfully make sushi, I'm of the idea that I can basically do anything! Just kidding... It was ridiculously easy! Something those overcharging businesses would definately not want getting out! For under $10 each, Bryanna and I had a veritable sushi feast: Take THAT Japan!

Day Five: Egg Muffins and Chicken Drumsticks

So the party yesterday was quite the success, all went well and I managed to find amongst the other contributions things I could eat as there were a wide variety of salads and suchlike. The only thing I technically should have avoided that I ate was a small amount of quinoa in some tabouleh and chickpeas/beans in the various hummus contributions that were trotted out. Another possible cheat (though this didnt technically isn't considered "unpaleo") was some mexican mole, a cocoa based chicken sauce that I ate, which is still dairy, starch, processed sugar and gluten free. The thing I really wish I could've tried was my friend Rachelle's "Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes". Now for those of you who don't work in bars/spend all your time in one, an Irish Car Bomb is when you take a half pint of Guinness beer, and drop in a shot of Baileys mixed with Jameson Irish Whisky, and then proceed to chug the whole concoction before it curdles. Not really the most appealing thing for me, as it has both dairy and gluten in it, and it just sounds un-fun. However, these cupcakes had Guinness in the batter, and Baileys in the icing, which made for what seemed to be a freaking delicious combination!

Today I thought I'd try my hand at something that might qualify as real people's breakfast food! I'm making Egg Muffins with Zucchini, Mushrooms, and Shallots. The recipe I adapted this from was using spinach rather than shallots, but I do love some onion in there! I obviously omitted the cheese as well, as it doesn't follow my guidelines.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes

After deseeding and dicing up the zucchini, chopping the mushrooms and shallots and shredding some fresh basil, I placed an equal amount into my greased muffin tin. Then I added some black pepper, sea salt and paprika to 6 eggs, and about 2 tbsp of water and whisked it all up! Then I poured it almost to the very top into the tins and to my dismay, had undercalculated somewhere, leaving me with about 5 empty cups! I redistributed the veggies as best I could and whipped up another 2 eggs which ended up doing for 3 of them, and resolved that I would only have 10 muffins.

Just out of the oven!

After the timer went off, (the muffins rose really far out of the tray!) I sought out my one remaining chorizo sausage, and cutting it into coins, I fryed it up with some onion as my accompaniement while the pan cooled. These weren't my absolute favorite Paleo dish, but they did turn out pretty well considering!

Now, according to the initial recipe, these keep very well and can even be frozen! So I popped 7 into a bag and into my freezer, keeping out two as a quick snack option. I'm crossing my fingers that they are indeed good cold as the site says!

Egg Muffin surrounded by Chorizo rounds, fried onions and some leafy greens! Yum!

For dinner I went a more traditional route, with a central meat component and sides all 'round! Having defrosted some drumsticks, I removed the skin and whipped up a spice rub that was sure to be a winner. Armed with red pepper flakes, mustard, olive oil, sea salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, ginger and vanilla (yes, vanilla, just the smallest amount makes all the difference), I rubbed down my drumsticks and placed them in about half an inch of water in a 9"x11" dish.

Then I popped them in the oven at about 375 for 15 minutes a side, flipping them over once. Now these would be absolutely killer, and probably crispy if you did them on the BBQ, but unfortunately I don't have that luxury, and the water is needed to keep them tender and keep your dish from blackening.

While they cooked, I threw together a side salad with a dressing of olive oil and fresh garlic combined with cucumbers, avocado and cherry tomatoes. A dollop of the now ubiquitous babaganouj sealed the plate and when the chicken was ready I dug right in! I have to say, they turned out beautifully, just the right amount of spice to keep things interesting, and really juicy. Plus, who doesn't like to eat things with their hands right?
All in all a delicous Paleo day!