To birthdays...

I'm an all-star blogger let me tell ya. Last night I celebrated my birthday with family which was wonderful. We had my absolute favorite dinner, veggie sushi! And some seriously sinful chocolate cake. I was so excited to share everything with you...visually. And guess what? I forgot to take pictures!

But, in the interest of blogging here are some sushi ideas and some easy side dishes...

Scratch that! I am an all-star blogger! Put the post on hold for a few days so I could post with a picture.

So I have eaten sushi three days in a row now and I'm thinking I might have a problem. My favorite sushi rolls have avocado and cucumber in them but we always fix up quite a few veggies so everyone can create the roll of their heart's desire.

Veggies-

Avocado (yes!)

Asparagus

Bamboo shoots

Carrots

Cucumber

Mushrooms (I like portobello)

Snow peas

Wait! That list is totally accidentally alphabetized! That would be helping with the homework of a certain fifth grader's fault!

With the veggies you can really go crazy. Whatever is in the refrigerator, whatever you like. I suggest peeling your cucumber and blanching any of your more firm veggies like carrots and asparagus before using them in your veggie sushi.

We also jazz our sushi up with Tofutti cream cheese and a variety of sauces. Trader Joe's makes an AWESOME sauce (thank you Angie for introducing us to it) called Soyaki. Its a ginger and garlic infused soy sauce. I LOVE wasabi paste mixed with a little soy sauce. And of course just a plain low sodium soy sauce works well also.

For side dishes my husband usually makes a fried rice. His secret is yummy and deceiving as he uses tumeric to color the tofu "egg", add in a bit of shredded carrots, broccoli, soy sauce and ginger and its ready.

Last night though my hubby wasn't home so I threw together the Asian pasta salad you see in the picture. My aunt made this for us last Easter and it is so easy and beautiful I had to tell you about it. Its a cold salad made with orzo pasta (1/2 box), 1/3 diced red pepper, a handful of sugar snap peas sliced on the bias (yes those are green beans in the picture.. I was out of the snap peas), 1 medium diced carrot and a some crispy chow mein noodles. You just toss all that together with this quick homemade dressing:

Shake together:

6 Tbl unseasoned rice vinegar

4 Tbl soy sauce,

4 tsp hoison sauce

2 tsp sesame oil (or peanut oil)

1 Tbl sesame seeds

2 tsp agave

Once that is mixed slowly add 1/2 cup of canola oil and shake well.

Pour 1/2 of the dressing over salad and mix. Then add more to taste.

The picture shown is just a quick shot of my lunch today. Usually we serve everything up on little square plates with chopsticks and small dishes for your sauce of choice. It makes dinner just a little more fun when you serve it up pretty!