Brown Rice Sushi For Lucy

For me actually but that title rhymes. And my friend Lucy requested this.

I’m no sushi expert. Believe it or not, living in Japan doesn’t automatically make you one. Though I will say, here, sushi means raw fish on a little thingy of rice with a layer of wasabi in between only. Not this. This is maki sushi, I believe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked short-grain brown rice
2 cups water
1 tbsp rice vinegar
pinch sea salt
nori (seaweed) sheets
your favorite fillings cut in strips (I used raw salmon, orange capsicum, lettuce and avocado)
a rolling mat

Rinse and drain rice, place into a saucepan and pour in water.

Let soak for as long as possible but if you don’t have the time, 30min is fine.

Cook rice over medium heat until done? Sorry not sure how else to put it..follow packet instructions? Or taste some to check.. you may need to top up the water once or twice (about 35 min).

Let rice cool until warm then mix in the vinegar and salt. Rice should be slightly sticky now.

To roll the sushi, lay a sheet of nori, rough side up, on your rolling mat. With wet fingers (I find its also useful to have a damp towel nearby), firmly pat a thick, even layer of brown rice over the nori, leaving  top edge about 1/2-inch deep uncovered with rice.

Assemble your fillings in a line along the bottom edge of the sheet.

Now we’re ready to roll (both literally and figuratively) so fold the bottom edge of the sheet up, enclosing the vegetables, and roll roll roll your mat? If you didn’t F up, you should have a thick cylinder thing by now.

Here I gently wrap the mat around the roll and squeeze it not-so-gently one more time – for good luck’s sake.

This recipe should make 3 rolls. Cut each roll into 6 pieces for serving.

To make a California roll, that’s the one with the rice on the outside, do what I did and watch this video.

Or look at someone else’s blog who has step by step pictures and accurate cooking instructions. Sigh, I can’t even today.

Date ball recipe here. Tiny cherry tomatoes from my neighbor’s backyard. Gifted, not stolen. Maybe.

Takeda Castle Ruins

Here’s a 21st century thing to say: I met my friend Kate through Instagram. I’m not sure who started following who first but we began talking, found out we both live in Japan (though 4 hours apart) and have common interests such as healthy eating and literature. After chatting through the internet for some time, we finally met yesterday, halfway, at Asago’s famous Takeda Castle ruins. Below are the pictorials. The pic of our soba lunch is Kate’s, I actually took it without her permission because my photo  of our lunch really sucked. Hopefully she doesn’t mind. I’m sure she won’t, she’s the sweetest (as well as most beautiful). Check out her Instagram HERE if you like. Also, we packed a healthy picnic. I made my famous date balls.

In the evening, I went to a BBQ. I prepared a simple salad of garden lettuce topped with diced kiwi-fruit, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped dried apricots and pumpkin seeds. I finished it with a little olive oil, juice of half a lemon, sea salt and ground pepper. Whenever I go to a BBQ or the like, this is what I do. Not this specific salad, but I make something healthy to take because if there isn’t anything healthy on offer (which there normally isn’t) then I can always eat my own food hehe.

Click HERE for more info on Takeda and HERE for more info on the restaurant.

Six Delicious and Filling Healthy Lunch Ideas

Hands up if you’ve started your diet or life-style change with a healthy breakfast and a plain salad lunch only to break it with a hangry binge come dinner? Right, happens to the best of us. Growing up, I always had a big lunch. That’s how Iranian’s do it. Kebabs or stews on rice for lunch and something light, a salad or a small sandwich for dinner. There’s no better feeling than sleeping on a light stomach and by night-time, your lunch will be burnt off and digested. This also goes for sweets or dessert. If you must have them, have them during the day. Here are 6 of my favourite delicious and filling healthy lunch ideas:

1. Brown Rice Onigiri

Fried brown rice balls. With salad. So easy. Brown a little onion with a little oil in a frying pan, add 1 cup of carrot/corn/peas mixture, fry little longer. Crack a free-range egg or two in it, mix in. Add two cups cooked brown rice. In a small jar, mix 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter, crushed ginger, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over. Cook until hot and steamy. Shape into balls using a plastic wrap. Serve with a nutty salad.

2. Frittata

Frittata is super filling and great for left-overs. Be creative with your vegetable, herb, cheese and nut combinations. Serve with salad. Recipe HERE.

3. Wholewheat Couscous Salad


Like frittata, couscous salads can have absolutely anything in them. Get creative with a colourful mixture of raw vegetables, nuts and seeds. Use wholewheat variety. Delicious! Recipe here, here and here. Boiled egg, optional. Truffle/bliss ball recipes here, here and here.

4. Grilled Fish, Tofu and Salad

This ones for those who eat fish. A big piece, pan-fried served with raw tofu on a simple green salad. Will keep you full forever. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but you get my drift.

5. Brown Rice Salad 

Basically a deconstructed brown rice onigiri. A delicious mix of raw and roasted vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and herbs. Recipe HERE.

6. Healthier Potato Salad

Mayonnaise free, potato salad. Dressed with avocado and yoghurt. Healthy fats and probiotics for the win. Enjoyed with a side of raw snap peas and cherry tomatoes. Recipe HERE.

 

Frittata For Dummies

I have the lovely Laura (aka Yoooya) from Belgium staying with me for a few days and I couldn’t be more grateful! Not only has she been absolutely lovely and great company but also, my lab mouse. Last night I baked us my very first frittata and she said it was delicious! Providing Laura actually meant it and wasn’t just saying it for free accommodation, you too, can create this deliciousness.

This fool-proof recipe can be easily doubled and adapted:

6 free-range eggs
1/4 cup of full-fat dairy (milk, sour-cream, creme fraiche, coconut cream or yoghurt)
sprinkle of sea salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated mozzarella (or cheddar)
1/2 white onion, diced small
2 cups potato, peeled and diced small (or sweet potato, or pumpkin)
1 cup of spinach, torn (or broccoli or any other vegetable like asparagus, edamame beans, mushroom, etc)
handful of fresh mint, torn (or basil, parsley and coriander)
1/4 cup blue cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts

The trick to a good frittata says the internet, is to fully cook the add-ins so…

Beat the first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl then set aside

Next brown the onion (usually on medium heat with a little oil in a frying pan).

Add potato, cook until tender (about 10 minutes).

Add spinach and mint, cook for a minute.

Combine vegetables with egg mixture.

Pour into an oven-proof dish.

Top with torn blue cheese, pine nuts and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Bake at 200C for 20-22 minutes (keep an eye on it!)

Serve hot or cold but always with salad! 

Four Top Tips For Travelling Healthy

Eating healthy when travelling is hard, right? Wrong. You can travel healthy just like you can be healthy in any situation if you really want to. Here are my top four tips or my four top tips.

1. Scroggin.
Make a bag of scroggin or trail mix for snacking. To be honest, I always do this anyway not just for travelling. There’s always a bag of mixed raw nuts, seeds and natural dried fruit in my handbag for in case I get hungry.. or have a sweet craving. This way, there’s always something else for me to have in place of that naughty/unhealthy/excessively sugary thing. The important thing here is to make your own. Already mixed nuts, unless otherwise stated, usually have preservatives and additives like excess oil salt and/or sugar.

2. Request a special meal. 
You can do this when booking your ticket. Even if you’re a meat lover, just for this one trip, request a vegetarian or vegan meal. Why? Because special meals are ALWAYS ALWAYS better than what everyone else gets. They’re not mass produced and guaranteed to be fresh. Special, just for you! So I had this delicious stir-fry with broccoli, shiitake mushroom, corn, capsicum, peas, green beans and celery and a wholemeal seeded bun when the dude next to me had a gross looking “beef” curry with 2 pieces of carrot and a white bun. I also had “fancy” fruit when everyone else had “boring” apple and mandarin. And, I got my special meal first. For breakfast, I was given porridge, fancy fruit again and HOT wholemeal bread from a picnic basket (the same as the people in first class) whilst the lady next to me ate a watery looking pale yellow omelette, processed sausage and a white bun wrapped in plastic.

3. Request an isle seat
Yikes, you’re being such a difficult customer! Ha, but it’s ok. You can do this. It’s free to request! Worst-case, you don’t get it. Again, you can do this when you buy your ticket or else, at the check-in counter. So why an isle seat? Yes, you miss out on taking that iconic instagram shot of the airplane wing and watching the clouds turn romantic orange but you are free, FREE I say, to walk up and down and down and up and up and wherever. Especially after eating. You know t’s not good to eat and sit.

4. Hydrate like a mothetrucker. 
We all know the benefits of drinking water. Or if we don’t know, just take my word for it.There are a billion toilets in an airport and in an airplane. So take advantage, dink up, Hydrate.

Boiled Orange Cranberry And Chocolate Cake

2 whole ORGANIC oranges
2 and 1/4 cups ground almonds
1 cup coconut sugar 
4 free range eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup roughly chopped good quality dark chocolate

Place whole oranges in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and continue the boil for 1 hour.

Drain. Let cool (apparently patience is virtous)

Preheat oven to 160 C

Cut oranges in half and place in a food processor (skin, pith, flesh errythang) with ground almonds, coconut sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and baking soda then process until smooth.

Turn the food processor off, unless you want to die and using a spoon, gently mix in the cranberries and chocolate (leaving a handful behind for topping)

Pour batter into a baking-paper lined cake tin, top with remaining cranberries and chocolate and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a fork comes out clean when inserted.

Let cool completely before removing from tin.

Note: using organic oranges is vital here seeing as you’re going to be eating the whole thang. Also, the thinner the orange skin, the sweeter.

Enjoy! Let me know how it goes and don’t forget to tag me in your creations xx

How To Eat Healthy In Japan

Basically, the idea that you all have, and I had, before coming to Japan is that Japanese food is healthy. Well, it is if you’re only eating tofu, seaweed and sashimi…which no one is. Instead, with the introduction of Western foods and Japan’s own variation on Western foods, Japan’s food has become processed, often fried and almost always packed with excess sugar and salt. Actually, I am repeatedly flabbergasted by just how “unhealthy” people eat. In particular, my colleagues. But but but before you hate-mail me, let me explain that I understand there is no one definition of “healthy” and that there is no ONE right way to eat. But drinking a carton of cow’s milk alongside cup noodles and one or three cherry blossom flavored sweets daily, can’t be it.

1. Stay away from supermarket bread
Read article here or just know that if you search for a million and one years, you will not find legitimate brown bread in the supermarket. What you will find is a soft cake-like thing packed with chemicals and sugar. Don’t do it. Trust me. Try instead to bake your own, it can be done, in even the small toaster-ovens (no one has a regular sized oven in Japan unless they’re an avid foodie or rollin’ in the monaaay). Or, Google your nearest Organic bakery. In Okayama, I’ve found real bread like the ones that actually require the use of teeth, in Cotan, Opusuto and Hugo et Leo. In Tottori, Ritotto Marche. Fingers and toes crossed there are also some health conscious folk who also happen to bake, around where you are living.

2. Brown rice.
Like the cake bread, Japanese people like their rice white and squishy. In fact, many have never even eaten brown rice! Can you believe it? In a country where there are more rice than vending machines (if you know Japan, you’ll know what I mean). So yeah, what I’m saying is, source out the brown rice and eat that instead. Since only few supermarkets stock it (again, why?!) you’ll have to go to a Farmer’s Markets to get it. Find it, cook it and enjoy its fibre goodness. Otherwise white rice is simply a filler upperer and that’s it.

3. Decipher the ingredients
If you, like me, don’t know Japanese, try learn the few kanji required for sugar, fat and protein. Here’s a great link for it. Or, be lazy like me and guesstimate the health-factor of an item by its amount of calories. Seriously, you’d be gobsmacked by how much crap (I’m sorry but it really is) manufacturers can pack into a thing. Things include yoghurt, breakfast cereals, fruit juice, cooking sauces and dressings. Also, this JAS sign stands for organic, as in, additive-free. Of course, just because something is organic doesnt mean you should binge on it.

4. Eat more vegetables!
Though fruit is expensive as F&’%, vegetables in Japan are varied, delicious and relatively cheap. Alas, they’re often eaten fried as tempura or kushikatsu, pickled with excess salt and sugar or drowned in mayo or other dressing. Eat more vegetables people and if you can, eat them from the Farmers Market cos then you know they’re local and fresh and hopefully organic and actually cheaper! Cos they don’t have the fancy wrapping which is the opposite of back home, isn’t it? Also, that’s where you can find free-range eggs.

When it comes to fresh produce, the smaller the better, contrary to Japanese standards. This is because the smaller the thing, the less sprays and chemicals it has indured. Also applies to fish, the smaller the fish, the less time it has swam in filth. Unless of course it is natrually a large thing like a daikon or a pomelo. Apples on the other-hand, should not be the size of my father’s head. Make a colorful salad with a simple lemon juice or apple cider and olive oil dressing, steam them, boil them or stir fry with a home-made sauce. Yummy. There is no excuse for consuming rubbish (sorry not sorry) when vegetables are “cheap as chips”, literally!

5.When travelling, pack a bento! Don’t buy one.
A year of residence in the country has given me the opportunity to travel and sightsee much of its beauty. I have done this by car because I like driving and I find it more convenient for me. What I’ve come to learn from my countless stops at high-way service areas (not to be confused with conbinis -convenience stores- which stock salads, fruits, boiled chicken breasts and eggs amongst other things) is that they sell nothing literally NOTHING I consider healthy. Okay, a white rice, rice ball with salmon isn’t that bad a thing but if you’re after a vegetable sandwich, some fruit, a salad, veggies, a healthy snack, anything that isn’t bursting with salt and sugar then you better take my word for it and pack your own thing. I love picnics. Actually, what I love more than the picnic is the picnic basket hehe. I love to fill it with healthy and delicious treats. Join me in my infatuation and do the thing! Pack a basket (or a lunchbox). My favorite roadie treats are strawberries, cut veggies, home-made popcorn and healthy sweets: muffins, bars, balls and so on which can be so easy to make, really!

6. Hit up the pharmacy.
No not for diet pills or supplements. Personally (you know cos this is my blog tehe) I don’t believe in such things.. unless they’re entirely natural. Ah I hear ya! But what and who defines natural?! Aye? Aye? Shut up. Let me go on. Ok so pharmacies or the pharmacy sections of supermarkets often sell “healthfoods” or “superfoods” like Spirulina powder, chia-seeds, coconut oil, Acai powder, hemp seeds, flax seeds and so on. So what I’m saying is, you won’t find raw cacao in the “food” isles but you might find it next to the sunscreen. Go figure.

7. When all else fails: import store!
Again, this requires some Googling. Import stores though highly expensive have become a savior for me. My personal favourite is called Jupiter. There, you should be able to find all-natural and additive-free canned legumes, dry legumes, nuts, dried fruit, seeds, granola, nut butters, 100% fruit jams, 100% fruit juice, brown rice, brown pasta, oats, quinoa, whole-wheat couscous, amaranth, whole-wheat crackers, bran and so forth.

8. Take advantage of the “healthy” food Japan has to offer! 
These are many but the ones that come to mind are the incredible variety of mushrooms, tofu products: my favourite being okara, 100% organic soy milk (cos usually plant-based milks are packed with unnecessary oil and salt), fermented foods like miso, koji and natto, seaweed, konjac, matcha, fresh seafood, soba and as already mentioned, fresh and local brown rice and vegetables.

One Pot Pasta With Broccoli, Olives, Mascarpone and Lemon

I think I’m just gonna go ahead and marry myself.

140g dried wholemeal penne
200g young broccoli with its young leaves, cut into small florets
some kalamata olives
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp basil pesto
3 tbsp light mascarpone (left over from that amazing cheesecake I made)
½ small bunch parsley, torn

Cook the pasta following pack instructions, adding the broccoli 4 mins before the end of the cooking time.

Reserve a cup of the water, then drain everything and tip back into the pot.

Add all remaining ingredients to the pot + enough of the pasta water to create a creamy sauce. Season with a good grinding of black pepper and a little sea salt.

Makes for two.

Avocado and Spinach Smoothie Bowl

It’s now fall in Japan. Fall. A new addition to my English vocabulary after being forced to teach American-English here. Any who, fall has kindly turned up the cozy dial on full blast and I just can’t handle it (in a good way). It is my most favourite season. I want to be under a blanket with a smoothie bowl and a good book by my side, forever. Hibernation. How very appropriate in my neck of the woods (another bear was spotted in the village yesterday) and it wasn’t Emma (pictured below).

1/4 avocado
1 banana
bunch of fresh spinach
3/4 cup of non-dairy milk (I used 100% soy)

lunch prep

TGIM here’s my lunch prep for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday! A simple salad of wholewheat couscous, cooked broccoli, raw carrot, red onion, yellow capsicum and fresh tomato dressed with balsamic vinager, olive oil and lemon juice (simply mix all ingredients together and season – easy as!). Oh and my trail mix which apparently makes me a “bird” according to my Japanese colleagues hehe