Raw Nori Wraps and a Busy Monday

Monday and Friday tend to be busy for me and this week is started out the same way. I will share more details later in the post but let’s start with the food. ;-)

Have you ever had one of those days where you stare at a full refrigerator and draw a complete blank on what to make? If so, then welcome to my day. We have plenty of produce to choose from and I could not think of anything to make for dinner until after 5:30 this evening. *rolls eyes* I was considering Asian food but I didn’t want rice again. That bought nori to mind which is how this recipe started. I decided why not make a little nut spread/pate instead of rice and use that to anchor the veggies into the wraps. Here is what I did:

Raw Nori Wraps
Serves 4

Nut pate Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked at least an hour, then thoroughly drained
1 tablespoon white miso
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
approximately 1/3 cup water

Vegetable ingredients:

8 sheets nori
1 cup snow pea shoots
4 cups mixed greens
1 bell pepper thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated

Directions:

In your food processor (or blender) combine the drained cashews, miso, garlic, and onions flakes and process. Slowly drizzle in water until you have a thick but spreadable consistency.

To make the rolls place a sheet of nori on your sushi nori mat and spread with the shiny side down. Spread 1/8 of the nut pate on the nori leaving a wide border to seal the nori after you roll it. Add 1/8 of the lettuce, bell pepper, carrot and pea shoots to the end closest to you. If you use different fillings always place the largest ones first and end with the smallest.

Roll the nori using the mat to help you wrap the nori firmly. When you reach bare nori moisten it with water (to seal the roll) and continue rolling. Use the mat to help you compact the rolls.  Only make as many rolls as you are going to eat right away these do not store well, they get soggy.

Slice into 8 pieces using a very sharp knife. Two whole rolls, or 16 pieces is a serving.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 188.66
Calories From Fat (49%) - 91.51

Total Fat - 10.93g
Saturated Fat - 1.92g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 192.26mg
Potassium - 434.85mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.06g
Fiber - 5.13g
Sugar - 4.16g
Protein - 8.1g

Comments:

Not your traditional sushi but less work and still quite tasty. I really like how quickly this comes together, particularly if you have soaked raw cashews in the refrigerator waiting to become “something”.

This isn’t particularly Asian in flavor but I like that. It would work well as a starter for any type of cuisine. Sometimes I add capers, olives or sun dried tomatoes to similar verions of these rolls and all those work well.

Other Food to report:

Last night we ended up having a big salad at about 8:30pm. Nothing exciting just romaine, tomato, avocado, cucumber, salsa and walnut parmesan.

This morning we had a bowl of watermelon, blackberries and kiwi. Dan had oatmeal to go along with the fruit bowl.

Lunch was leftover ratatouille from yesterday. Of course there was a big bottle of fresh vegetable and fruit juice and trail mix.

Monday’s are always busy:

I normally try to spend as much time with Dan as possible on the weekend when he doesn’t need to work. Since Dan took the entire weekend off I did very little around the house other than cook this past weekend. By Monday tasks have piled up around here. There is always a lot to do at our house with three little cat fuzz makers. I will leave the specifics to your imagination. ;-)

I also decided to take everything out of my refrigerator to see what was in there. It is so full of produce it is a bit embarrassing. I decided if I had list of perishables inside it would make it easier for me to come up with recipe ideas. Yes, I know I should plan my meals ahead of time but I just don’t work well with “constraints”. Instead I buy things that look good or appeal to me at the moment. I always try to vary the produce we eat to maximize our consumption of micronutrients.

Here is what I have in the refrigerator or on the counter currently: beets, beet greens, zucchini, cucumbers, collards, carrots, celery, mesclun, romaine, spring onions, fava beans, Italian flat beans, red bell peppers, red cabbage, avocadoes, shitake mushrooms, king trumpet mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple, apples, lemons, mangoes, kiwi, dragon fruit, mangosteen, lemon, banana and ginger. Since I imagine you are wondering that is for the two of us and we will eat it all. Dan and I both eat and/or drink a lot of fresh produce every day. It is all for us and we will manage to eat it all by the end of the week.   

I still marvel at the fact that the average American eats three vegetable servings a day. Sadly I don't think many vegans eat a lot more veggie servings based on some blogs I have seen. *shakes head*  I wish more people understood the importance of eating fresh produce, and as much as possible.  Had we known that sooner we would have changed our habits much earlier in life.

Twitter update:

I also have been spending more time trying to learn Twitter. It is still not intuitive but is starting to make more sense. I will say that it baffles me how people keep up with blogs, twitter and facebook. There must be some secret I haven’t figured out yet. At the moment it appears to be a big time drain. I am hoping it gets easier and quicker. Clearly I will need to use more of the capabilities of the fancy phone my hubby bought me this past January.

Tomorrow:

If all goes according to plan tomorrow I should be a little more relaxing. I want to read “The New Rules for Lifting” which arrived last week. I have only had a chance to skim it but what I did see I liked. I also want to work on a new raw cracker tomorrow. I haven’t made any flax crackers in a while so I think it is time for another batch and I am going to play around with the thickness, or I should say thinness to see how that changes things.

For now I need to go and spend some time with my hubby. I will “chat” with you tomorrow.