Day Eighteen: Squash Spaghetti and CHOCOLATE!

Hello again!
I got a comment a little while ago that I was missing a key component of the day: Dessert! I decided then to make a fully paleo version of chocolate balls, a sort of fudge-y round bite of heaven. But first I needed a good, healthy dinner!

Sauce cooking up!

On a tip from my friend Adrienne, I had bought a spaghetti squash in anticipation of using it as an innovative replaement for actual noodles. Using the rest of the tofu in my fridge (I know, terrible source of nutrients, soy = not good, but as a student, I couldn't justify throwing it out!) I started a delicious sauce. Chopping up mushrooms, zucchini, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and shallots, I seasoned the mixture with garlic, bay leaves, chives and black pepper. Letting the vegetables get a little softer, I cut my squash in half (TOUGH to do by the way), scooped the seeds out, and with the oven at 350 I placed each piece face down on a cookie sheet with a little water in it. This went for about 30 minutes, and I added a little more water about halfway through. The topping was then thinned with some chicken stock, before I let it reduce to give it the consistency of spaghetti sauce rather than stew.

Then I scraped out the insides of my squash and assembled my dish! Top with more fresh basil and black pepper to taste and there you have it! Paleo Spaghetti to warm you up on cold winter nights, of which we have many in Canada!

For dessert, as I mentioned, I made some really good chocolate confections. These dont really become hard, and are best kept in the freezer. This also helps them last longer because you don't see them staring at you every time you go into the fridge for a healthy (-er) snack! Very easy to assemble, the hardest part is keeping the batter off your fingers, as it can be very sticky. I find that once mixed, let it sit in the freezer for about half an hour, making it much easier to work with.

Chocolatey Goodness!

Mix a 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with 1/3 cup almond meal in a small bowl. In a separate bowl place 1/4 cup water, 1/8 cup maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, making sure to smooth out any lumps. I like to do this with a fork, but if you were going to make a larger batch you might want to pull out the electric mixer!
Once melded, add a large spoonful of almond butter and repeat the process. Chill the batter and prepare a bowl with some more cocoa powder and coconut flakes. When enough time has elapsed, make small ball shapes out of the chocolate, which should now be much easier to handle! Roll these shapes in the cocoa and coconut for a coating which is both delicious and practical: your balls will stick to the dish you place them in without it. Once you have assembled this, you're ready! Dig in guilt free (just don't go making anymore for a little while!)

I keep the quantities pretty small because I know myself, but if you have more self control I'm sure the recipe could easily be doubled, tripled, or made however big you want. Because these are raw, they keep for a long time, especially if you freeze them. Hypothetically you could keep them at room temperature, but they really don't stay as firm and become messier to eat. As a contribution to a cocktail party, just stick a toothpick in each one and no one will believe that there is no dairy in these babies!
I'm off to fall into a sugar coma, though to be fair it's a naturally induced one! Maple syrup sure is delicious!

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!