Day Sixteen: Mexican Taco Salad

So in order to help me keep track of my diet more efficiently, I've set up an account at the Livestrong website, which gives an approximate count on the calories contained in most food! I was a little surprised to find out how many are in an avocado... but that's besides the point! I was ambushed by my roommate today who demanded to know how I'd shrunk so much lately! I feel much better, I've found that I actually feel good about eating instead of feeling guilty, and that my clothes fit a little looser. I bet if I was smart(er) and cut out the booze as well, I'd see a radically different body in less than a month... alas, the bar scene is a bitch.

Today I made Taco Salad, keeping with the ethnic theme started yesterday. Now anyone who has been to a mexican restaurant can tell you, this usually is served in a charming little corn chip bowl, which is probably the best part of the whole dish. That bowl however, is usually deep fried and often made with gluten. I made my version sans adorable food bowl, but it was nonetheless very good!

Again using the Livestrong website, which has a fantastic collection of Paleo recipes, as well as their nutritional information alongside! I decided to whip up some of the Chorizo Shrimp Sautee, and use it as the protein in my salad! Easy enough to make I combined tomatoes, onion, shallots, mushrooms, half a red pepper and two uncased chorizo sausages with some frozen salad shrimp and garlic! In the meantime I assembled my lettuce and avocado, no dressing required as the fats and liquid from the stirfry are more than adequate!

Chorizo Shrimp "Taco" Salad with tomatoes and avocado

I also had to replenish my baba ganouj supply after polishing off the last bath with my remaining raw veggies. New dip to go along with the haul I got from the store the other day!

The seafood component has been pretty weak the past few days, I think tomorrow I'll grab one of the exotic type fish fillets I snatched up! Perhaps try a Mediteranean dish, eh?

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!