Edamame Tacones

A few weeks ago I went over to Victoria and tried Red Fish Blue Fish's Edamame Tacones. OMG so yummy!!! They are quite a far trek, a ferry ride away so I had to try to recreate them at home to get my fix. The filling is mushy edamame which is a spin on mushy peas. Mushy peas are en English dish of just mashed peas, usually with olive oil and salt and pepper. The ones at RFBF quite possibly had mayo (oops) but after looking around online, I don't see any indication of it. 

Edamame Tacones

Ingredients

Mushy edamame

Shredded purple cabbage

Sui choy

Green onions

Creamy coconut sauce or Mayo

Sriracha

Corn tortillas or Nori Sheets

Directions:

Put 1-2 tsps of mushy edamame and the rest of the fillings and sauces into a corn tortilla or nori sheet, wrap and enjoy!

Mushy Edamame

Ingredients

2 cups cooked edamame

1 tsp grape seed oil

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 cup water

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until mixed thoroughly. Edamame doesn't have to be completely mashed but its better when its not too chunky.  

PS obvs I used vegan mayo in this instance. :)

I wrapped the nori ones like cones, but the corn tortillas I got were too small. Or maybe I just put too much filling. LOL that's probs it, I'm greedy like that. I think some fresh basil or cilantro would be good and some pea shoots. Well there's a lot you could do with these little suckers. YUMMY!! That's all I gotta say. The creamy coconut dressing I make goes like amazing with it. Who knew that dressing was going to be so versatile. I can't wait to make it again!

ENJOY!!!

Peace

xoxo

K

Restaurant Review: The Eatery

Soooo, because I enjoyed The Eatery SO much the first time, I pretty much ran there. lol Well not literally. I got a ride. My cousin Josh and I like to hang out and eat food. Lol Who doesn't? He is pretty much open to whatever, he just wants to try all sorts of different places. So far he's loved em all, so whatever I suggest he's game. Love that.

Being of Japanese decent, sushi is obvs a first love of ours. We have frequented Shabusen MANY times before but that's just for a good ole fashion all you can eat sushi coma. When I went to The Eatery the first time, I immediately thought of Josh. He LOVES sushi a lot. 

We ordered another veggie platter called The Revolution. It had about 5 or 6 different veggie rolls. One of them wasn't offered anymore and another one had cream cheese, so we subbed those for diff ones. And then I ordered agedashi tofu and Josh ordered 2 extra rolls, filled with meat. 

Agedashi Tofu

Normal agedashi tofu, nothing special. It was good but because the rolls are so creative I thought there would be something diff here.

The Revolution platter

YUM!!! 2 rolls are pretty healthy but yummy. The rest are some taste explosions in your mouth. Super yummy sauces and flavour combinations. The rolls are so creative that you just have no idea where to start. I suggest a platter just to make things easier the first couple times until you get the lay of the land.

Miss Piggy and X Rated

Not entirely sure what they were but cool meat combo's like bacon, eel, salmon, tuna etc. I don't eat it but I can admire the creativity that goes into the rolls. 

Sorry for the flash, but its quite dark in there, so unfort its unavoidable. :( But just get there. Its not downtown, or even close but SO worth it. For reals.

Peace

xoxo

K

Restaurant Review: The Eatery

On Saturday I was FINALLY taken to The Eatery on West Broadway. It is a funky outlandish kind of Japanese restaurant that is totally vegan/vegetarian friendly. The online menu is in NO way close to what they actually serve. There is SO much more in the restaurant. It was actually overwhelming. lol They had this whole huge page of veggie rolls. Unfort I can't remember them all but they were SOOOOO creative. Like the popeye, which was a roll with spinach and a peanut sauce drizzled on top. And a roll that had sundried tomatoes and then deep fried avocado on top. OMG that one was Derish!!!!

What we did, which was smart, was ordered a platter. Again, soooo sorry, but I can't remember what the platter was called. But I think it had about 5 or 6 rolls plus 2 tamago and 2 inari. I didn't eat the tamago obvs. And we also got a wakame salad, but I forgot. Too distracted clearly. ;)

The 2 in the middle, the yellow ones are done with a soy bean wrap instead of seaweed. I think we had one called the Moby and it had sauteed mushrooms on top in a sweet soy dressing with asparagus inside. YUMMMMMMMMM! They actually had 2 or 3 mushroom rolls. Big smiles over here!

The rolls all had cool names like the John Lennon, the Moby, Popeye....etc. I think there were other veggie dishes too but I was so impressed by the veggie sushi menu I just cudn't even look. I'm DEFINITELY going back. Repeatedly. Its a majah reason to leave the island. lol 

SO make sure you go check this place out! Its freaking phe-nom and has a cool vibe. There's brightly coloured octopus arms everywhere and a whole fishy/fisherman feel to it. Not your typical sushi joint. The only complaint I have is that we ordered it with brown rice but they forgot. But that said, they gave us a little discount as a sorry. No biggy. It happens. I like white rice too. 

Peace

xoxo

K

Vegan Sushi Bowl

I had some leftover sushi rice from making sushi at home so I put together a little sushi bowl. So yummy and pretty easy to assemble.

Vegan Sushi Bowl

Ingredients

1-2 cups brown rice (or sushi rice)

1 cup shelled edamame

1 carrots, sliced

1/2 cucumber, chopped

1 cup tofu, cubed

garlic powder

cayenne powder

1/4 avocado

sesame seeds

seaweed, chopped

Tamari (or soy sauce)

sriracha (optional)

Directions:

If using frozen edamame, cook for 2 minutes in microwave in water and drain. Pan fry cubed tofu (I used smoked tofu) in 1 tsp sesame oil with garlic powder and cayenne. I didn't measure it, just sprinkled a little bit on. Be careful with the cayenne as its spicy, if you're not into spicy, just omit it. cook tofu for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

To assemble layer the bowl: brown rice, edamame, carrots and cucmber, tofu around the edge, avocado in the middle then sprinkle sesame seeds, seaweed, soy sauce and sriracha if you're using it. And then enjoy!

TIP: if you have wasabi on hand then mix it with your tamari or soy sauce. I was too lazy to make it so I used sriracha. lol

This was very yummy and satisfying. Kinda cool to eat a deconstructed sushi roll with all the fixins'. :)

Peace

xoxo

K

Brown rice veggie sushi

I just had to have homemade sushi the other night. I will def go out and pick up sushi when I'm too lazy, but I like to make my own. I'm no sushi expert, even though I am Japanese, but I'm no slouch either. I like to put non-traditional food in my sushi though. Sometimes I use fried rice, quinoa, guacamole, leftover stir fry. Just whatever I've got laying around. I did have some avocado but I also had some guac leftover that I didn't want to waste so I used that instead of just plain avocado and it was yummy! Made it spicy and stick together better. It can be tougher with brown rice cuz its drier than sushi rice. I think next time I will put a little bit more water when I cook it.....

And so it begins! I went with just the guac, carrots and cucumber in my roll. Cuz I had other parts of my meal being prepared at the same time. Mix in a little sushi vinegar with the rice before putting it on ur seaweed. DO NOT USE OTHER VINEGAR. If you don't have mirin, then just use nothing. Sushi vinegar is special. lol You can use more rice if you want, but I don't like it like that. :)

Load up ur fixins'. I put guac, cucumber, carrots and sriracha. 

Roll that sucker nice and tight. Use a little water to seal it shut. make sure its not loose. Oh and a tip for your rolling mat, cover it with saran wrap so that if any rice escapes its nice and easy to clean! Seriously, everyone does this. My Baba taught me that trick. :)

This is the part I'm the WORST at. But this time not so bad. Use a serrated knife and cut it however you like it. Mine into six. I make my own wasabi, from a powder. Mixed it with some water and then soy sauce, gluten free tamari. I used very little soy, trying to eat as little salt as possible. But I can't cut soy sauce out all together. Its pretty much in my blood. Yup, soy sauce blood. :) Its the Asian in me. ;)

I also steamed some broccoli, spinach and bok choy and topped it with garlic mushrooms and hemp seeds. The mushrooms were sauteed with water, garlic powder and a sprinkle of sea salt. YUM! Seriously my addiction right now. I eat them almost daily. As a snack. What a freak! LOL

If you've never tried making sushi, give it a go! Its not that hard and you can be way more creative when you make it yourself. And healthier. Some times I don't even cut them and just eat them whole. Or make cones. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Peace

xoxo

K

Japanese Noodle Soup

I decided to make a Japanese Noodle Soup last night with udon noodles BUT they were freezer burnt! Bah! And I didn't realize until it was too late. Sigh. Oh well, we improvised and used rice noodles. Worked just as well.

I made my own broth, which was light and tasty. It was also very easy to make. I accompanied our meal with homemade gomae again. You can get that recipe here. Kevin really liked the gomae. What's not to like? lol

Japanese Noodle Soup

Ingredients

6 cups water

5 shitake mushrooms, sliced

1 inch piece of ginger, chopped

Big piece of Kombu (a type of seaweed)

5 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp mirin

1 tsp agave nectar

2 carrots, sliced

2 handfuls snow peas

2 handfuls bean sprouts

1 sheet nori, shredded

1 pkg tofu puffs, each puff cut into 4

1/2 pkg enoki mushrooms

3 dried chili peppers

2 green onions, chopped

rice noodles

Directions:

1. Put the water, shitake mushrooms, ginger, kombu, soy sauce, mirin, agave nectar, carrots and chili peppers into a big pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Cook the rice noodles according to package. I didn't put a quantity because it depends on how much you want to eat. I did about 1/4 to 1/2 a package for 2 ppl and there was leftovers. I made enough soup and noodles for 3 actually.

3. After the 20 minutes add the snow peas, tofu puffs and enoki mushrooms. Taste the broth to see if you want to add more soy or sweetener. At this point it was good for me. Cook for 3 minutes.

4. Put the noodles in a bowl, add your soup then top with bean sprouts, green onions, and shredded nori and serve!!!

TIP: I used a full nori sheet, folded it a bunch of times breaking it until I had a size that I wanted then I cut it with scissors into strips. I didn't buy it the way you see in the picture below. Also, I would have used udon as they are traditional Japanese fare but mine were ruined! I'm not bitter at all. lol But rice noodles worked great.

Japanese Noodle Soup

Gomae

Yes, that is a heart shaped little plate thing. The bowls I wanted to use were being occupied and everything else was too big. Very romantical indeed. lol

VERY satisfying Japanese meal. But I'm not over it yet. I think I'm going to make Nikujaga soon. Not tonight because I'm not sure if my friend Jimmy will be into it. ALSO I've never made it vegan. Its a traditional Japanese dish of potatoes and beef with a sweet soy broth. I'm going to use TVP instead, so no idea how that will turn out but I'm super excited!!! Reminds me of my childhood. My Baba and Grandpa used to make it. I LOVE it. My Baba makes onishime for me quite often now that I'm vegan, its kinda similar but never made with meat.

I haven't had any beans in a while so I'm thinking I'll do a chickpea curry or maybe something Mexican. Hmmmm, I'll think about that while I work out.

The sun disappeared again. Sigh. It sure was lovely while it lasted. :)

Peace

xoxo

K

Homemade sushi and gomae

Just a quick request before I get started on the recipe but could you lovely friends PLEASE nominate me for a food blog award? I'd be sooooo grateful. Love you long time! xo Check out this site to do so.

I was feeling very Japanese-y last night and decided to make some sushi. Well I guess I always feel Japanese-y because I'm Japanese. Lol I'm a big fan of just regular ole sushi with sushi rice but being all healthy and ish I need to rock some brown rice sushi from time to time. I find brown rice to be a bit dry to I like to mix it with buckwheat to keep it moister and stickier.

Sushi is not very hard to make and its very versatile. Sometimes I'll roll up a cone with some left over fried rice, tofu, steamed leafy greens, curry, whatever I've got in the fridge. But I just wanted a veggie roll last night. But the fun part was that I made gomae for the first time!!! OMG so easy! and Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!! I seriously ate the entire thing. I used the full bunch of spinach. And ate it all. Oops. lol

I made a lot of extra brown rice/buckwheat. You by no means need to use all of this. Nor can you if you only make 2 rolls. Good part is you can use it the next day for more rolls or make a sushi bowl, or fried rice or whatever.

Brown rice and Buckwheat Sushi

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice

1 cup buckwheat

1/3 cucumber, sliced length wise

2 carrots, sliced length wise

Nori sheets

2 tbsp mirin

Sushi roller

Directions

Cook the brown rice and buckwheat separately and according to their packaging. Then combine together with the mirin. Put a piece of nori on the sushi roller, spread enough rice to cover half of the nori. Depending on how big you want your roll will decide on how much rice and/or fillings you want. I just put about 4-5 slices of each in it. Use the sushi roller to roll up the sushi. Tuck the fillings inside, but not your fingers! Use a little water to seal it if needed.

To cut, use a serrated knife. (PS I suck at this part. LOL)

TIP: cover your sushi roller in saran wrap so the rice doesn't get stuck in it.

Next up is that delicious pile of greens you see there called gomae. lol I know I've only made this once but I'm pretty sure mine is awesome! Like way better than what you get in the restaurants. I'm actually going to make this tonight cuz I'm still feeling very Japanese-y. But I think I'll make some udon noodles instead. Mmmmm

Gomae

Ingredients

1 bunch spinach

4 tsp sesame seeds (generous tsp's)

1 tsp agave nectar

1 tsp tamari (soy sauce, gluten free)

1/8 cup water

Directions:

If your sesame seeds are raw, then toast them in a dry pan. Toss a lot as you don't want them to burn. The roasting just brings out the flavour more. It'll take about 2-3 minutes but depends on your stove and pan. Puts the seeds in a food processor and process for about 30 seconds then add the remaining ingredients and pulse for another 30 seconds. Sauce, DONE.

Cut the stems off the spinach and rinse. Boil a big pot of water, once boiling drop all of the spinach into the water for about 20 seconds. LITERALLY!!! This is not a game folks. Don't walk away. Actually count it out then remove it right away and either plunge into cold water or run under cold water to stop the cooking process. This is called blanching. You heard it hear first! Lol

Once the spinach has been cooled, gently squeeze out the excess water. Try to squeeze it as much as you can without tearing it. Put 1/3 of spinach into a bowl and pour 1/3 of the sauce and mix. Then put another 1/3 of the spinach and another 1/3 of the sauce and so on. This will allow for all of the spinach to be coated evenly. I know we've all had gomae with not enough sauce.

The directions look long but its really not. I just wrote a story. Lol I just don't want anyone overcooking their spinach and having to eat a mushy gross gomae.

ALSO, I picked up some organic brown rice mochi last night and chopped it up and threw it under the broiler for 5 minutes. YUM. I love and miss mochi. Its made out of pulverized brown rice and water. It gets all puffed up and delish. I put a little garlic powder and soy sauce on mine then broil it. Then I dip it in Sriracha. Some ppl make waffles outta it but I don't have a waffle maker. Maybe I'll make a dessert one though. Yes, I must try that. A chocolate sauce and maple syrup. Mmmm

Baked Mochi

I was a Japanese eating machine last night!! Jeez. Well, I did earn it. I worked out like mad crazy. Ran for an hour outside. Almost got blown over by all the wind. Plus I worked out at the gym for over an hour, like an hour and half. What the? lol

Its SO gorgeous in Van today, Its time for a run!!! I love when it gets nice here. I can run outside again. Life is good.

PS you can buy wasabi at almost any grocery store in Vancouver. Personally I use the dry stuff and just mix it with a little water. Its also nice to throw into a salad dressing for an extra kick!

Peace

xoxo

K

Vegan Shepherd's Pie, Private sushi chef, peanut butter stuffed pretzels and more!!

My friend Dave and I decided to surprise his gf Natasha for her birthday with me!!!  Lol. It was pretty awesome. He even got her to make a vegan shepherd's pie without her even realizing it. He told her he hasn't been feeling well when he eats dairy (which is true) so she didn't ask any other questions. LOL We blew her mind. Her reaction was so awesome!

I don't have the recipe yet but when I do I will def share it. It was super yummy and Natasha says its very easy to make. 

All in my belly!

I just sauteed 2 small heads of broccoli with water (about 1/8-1/4 cup), then seasoned with lemon pepper seasoning. Put that on top of green leaf lettuce, cucumber, carrots and drizzled dijon mustard and sriracha.

 Ok so this bar is damn good. Tasty as hell BUT its 400 calories, 20g of fat, 21g of sugar! HOLY CRAP! Um, no thanks. Its vegan and delish but there is no need to eat a bar that's 400 cals. A meal yes, but not a bar. TOo bad.

Peanut butter filled pretzels

Need I say more? Nope.

Sushi counter set up

Chef and Assistant at work

Round 1

This doesn't begin to show you how much sushi we had. Plus there was tuna and beef tataki which was to die for I'm told. Like melt in your mouth OHMYGOD amazingness good. That good. There was SO much food, I could not even handle it. Well I could, and I did. I ate the shit outta those veggie rolls. And there were lots. They made sure they made lots of veggie rolls. I even got a special veggie cone made just for me. Lol Well almost everyone got a cone, but mine was one of a kind. Ha. 

Here was my FIRST plate.

Clearly you can see from all my pics that my wheat/gluten free days are over. LOL I demolished them this weekend. Ground round in the shepherds pie, pretzels, and I think that's it. I opted not to eat bagels but they were there. But I def through my healthy diet out the window. Well, for me this was out the window. I still ate lots of veggies. But man was it ever worth it. I'm back on track today and starting the Wild Rose cleanse tomorrow.

Grocery shopping tonight! And the bachelor of course. Lol

All in all, trip to the island was awesome! I'm quite the multi-tasker, I drank only vodka waters. Hydrate while I dehydrate. Lol 

Peace

xoxo

K