Special Sushi Dinner

It was our first restaurant date together. We started out with bowling and played some pool then we walked around the area and finally found a sushi restaurant. We ordered a few rolls and a few minutes later they came to us with two sushi hand rolls. Now, if you know sushi then you know what hand rolls are. They are more like sushi in a seaweed cone. A very awkward way to eat on a date. Apparently we ordered the wrong thing, whoops! Both of us wanted to be very proper on the date so we asked the waiter to have the hand roll cut into pieces. That was even more of a mess! So we laughed it off and from then on remembered to order the correct sushi rolls.

Being the great wife that I am I knew to make it special I should make sushi. Unfortunately, the actual day of our anniversary things just came up and I had no time to make the nice dinner I had planned. Finally a day came where the kids were actually asleep on time and I already had brown rice made. Perfect time to make sushi before hubby got home. When he got home he was so surprised to see this nice sushi dinner set up. But being the great husband that he is, he knew he needed to wait till I took some pictures for my blog. That’s the life of a blogger’s husband I guess. So he waited patiently and then….totally enjoyed the meal. I made a few rolls with a combo of cooked salmon, julienned cucumbers, sweet potato, and mango. I also made us each large sushi salads.

People think sushi is healthy, but it isn’t always. It’s full of white rice and usually very little vegetables and fish. This picture below says it all.

Source

So obviously I set out to make it healthier. First I used brown rice and less of it. Just enough to spread it mostly on the seaweed. Then I loaded it with veggies and fish. I also made sushi salads. The bottom was a big pile of romaine lettuce which also made it more filling.

Of course it is nice to eat out and have sushi in a fancy restaurant, but as you see it can be easily done at home and in a much healthier way.

Sushi Rolls:
1 piece of seaweed
sushi brown rice (recipe below)
fruit and veggies of your choice- we love cucumbers, avocado, mango, romaine, and cooked sweet potato.
fish of your choice- raw or cooked, salmon is what we used.


Sushi brown rice:
Prepare sushi as you would normally. Recipe HERE. It’s best to use a round brown rice if you can find.
To the rice add: 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp honey or agave nectar, 1/2-1 Tb (rice) vinegar.
Mix and let sit at room temperature.


Place a sheet of seaweed onto your sushi mat. The shiny side should be faced down. Take about 2 spoonfuls of brown rice and sprinkle it over the seaweed. Wet your hands a bit and press the rice down. You don’t need the whole sheet covered with rice. Then add in your fillings. Roll up and squeeze as you roll so the sushi is tight and in place. You can wet the end of the seaweed a bit to help it stick. I actually cut the rest of the extra seaweed to use for our salad. With a wet sharp knife carefully cut your sushi.
Serve with low sodium soy sauce, ginger, wasabi, or with whatever you like.

Awesome Sushi Salad:
Place a big pile of cut up romaine lettuce on the bottom of your plate. Sprinkle over the top 1/4-1/2 cup brown rice. Then add some cubed cucumbers, mango etc. Add your fish of choice. Cut the seaweed into small pieces using a scissor and put over the salad. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.
As a dressing for the salad I let the soy sauce sit in a bowl with some pickled ginger. Then I poured a bit over the salad.

This may sound like a long process but it wasn’t at all. You really don’t need to even make the sushi rolls. The salad tastes just like a sushi roll plus you don’t need to worry about technique in making it.

Eating with chopsticks is not only fun, but it helps you take longer to eat.

I hope you give this a try. You won’t regret it!

Later this week i’ll be sharing one of my favorite products with you.

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