Okay, so maybe one of my kids isn't that interested in these sushi-style treats, but the other one might be. Maybe that's why I was having a craving for them.
I do know Hayden had me eating tons of veggie sushi while in my belly (although she would do ninja kicks inside me when I'd consume too much wasabi), and she still has me going through pounds of fresh fruit (it is the easiest thing to grab throughout the day and it probably makes breast milk taste extra sweet). So, I thought, "why not combine the two?"I actually was inspired by two Food Network personalities: Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Rachael Ray.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched "Iron Chef America: Battle Coconut," and I've been wanting to put my own spin on one of the dishes ever since. You see, Morimoto had flavored his sushi rice with coconut and filled the rolls with fresh fruit. I wanted to do the same, but instead of flavoring the rice, I would actually substitute the coconut for it.
Unfortunately, I was low on coconut flakes and out of nori. This idea was just going to have to wait.Wednesday, I made a trip to the local health food store. Everything was so overpriced that I opted to wait on a few items until I could make a trip to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, or place an order online. I just ended up with a bag of nuts and some coconut flakes (at least I got those; it was one of the only NaturalZing products the store still carried).
Now that I had the coconut flakes, all that was missing was the nori wraps. But, then I had a better idea.
Years ago, I remember seeing Rachael Ray make kid-friendly sushi out of Fruit Roll-ups, Rice Krispies Treats and some kind of other candy. That's where I got my idea to use dried banana sheets as the outer wrap to my sushi. I just dyed the pureed bananas green with a little bit of Crystal Manna blue green algae flakes, and dehydrated them into natural fruit rolls.These rolls were filled with coconut flakes mixed with agave to make a sweet sticky "rice." The first set of rolls had avocado, cucumber and peach, while the second contained avocado, strawberry and kiwi.
Still on a roll (sorry about the goofy sense of humor), I also filled some more with a mixture of cashew butter, agave and oats, which sandwiched in a row of banana, red apple and green apple. Now these are some Good Eats :-)
