What did you expect, I've got an adventurous foodie husband!

So the hubs is big in to making things from scratch - bread, cheese, sausages, grinding his own ground turkey and beef, jerkey, canning fruits and vegetables and broths, making and canning his own pie fillings, you name it.

So it should come as no surprise that when he says, "I'm going to learn to make..." he's going to follow through with it.

The last time the hubs said "I'm going to make.." it ended with pickled ginger.

Yes - pickled sushi ginger.

I was certainly not going to fight this one.

Buying this in the markets is so expensive here, and it would go so well with our sushi bowls that we eat on a very regular basis. So I got to work finding the recipe and method and lo-and-behold - we are loyal homemade pickled ginger makers in this house now! And it's so delicious and so flipping easy.

Local folks - FYI, you can find CHEAP ginger at Price Rite. And if you're lucky to have some great Asian markets near you, it's very cheap at those markets too.

Yeah this isn't sideways on my computer - sorry people!

This recipe came to us from About.com and has now been used maybe 4-5 times in our house. It's perfect!!

Ingredients:
2 lb fresh young ginger 
2 tsps salt
3 cups rice vinegar
2 cups sugar

Preparation:
Wash young ginger root and rub off skin. Slice the ginger thinly and salt them (we do this with the mandolin). Leave salted ginger slices in a bowl for about one hour. Dry the ginger slices with paper towels and put them in a sterilized, heat-resistant container/jar. Mix rice vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Pour the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar over the ginger slices. Cool them. Pickled ginger changes its color to light pink. (If you are using old ginger, it might not turn pink naturally.) Cover the jar and store it in the refrigerator.

POKE POKE POKE

I had never heard of this dish before reading about it on The Domestic Mama & The Village Cook, but it sounded very similar to our sushi bowls that we make on a somewhat regular basis at our home. Plus it had ingredients we adore, so what's not to love about this dish?

I did tweak it slightly, and since I took these photos, well, we've even made it again and I tweaked it even more!

My tweaks are very minor though.

Hawaiian Poke, Realistic Eats Style

Tuna Steaks

Sushi Rice - cooked and prepped with rice wine

Cucumber sliced

Avocado sliced

Seaweed Salad (I cheat and buy it at the grocery store)

Pickled Ginger

wasabi and seaweed salad sprinkle

green onions, thinly sliced

For the dressing/sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon sweet rice wine OR 1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons rice vinegar OR 1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 teaspoon Siracha

Instructions

season your tuna steaks as you'd like - we use a great mix of ginger, crushed red pepper, salt and garlic powder. Lightly sear your tuna steaks until the appropriate doneness for you. Now, according do the original recipe, you can just marinate the tuna steaks and let the acid cook the tuna enough. But since we are working with frozen tuna steaks here and not sushi quality, I opt to sear the tuna lightly just to be safe.

While the tuna is searing, or even done. Fill your bowls with 3 oz. (if you're watching your carbs like us) of sushi rice, seaweed salad, cucumber, avocado, pickled ginger, and top with the sliced tuna. Top with the sauce, just a drizzle or two will do ya!

ENJOY!

Like our sushi bowls - but vegetarian!!

We made these, so long ago now, but it was a really good meal and certainly blog-worthy - it just took me time to get to it!

I secretly borrowed (ahem, stole) this recipe out of the magazine at my chiropractor's office and let me tell you I am so glad I did and it was so good I have no remorse.

This meal was really easy to make, really filling and satisfying and a great vegetarian, actually vegan dish. I will say though that between the sesame oil and sesame seeds it was a bit sesame-y, and if you don't do well with that much sesame (like me) you may want to cut back on some of the sesame goodness.

This recipe comes from Health.com magazine from Sept. 2010 and I've written it with my adaptations below. Thanks Dr. D for not noticing I took this page of your magazine (oh and 3 others!!, it's OK the magazine was there for 4 months!)

Rice with Edamame and Sea Greens

1 1/2 cups cooked rice (brown or white)

1 container shitake mushrooms cleaned and chopped up (you can use reconstituted dried mushrooms here)

1/2 cup dried seaweed

1/2 small onion finely chopped - we just used green onion

1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

1 T sesame oil

2 T low sodium soy sauce

1 cup shelled edamame cooked

Cook your rice, soak your mushrooms if using dried - or chop the fresh if you're going that route. Add the mushrooms, seaweed, sesame seeds, onion, soy sauce and edamame to the rice and stir to combine. Toss with soy sauce and garnish with more toasted sesame seeds.

ENJOY! it was super tasty and would really be a powerhouse of a lunch at work too!

Ahhhhh Miso Good!

So after a tedious battle, I finally have procured a bottle of Quick Miso at our market. Let me tell you, it was a great day when I found this.

Ok, I know what you're saying - who the HECK gets excited over miso?? Um, this Japanese food eating girl.

So I decided to do a whole Japanese inspired dinner on Sunday night. Again - I'm a lazy blogger and it was so good and we were so hungry, so you get NO photos.... but that just means you have to have someone else read you this and imagine it with your eyes closed and what it would look like and how it would taste!

I kid....

Or do I?

So my inspiration for dinner all started with this delicious recipe from Zakka Life for Cucumber Namasu. Now, I finally had this salad for the first time at the sushi place a few weeks back and fell in love and remembered "I think I have something like this in my reader!" I did make a few alterations to her recipe based on our taste - but either way - you must make this! So fresh and clean tasting.

Cucumber Namasu Salad

Ingredients:
1 English Cucumber - I removed the skin and tiny pieces of seed
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Rice vinegar
Sesame seeds for garnish

*** I used less sugar and salt and garnished with some fine chopped dried nori***

*** I also didn't read the recipe all the way and did not marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes, and I didn't heat the sugar and vinegar together - but tossed and let sit on the counter for about 20 while the rest of dinner cooked***

For a side dish - I wanted to use some buckwheat soba noodles. So I cooked those up and let cool a bit and tossed with 2T miso, 2 T rice wine vinegar, fresh ginger and garlic and green onion and a t or 2 of plain sesame oil (not toasted). Great flavor and a tasty little side dish - I did make a whole package of soba - about 10 oz. and those were my measurements for it - but again, adjust as you need to.

Finally, I had some beautiful large scallops in the freezer and I defrosted those and tossed in some miso and seared on my non stick griddle and cooked to done. DELICIOUS.

Great Japanese meal! If you can find yourself some miso - I recommend ALL 3 of these dishes! Not that the cucumber salad is dependent upon your finding and using miso.

ENJOY!

Turning Japanese...

And a little Chinese too I guess!

I decided to wing it the other night for dinner... I had Tofu to use up in the fridge, some Vegetarian Goyza in the freezer and some edamame kicking around too.

I made a killer Miso Soup! I mean SO good!!! I will completely make this again. The dumplings I pan fried and then steamed and boiled up the soy beans - easy dinner.

Ok, so here's my Miso Soup Recipe

1 package lite extra firm tofu cut in to small cubes

1 box plus 1 can fat free and low sodium chicken broth or veggie broth

2 sheets of nori, cut in to small pieces

2 green onions, sliced thin - greens and whites

1 T Ginger Miso Salad Dressing (from Whole Foods or another brand)

1-2 T rice wine vinegar (depending on your love of vinegar)

1-2 T reduced sodium soy sauce (to taste)

Place broth in pot and whisk in the miso dressing then add the vinegar and soy sauce. Add in the green onion and nori, let simmer for a few minutes. Then add in your diced tofu and let simmer on low for 5 minutes until the tofu is warmed. ENJOY!!!

Please remove your shoes before eating...

Because we're eating Japanese tonight!!!

HA! Just kidding!

We made this incredible dinner the other night - I will certainly make this again and again.

The original recipe can be found here on Eatingwell.com but I did make some adjustments. My alterations are below - note the things I omitted are NOT in this recipe - so if you want to make it as is use the linky - if you want to try my version, use below.

Japanese Chicken-Scallion Rice Bowls

2 cups cooked rice divided between the 4 bowls (ok let's be honest, it's just the hubs and I and he ate 2 servings so that means there was one left for lunch)

1 Cup reduced sodium chicken broth (you could really use a whole can, I ended up adding some extra water)

2 t soy sauce

2 T mirin - rice wine vinegar

2 large egg whites

1 large whole egg

8 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breast cut in to 1/2 inch pieces

6 scallions, trimmed and sliced

1 sheet dried nori, cut up in to small pieces - if you don't do nori - just skip it!

1. cook your rice and set aside

2. pour broth, soy sauce and mirin in to a mid sized pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.

3. Stir in the egg whites and whole egg in a small bowl. set aside. Add chicken to broth and let simmer a few minutes. Then gently pour in your egg mixture without stirring. Sprinkle in the scallions and nori when the eggs start to firm up.

4. serve the broth mixture over the rice. Note this is not a soup, but a brothy rice bowl. so you won't have tons of broth.

I think all together this meal took about 15 minutes from start to finish. This is added to our Fast Fridays rotation now.

Vegetarian Sushi in a Bowl

A couple of weeks ago I made these vegetarian Sushi Bowls for dinner one night and they were delicious! It was a pretty easy dinner, tasty and very filling and surely handles a sushi craving at home for the most part.

I did find this on the Happy Herbivore's website. I love this blog, it has some great unique and easy vegetarian recipes to enjoy. Since I try and give us one veg recipe a week, it's a nice resource for me.

Sushi Rice Bowl - Serves 2

2 cups cooked brown rice or shredded parsnips (raw option) (we used rice)

1/4 cup brown rice vinegar

2 tsp raw agave

hot sauce as desired

For the following, slice thinly, cube or chop into julienne strips:

1 large carrot

1 cucumber or zucchini

1 red bell pepper, seeded (omitted)

1 cup shiitake mushrooms

2 green onions

1 sheet of toasted or raw nori (shredded)

1/4 cup shredded daikon or radishes

1/4 cup sprouts (omitted)

freshly grated ginger or pickled ginger

4 oz lite extra firm tofu (drained and diced small)

1 avocado

1 tbsp sesame seeds - garnish (forgot!)

Directions:

1. chill servings bowls (place in fridge)

2. mix cooked rice with vinegar, agave and optional hot sauce in a bowl

3. if using parsnips, vinegar, sugar and hot sauce is optional

4. place covered, cooked rice or parsnips in the fridge to chill

5. prepare all ingredients, slicing the avocado last so it doesn’t brown before serving

6. toss rice or parsnips with other ingredients

7. garnish with sesame seeds

8. serve with miso dressing if desired (did not use dressing, just soy sauce was fine)