40 Days of Raw: Day 6, in which Whole Foods becomes Whole Paycheck

I've advocated for years that if you shop wisely, you can shop cheap at Whole Foods. Today, I failed. But I'll tell you why!

#1 Splurge item of day: Ulimana Truffles. At 13 a jar, they are steep. But they're truffles. And the truffle I snuck in the parking lot said, "You did the right thing, BS."

#2 Splurge item: More Sunja Kimchi. I can't help it. Until I can figure out how to make edible kimchi, I will let the Sunja company continue to have its way with my wallet.

#3 Splurge item: About 2 pounds of Cashews. I don't care. Nuts are my life right now.

#4 Splurge item: Vitacoco coconut water and some fancy juices to mix with it. I just wanted to toss together a quick pick me up that is not hippie juice. Hippie juice is tiring.

#5 Splurge item: Arugula. Yes, it's $5 a little plastic box/bag thing. But I want to mix it with my chard and some pears to make something earthy, spicy and delectable.

#6 Splurge item: prep food chutney and salsa. I got some mango and salsa. I figure I'll mix them together with other things, make salads, etc.

These things did come in handy tonight when I came home and saw it was SUSHI NIGHT. I hate to be left out, so I popped some cauliflower into my processor, pulled out some untoasted nori, spread the cauli-rice out, laid some cuke strips, avo, radish pickles and finally mango salsa and BLAM. Flavor explosion. The sushi doesn't hold together very well when it gets too big, so for part 2, I made a variation of my (As yet unprinted, holding out for when I open a restaurant, don't you dare steal this as your own) sushi salad. The salad this time was a bed of nori with cauliflower, cukes, avo, radish pickle and rice vinegar. Pictured in the feast, the extremely generous maki rolling Dork did (I believe the filling was rice, avocado and peanuts), tempura broccoli, carrots and sweet potatoes, my sushi salad (with food porn close-up) and of course, lots of water, dipping sauces for the non-raw kids and rice vinegar!

This meal was a lot quicker and easier than I anticipated. I think next time I'll try to grind the cauliflower a little smaller so it gets a little wetter, and maybe do a (I was thinking about this on the ride home, actually) cashew-ginger cream dipping sauce and/or hold sushi together agent. See the first (much better, somehow) roll at right. It's surprising that I was more conservative and successful with the first pass. I think once I got the taste of food for real, I kinda went nuts trying to get more of it and lost my patience. :)

The scent of heated oil was actually a turn off for me, but visually, I have to admit that the sight of broccoli tempura was tempting. As was holding itself together rice-sticky sushi. Observe pretty tempura.

I also purchased a bunch of chickpeas and am considering an experiment in soaking them to get some raw hummus/falafel/legume goodness into my life. Cauliflower just ain't the same without its partner in crime. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, off to share the cucumber and radish pickle goodness with the world.

Day 6? First time on raw diet where I have had a tummyache from eating too much food, so, I think we win. Raw sushi = totally approved.