Round of 16, Day 4 - Japan - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

So I obviously am super behind on Eating Challenge posts. Life has been happening really hard over here and this just hasn't been my priority. Without going into detail, my family has been going through a loss so I've been visiting them as much as possible. I also was preparing for my own trip to be a bridesmaid in a long time friend's wedding meaning that I had a lot of work to do before leaving. Life was definitely at it's hardest for a couple of weeks there and it took all of my remaining energy to just keep doing the challenge. I didn't have any extra for words. However, I'm back from my trip and I've been able refresh and get back some of my inspiration. I also have a new challenge on deck so there's a lot to look forward to.

But right now - let's talk about sushi. Sushi is just super pretty and the ingredients speak for themselves so how about a picture post? Great? Great.

The only thing keeping me from doing sushi before was the fish. I've always been nervous about the quality being good enough to eat the fish raw. I went to a specialty fish market and asked about which fish was sushi quality. I decided to go with some ahi tuna and salmon.

I wanted to do a hand roll along with sashimi. I had done a sushi class before and remembered some of what to do.

I put in some rice, cucumber, avocado, and then my fish.

For the sashmini, I wanted to get a little creative so I arranged them into flowers with cucumber and avocado stems. I also bought a nice sake to pair with it. 

But that's not all... I ended up buying way too much fish. This is one of those amazing problems that I'm all too happy to have. I decided to try to change it up a little and sear the tuna. 

I then cut up the tuna, salmon, and some avocado slices. It's hard to see but it's all on sheets of nori (seaweed). I called it a de-constructed sushi roll.

I ended up just eating little pieces on the slices of seaweed and it was amazing.

This ended up being a really easy day where the quality of the ingredients spoke for themselves and didn't need me messing them up. I would love to go back to the fish store and get more salmon and just slice it up and enjoy it like this again.

Day 8 - Japan - World Cup Eating Challenge

Day 8 was a true case of my best laid plans gang aft a-gley...

When I thought of this challenge, one of my first plans was to find a way to work sushi in. I knew this would be a little difficult on the "cooking" side of things though. Ironically, not for the reason you would suspect. Most people think of sushi and figure it would be really hard to make the rolls. I actually took a class on how to do this and fashioning some temaki, nigiri, or maki doesn't worry me so much. However, I have a lot of concerns about the quality of raw fish I'm eating. I just don't feel comfortable that the fish I buy at the supermarket would be high enough quality to eat raw and I wasn't feeling like doing the fake fish California roll thing.

But I had a plan! I saw an idea on Pinterest for a tuna plate with a side of avocado. I currently had 5 avocados at home (down from 8) as a result of poor planning and sales at Whole Foods so I thought this would be perfect.

My solution for the raw fish was great too. At Costco they sell cut up raw tuna with different sauces and things. I felt more comfortable with this than cutting my own raw fish and it felt like a healthy alternative. However - once I got to the tuna stand, I knew this wasn't going to work. There were four options for the tuna and they were all drenched in sauce. The only one that didn't look too bad was a wasabi flavor which I'm not a fan of. I was pretty disappointed but at this point I was hungry and I wanted some sushi so I decided just to get a pre-made sushi roll package.

While pre-made sushi doesn't compare to getting it fresh at a restaurant, I actually really like it. It's one of my favorite grab and go meals and they are typically pretty affordable. This one only set me back $11 and it was huge. I normally don't eat a lot of rice but I like to make an exception for sushi. It really does bind the rolls together and in moderation, I don't think it's that bad. I'd had a huge workout on Wednesday and I knew my body could handle the extra carbs and calories.

So Costco - you kind of let me down yesterday but you also came back with the save. Just to show that there were no hard feelings, I made sure to buy a new cook book (The Paleo Kitchen - so excited!) and a pack of cider. Ok, I did those things for me.