Sesame Nori Chips and Good Old-Fashioned Meatloaf

In the mood for a salty snack, I trolled the web for some awesome paleo chip replacements, and noticing my remaining nori sheets, I settled on this one!
Sprinkle the sheets with water, and fold them in half to get a thicker final chip. Cutting them with kitchen shears, I spread them out on a baking sheet. At 375 celsius, and watching them carefully, I put the pan in the oven after spraying the strips with Pam Olive Oil and sprinkling garlic salt and sesame on them.
These were realllllly good! I sushi-fied them with pickled ginger and wasabi on the side, YUM!

For dinner, I decided to make a dish that used to make me groan: Meatloaf. The term really just used to imply boring and tasteless meat gunk, I'm not sure why as my mom never made anything that wasn't delicious, but I was intrigued by the idea of making it myself. To bind the dish together, instead of bread crumbs or flour (baddddd bad gluten and starch!), I used an egg and some mushrooms, and I'm not sure why, but it held together beautifully, even staying together outside the dish!


Preheating to 375, I combined my extra lean ground beef, garlic, onion, mushrooms, egg, black pepper, sea salt and oregano. Cooking it uncovered, I put it in the oven for 15 minutes while I prepared a glaze for the top.

This consisted of some soy sauce, maple syrup, garlic, chives, diced tomatoe juice and pepper, I combined it all in a bowl and took my meatloaf out again, spreading it over the top before letting it cook another 45 minutes. I wish this had been thicker, so some paleo ketchup (if you've got a recipe for it) would've been a good addition. The top did come out nice and golden browned though, thanks in part to the onions that carmelized!

This had me in meals for at least... ummm, a day. It was so darned good that I went back for more and had it for lunch AAAAND dinner. SO AWESOME. With some steamed broccoli on the side, this was a really great combination!

Talk to you all soon, hope I stay strong! The success of this diet doesn't mean that I can just go back to eating crap all the time, though I have to remember my cheat meals!

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 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!