Under the Seas (as in seaweed)!

Today was definitely a day of open-mindedness for me.  Even though it was a beautiful 50 degree day in Oklahoma City we were in class this morning at 8 AM sharp.  This was our make up day from when it snowed so hard here we were unable to have class.  The good news is, the first thing we made was almond milk.  As if that wasn't good enough, we were allowed to add whatever we wanted to make breakfast smoothies!!!  Yeah!!  Since I hadn't had anything to eat yet (and I almost always do), I needed some morning fuel to get going so this was just perfect!  I added, as usual, fairly conservative ingredients, mango, blueberries, hemp seeds, and maca.  Delicious!  Then is was on to our "sushi".  Now my earlier experience with the taste of the nori left a little to be desired so I have to admit I wasn't overly thrilled, but I am here to learn.  And learn I did.  First I learned that jicama, believe it or not, can taste almost exactly like rice.  I never would have guessed!  We also have the luxury of having the chef from one of the most famous sustainable sushi restaurants, Miyas, be a student in our class.  He showed us how to roll sushi the regular way and the "inside out" way (rice on the outside).  If I would have had enough rice I would have done it both ways, but I did not so as you can see from the picture, mine are rolled conventionally.  Then we got to sit down and enjoy our sushi for lunch and much to my surprise, I loved it!  After lunch we learned all about the benefits of seaweed.  Basically, people, listen up, it's really, really good for you!!  Try to eat more!  I got to eat more in the afternoon because next we made a seaweed salad.  Again, I was not overly excited, because some seaweed, well, it can really have a strong ocean-like taste.   Once again, I was pleasantly surprised.  Although I wasn't necessarily crazy about the dressing (and Chef Haylee had warned us about the tahini taking over), the salad including the seaweed, was really fresh tasting and did not taste like seaweed or ocean at all!  Finished up the lovely warm afternoon with a long walk outside to the local healthy grocery store!  Today I really felt some loneliness though missing my family.  Haven't had a good hug in a long while!