Recipe 38 - Vegan California Rolls - or "Sunshine" rolls

Ok,
I'm telling you what.

I'm obsessed over these sushi rolls.  Literally, I could live off of them.
Not only that but I have now made a sushi chef into my girlfriend, which is fine, because she did a much more stellar job of rolling than did I.


Ok, also I know I promised a v-log, but I couldn't find my camera stand so it didn't happen.  Just deal with the pictures.. and drool.  (Or not if you don't like sushi, but I do NOT know how you wouldn't want to pop these into your mouth as a constant.)

So, Saturday night I went into the Vegan Or Not kitchen to do a little Japanese cooking.   I, of course with the vegan california rolls, and my brilliant non-vegan/vegan chef with Yakitori.   (Which, omg yum).

Anyway - for some reason I was rather jumpy that night.  I even hollered at the dogs to hush it up when I walked in.. (which is quite unlike me).   I found that my seaweed was a little worse for wear and I had to go buy more.. which was ok, it gave the sticky rice some time to do it's thing.   Anyhoo..

As you can see, once I got back from trusty ol' Kroger (and many thanks to my girl for prepping my sushi rice for me while I was gone).  The time was ready.  I had my vegan crab swimming in cream cheese and the girl cut up all my veggies for me, and I was ready to go..
Or so I thought.





Leave it to me to put the veggies on the wrong way..  lol.  There is NO WAY that roll would have rolled up the way I had those veggies on there... no way in Japan.

So, I had to reconvene the things and change it up, which was ok.. however, I was still rather jumpy.


So, once I had those babies on correctly, I was able to make it into a roll.. which was less of a pain than I thought it was.  The most painful part was that darn sticky rice.
I have this issue with having sticky stuff  on my hands and that stuff just would NOT go away at all.
No matter.. it turned out ok, and I had the girl sharpen a knife for me so I could slice up my roll.. which you'll see momentarily.. but not before Jen tried her hand at an 'inside out' roll (sticky rice on the outside, seaweed on the inside).

The steady hand of the woman I love..  she made them practically perfect, and went on to make more the next day.  Now, I can't get enough of these things..  she did make hers sans crab, so she just had a veggie roll.. but yum as ever.

You can even see some of her inside-outs here in this mashup of both of our sushi's

Now, in her blog you'll read all about the Yakitori she made as she's also going to attempt the non-vegan version to go with it for her dinner, tonight.  Keep an eye out for that one, or like her blog on Facebook to get the inside scoop.



So, for dinner we had Yakitori, Chow Mein noodles (which I threw together and oh my - those were good) and sushi...
And the proof:

 

SO YUM!


So this weekend, 'Asian' week continues.. have you heard the word 'egg'?  Well, we're about to egg it up.  Keep it tuned, details are coming.

Til then!  Happy eating.


Music enjoyed while cooking:
Jen talking to me, Drew's occasional in and out chats, dogs whining and Chiana meowing.

Current Craving:
More sushi!

Current Motivation:
Turning Japanese!

Green Pasta and Pesto and yum! Recipe 28

And there it is.

This was another super-easy veganization. I started on the noodles on Saturday morning. I found it most difficult for some reason to roll them out as thin as I did and then try and cut them by hand, so I went to the trusty noodle cutter and did it that way.. so not a complete fail, however I do not know why gadget companies feel the need to create everything for right handed folks. It's troubling that everything I do aside from write or put on makeup I do with my right hand. It was pretty much forced upon me. I digress, the noodle cutter is a pain, and if I could have without ripping them to shreds, i would have used my hands.. but whatever. Moving on.

I intended as well for the noodles to be green.. (considering we're in 'green' month) so I utilized a liquid made from solely spinach and water.
you WOULD HAVE THOUGHT this would have made them green. But noooooo, no no. They turned out still, whole wheat brown.
Whatever.

Anyway, after that was done, I got myself through a yoga workout, and then off to see the girlfriend.. who rocked an awesome "un-chicken" fried tempeh, and accompanied it with mashed potatoes, veggie gravy and green beans.
OMG
OMG
I have found my foodie equal, however she's a carnie and cooks better vegan than I do!  Not only is that special, she's learning this for lil ol me!! <3

Ok.. :P

Anyway.. the next day was the veganization.

Sunday.

I was in a brilliant mood, until SOMEBODY felt the need to call me three times and then lie about doing so out of the blue.
Whatever.. it did however knock my mood down considerably.
However, my evening was to be spent doing yoga with the girl and feeding her vegan pesto with my home-made pasta.

Success!

mm pesto!

Although I put too much salt in the pesto - it was still omg yum, and the noodles actually turned out perfectly, despite how I thought they would.
I'm sold on pesto.. and I'm about to have myself the leftovers for dinner here.. (because there's like a tablespoon and a half left).

So, my victim loved her pasta and pesto - however, went back for more salad (because i'm an awesome salad maker.. not as awesome as bff, but i come a close second.) I went back for more pesto (considering i'm an empty container even when it's filled).

So, what's next?!
Something I've wanted to super-veganize for a while.
Something a hungry southern bear would eat...

Stay tuned.
I know you're excited. ;)


Music listened to while blogging:
Nada

Current Motivation:
Getting this done

Current Craving:
Oreos (but I don't have enough change to purchase any).

"Green" pasta and pesto! Recipe 28

Ah, the things we don't realize are not vegan.
 
This weekend my veganization will be Green Pasta w/Pesto.   We're starting 'green' month here at RoVL.. and we're starting it off VERY green! 

Traditional egg noodles? Well, there's egg in them there noodles!   My noodles are going to be made (by hand) with flax and spinach.. (no green food color here!)
Traditional pesto?  Filled with cheese.   And, we can't have that!

So, I'm proud to announce - I'm veganizing pesto and pasta.  (You can't stand the excitement, can you?)

You might find it odd that the first time I was exposed to Pesto, my boss, Debra and her ex Laura had made it for myself and my BFF. (I recall her even sending us home with a lil container of it.  It was yummy!)  I think I was 22?  I didn't eat pesto before the age of 22! 

Let's look at the origins of Pesto, shall we?

"Pesto (Italian pronunciation: [pesto], Genoese: [pestu]) is a sauce originating in Genoa in the Liguria region of northern Italy (pesto genovese) , and traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil and European pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano and Fiore Sardo (pecorino sardo). The name is the contracted past participle of the Genoese word pestâ (Italian: pestare), which means to pound, to crush, in reference to the original method of preparation, with marble mortar and wooden pestle. However, the ingredients in a traditionally made pesto are not "pounded" but "ground" with a circular motion of the pestle in the mortar. This same Latin root through Old French also gave rise to the English word pestle."

Ok, I'm now officially hungry!

So, let's do the numbers on this beautiful little dish.

Traditional:                                       Vegan:
                                One Serving
Calories – 358                                     106
Total Fat  - 23g                                     9g
Cholesterol  - 9mg                                0mg
Sodium  - 217mg                                118mg
Total Carbohydrate - 27g                      18g 
Dietary Fiber  - 2.5g                              2g
Protien – 12.2g                                     8.5g
ww pts: 10                                            5



And there we have it.
So, tomorrow night I'll hit the grocery with my girl.. (and look, I said it again, didn't I?   It's not like we've not been on 21 or so dates, and haven't known each other for at least 300 years or anything, lol.. I think it's safe to say it now.)    So for our 22nd date we're going to the grocery store!! :)   Hahah, but not before she takes me to Chipotle.   :P   And we're going to buy goodies for my veganization, which she raised her hand first on and gets to be treated to on Sunday.  What's more, is this ladybug of mine is going to try her hand at vegan alfredo (the hard way) for me on Saturday.   (Does she get any better folks?  She's a carnie and she's coooking vegan for me! <3   That's a keeper.)    I'll stop basking in a love glow now.. let me get back to business.

This hard work starts on Friday with spinach noodles... kneaded, rolled out and cut by hand.  
Then, continues into Sunday with the creation of the pesto... and ends when the last noodle is sucked up.
It's going to be good..
Yoga, Pesto and ---shh I'm not telling anyone about this next thing until I can show it to you!

*sneaky mc sneakerson*

Keep it real peeps..Kanye West is playin' on my Pandora.

See you Sunday - er Monday, or whenever I post again!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Pandora Radio - Sheri's Shoobop - Currently, Kanye West "Heartless".


Current Craving:
Pasta


Current Motivation:
Loving Life.