All those pretty pictures, now how do you do that?

My fantastic “vegan sushi” dinner party was so, so yummy and good. We went to town with a bunch of dishes, however making the sushi was super easy and doesn’t need to be a whole production. Could be a weeknight dish and perfect to take for lunch the next day. So don’t think you need a party to do this … rice, seasoned rice vinegar, nori, a bamboo roller, and the rest of the filling ingredients.

I got the recipes from www.theppk.com where they tell you how to make the rice and suggest a variety of fillings. They even have a video of them making the “sushi.” Since I can’t stand fish, this is right up my alley. I ended up prepping a bunch of fillings and then everyone joined in on making the rolls. The best, and on the face of it, the weirdest was the sweet potato and peanut one we made. That was divine. The other fillings were: shredded carrots, green onions, sliced cucumber, avocado, a tempeh/shitake mushroom mixture I made/invented, and bean sprouts. We didn’t really go strictly by the recipes on the ppk website. One thing I did do that I got from their website is to toast (again, since the package did say it was already toasted) the nori (seaweed wrap) by holding with tongs about a foot over the flame on your stove. About 2-3 seconds on each side. A very light toast. This really cut back on the fishy tasted of the seaweed, which is much to my liking.

I also made sauteed spinach, cooked with a wee bit of water until it wilted then drained. Add seasoned rice vinegar, soy sauce and toasted sesame seeds. How much seasoning depends on how much spinach. Add a little, taste, adjust. It came out great and I was just winging it. It was a great side dish. I’d say this was four bunches of spinach or one really giant bag of the bagged kind of spinach.

Also for a side dish, I made inari (sp?). I bought the bean curd “bags” and stuffed them with the seasoned sushi rice. I didn’t add any additional sugar or seasoned rice vinegar, so they weren’t as sweet as they are when traditionally made. Let me restate that, they aren’t as sweet as my Japanese friend made for me. They were plenty yummy. Keeping your hands most when stuffing the rice in makes things a lot easier. Keeping your hands moist when rolling the sushi also makes a world of difference.

I made pickled cucumbers for people to munch on while we were cooking. Super easy and incredibly good. Here’s the link for that: http://www.recipezaar.com/28977

Boiled edamame (frozen in a bag) in salt water – also a starter. People dipped them in extra soy sauce for extra flavor.

Homemade pickled ginger. This was terrific. I highly recommend it. The recipe calls for champagne vinegar which I didn’t have. I subbed cider vinegar for it. Much nicer visually than the hot pink bottled pickled ginger we also had.

Link: http://www.recipezaar.com/54189

A friend brought over a rice maker which made things easy. After cooking the rice, we transferred a bunch (oh, 2 cups) into a bowl, added some seasoned rice vinegar and stirred. Also, one person “fanned” the rice while the other person stirred. This is suppose to help with evaporation. We used a cookbook with which to do the fanning. Once we used up the rice, we did another round of seasoning and stirring and fanning.

Another friend brought over about 4 different kinds of sake that we tasted and that made a wonderful kind of party. Everyone tasting the sake and making sushi rolls and filling bead curd bags. Super fun. A grand time had by all. Enjoy!

http://cafefanny.com/store//fanny_granola.html

My recipe is a combination of many recipes I saw on the internet and the ingredients listed on the box of the granola from Cafe Fanny. I left out the raisins and dried fruit to keep the sugar down. I figure I can always add some when I go to eat the granola. This morning I had some with an apple that I chopped into chunks and steamed/boiled in a pan with maybe 2 tablespoons of water. The apple was warm and tender, but not falling apart or apple sauce yet. Yum. Warm apple, granola and some Straus nonfat yogurt. A perfect way to start the day. Enjoy!

My recipe:

2 T. canola oil

1 Cup sliced almonds

2 T. honey (I used really good honey from my local store that has the most amazing taste of wild flowers. I think really good honey is key to this recipe.)

Salt

3 cups rolled oats

1/8 t. vanilla

.5 cup sunflower seeds

.25 cup sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 325. Heat the oil and some salt (I did a couple of shakes of kosher salt, not that much, use your best judgement) in a smallish sauce pan over medium-low heat, add the almonds, stir occassionally. Toast like this for about 5 mins. They will start to turn golden, keep your eyes on them so you don’t burn them.

2. Add the honey, stir, remove from heat. Add the vanilla, stir.

3. In a bowl combine oats, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. Mix in oil/honey/almond mixture. Mix well. You want to try to coat all the oats with with a bit of the oil/honey.

4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. This makes things much easier. Evenly distribute the granola on the baking sheet. Pop into the oven.

5. Bake for 15 minutes, take out and stir, try to turn the oats so they all get a chance to brown. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove and let cool. Store in airtight container. Should keep for about a week. I always eat mine in that time, so I don’t really know how long it’ll actually keep.

1/3 cup serving is:

Calories	276
Total Fat	16.8g
Saturated Fat	1.6g
Cholesterol	0mg
Sodium	2mg
Carbohydrate	26.4g
Dietary Fiber	5.3g
Sugars	5.2g
Protein	8.6g
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0% Calcium 6% Iron 13%

Yes, another pic with my eyes closed. This one really shows my weight a year ago. Part of that is the layered sweater, scarf thing. And the angle is not very flattering. But, hey, this shows where I was at.

I used half and half – white fleshed and garnet fleshed sweet potatos. I think this is key to the recipe as the white fleshed have a more sweet potato flavor and the garnet create that fabulous color.

2 Heaping cups firmly packed cooked sweet potato (I left on skins and used potatos I had baked.)
1/2 cup soymilk
1 tsp vanilla or almond extract
1/4 cup honey (or more or less to taste)
2 T. molasses
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger (I might have used a little more.)

Put potatos and then all other ingredients into food processor and run until smooth.

I used fillo dough for a crust, which I would rate as a B- on the RRRS (Rose Recipe Rating Scale – see http://captious.wordpress.com/). I think next time I would either serve it as a custard just plain. Or put a nut/oat crumb topping on it. I did like the fillo enough to try it again.

So for the fillo:

Use 4-6 sheets. I used 5. Lightly spray a pie pan with canola or olive oil spray, lay a sheet, spray, lay a sheet turned slightly, spray, etc. Put in filling. Fold over overhanging fillo to cover filling. Spray again. Put in oven. I used 350 for about 30 minutes. I was nervous about burning the fillo so I kept checking every 5 minutes. Cook until golden. Totally yummy.

Amount Per Serving, 8 servings
Calories 132
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0.2g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 87mg
Carbohydrate 28.8g
Dietary Fiber 2.5g
Sugars 9.7g
Protein 2.6g
Vitamin A 192%
Vitamin C 18%
Calcium 7%
Iron 11%