Sushi and Gluten-Free Thai Peanut Sauce

San-J Gluten-Free Thai Peanut Sauce

We had plans to watch the Supper Bowl during supper, but we knew we didn't want the typical party fare.

Really, I know the name of the game and we don't usually call our third meal of the day "supper". But my grandmother did.

Anyways, I started thinking hard. What would we all want to eat that was healthier than the standard offerings? And that we would want to eat during a football game and its commercials?

Something different. Not standard. Something we don't usually make due to lack of time.

Ah ha! That one is easy.

Sushi!

Making sushi requires a lot of time and preparation. But as soon as I mentioned it to my family, there was no looking back. We all love sushi!

But in addition to sushi, I wanted to make some spring rolls, since I have a new love.

San-J Gluten-Free Thai Peanut Sauce.

This stuff is divine. I wanted those spring rolls so that I would have something to dip into my gluten-free peanut sauce!

Here are a few of the spring rolls that we made.

Inside of each rice paper roll is shrimp, green onion, cilantro, lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumber, and some radish. These were very tasty, especially dipped in the gluten-free peanut sauce.

This peanut sauce also makes a great salad dressing. A little leftover chicken, lettuce, shaved carrots, roasted cashews, gluten-free peanut sauce and you've got yourself a great little salad.

Sashimi and Sushi

We also made sushi. The real thing. Salmon sashimi and sushi rolls. Here my husband is wrapping a strip of nori around that raw salmon, which is sitting on a bed of sticky rice.

See, he's actually the better sushi maker in the house. I make good spring rolls, but he makes better sushi.

I admit it. I was a bit nervous about having raw fish in the house. I eat it in sushi restaurants, but I've never had it at home before this. But then I tasted it. It was good.

Oh, and don't worry about the kids. They don't get raw meat of any kind, at home or in the restaurants. For them, and us, we cooked salmon and made it into Philadelphia rolls. Yeah, you are supposed to use smoked salmon, but we just cooked ours. Salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber, all rolled up!

These are an all around favorite in our house. We also made California-like rolls, some scallop and calamari rolls, and some cooked-shrimp sashimi style. All of these rolls had cooked fish or seafood. We could all eat the cooked seafood.

We didn't spend much effort making the rolls beautiful. We wanted to move quickly and make a lot, so that's just what we did. Beauty is for some other day.

For condiments, we had the gluten-free peanut sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger, and gluten-free tamari sauce. In addition to the gluten-free peanut sauce, San-J makes wonderful gluten-free tamari sauce, which is very close in flavor to soy sauce. Only the flavor is better than soy sauce!

My husband and I did most of the sushi and spring roll work. The kids didn't want to be left out of the fun, so they came up with the idea of making Candy Sushi for dessert. Here's what they decided to use to make it all.

They unrolled, mashed, squished, patted, molded, rolled and sliced. They worked and slaved and focused and labored. They loved working with all that candy. And all I did was help pick up a few of the wrappers. They did it all!

And they did a beautiful job of it too!

And look, the teenage daughter added her final touch:  the fruit rollup bow! I have no idea why she thought a bow belongs on a plate with sushi, but it wasn't a problem. It tasted just fine!

Look at those Swedish Fish Sashimi! And the coconut-cranberry rolls! And the fruit-snack-marshmallow-treat rolls!

Each of the Swedish Fish sashimi is a Swedish Fish on top of Rice Krispies Treat and wrapped with a strip of Fruit Rollup. Cute!

I would be remiss in not mentioning the Junior-Mint-marshmallow-treat rolls. There in the middle right. I didn't like the mint in a candy sushi roll. It just didn't seem to fit. But the kids liked them!

The kids did a fantastic job and had a blast too!

Did I mention that all of the sushi candy was also gluten-free? Yep, everything they used is safe for me to eat. Hurray!

And we didn't have any candy sushi remaining at the end of the evening. They were tasty!

I think we will have them helping out with the real sushi next time.

Oh, and in case you wondering... We spent the better part of four hours putting all of this together. We were not moving very quickly when we first started, but by the last half hour, we picked up the pace considerably. This is not something you do in a heartbeat. Plan ahead and allow lots of time.

It is worth it!