Quick & Easy Vegetable Nori Wraps

At this stage in life I find my days to be fairly chaotic most of the time, with running after a highly active two and a half year old, and trying to keep an eye on her while attempting to prepare healthful meals for the family, it can sometimes be really difficult to get a good meal on the table. I'm still new to the raw food lifestyle, and I'm constantly searching for delicious new dishes to try that are also not terribly complicated, or time consuming to make. There's definitely a bit of a learning curve when first starting out trying to incorporate more raw meals into each day, but there are a couple of tricks that I've learned to help make things a bit easier.


1. Meal Plan - Yes, it can seem a little daunting to begin. If you can take time one day each week I can promise you that not only will the rest of the week become less stressful, but you'll save money by only buying what you need, and you'll reduce waste. My new routine is to meal plan on Friday because I do all of my shopping on Saturday. One of our local farmers markets is just a few blocks away from the supermarket where I shop, MOM's Organic Market, so I head there first to buy as direct as I can, then I head over to the supermarket to fill in the gaps. To make life even easier, I recently began using Pepperplate, which is a meal planning website with an accompanying phone app, and it's free. You can add your own recipes, and it will take ingredients from your weekly meal plan and put them onto a shopping list for you.

2. Prep Veggies Ahead of Time - Now, you probably won't be able to prep all of your vegetables in advance, since some could definitely dry out, or get too soggy. But for vegetables like carrots, cabbage, peppers, and onion I chop, shred, or slice enough for most of the week so that I've got ingredients ready to go. You may not be able to prep enough for the entire week, because you do want to retain the freshness of your vegetables, but I can typically get 4 days worth of prepped foods. Just make sure to store everything in separate air tight containers, mason jars, or even ziplock bags would work.

3. Waste Not, Want Not - Don't let food go to waste, seems simple, but putting it into practice can actually be somewhat difficult when you're not used to it. What do I mean by this? Well if you're like me, and you're addicted to juicing, then save the pulp after you juice all of your veggies. The pulp is great to add on salads, or wraps, even raw desserts, and baked goods. Also, if you have produce which may go bad soon, and you can't seem to find a use for it, then either juice 'em or make a smoothie for a quick snack that's packed with nutrients.


I'm always looking for the most simple ideas for lunch, because I typically eat while my daughter is napping since it's the only meal that I can prepare without needing to focus on multiple things at once. As she gets older the naps get shorter, so the quicker I can prepare a meal and get to sit so I can actually eat it, the better. Prepping vegetables in advance, and saving the pulp from juicing have both helped tremendously with this. Typically I stick with a simple salad, but that can get a bit monotonous. I used to eat a lot of wraps and burritos made with the standard wheat flour, or sprouted flours, but I wanted to find something a bit healthier, and more nutritionally substantial. That's when I discovered that you can buy nori sheets.

Nori is a seaweed which is most commonly used in sushi. You can buy nori sheets both raw and roasted, so make sure to check the labels before you buy them. Seaweed is high in nutrients such as vitamin A, B6, C, as well as fiber, and iodine. The iodine contained in seaweed is beneficial for those that eat a lot of raw cruciferous vegetables like kale, collard greens, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Eating a large amount of these vegetables in their raw form has been shown to increase the risk of hypothyroidism. Though, making sure to eat enough iodine containing foods like seaweed, potatoes, navy beans, and seafood can help to counteract the affects cruciferous vegetables have on the thyroid.

Vegetable Nori Wraps

Makes 4 small wraps

Ingredients:

- 2 Raw Nori Sheets

- Sprouted Hummus (or any other spread or dip of choice)

- 2 handfuls Spinach

- 1 Yellow Bell Pepper

- 1 Carrot

- 1/4 small Red Cabbage

- Broccoli Sprouts (or other kind of sprouts)

Method:

- Julienne your carrot and bell pepper, and thinly slice your red cabbage.

- Lay your nori sheet on a flat surface, and spread desired amount of sprouted hummus on about three fourths of the sheet.

- Place a layer of spinach on top of the hummus, and then top with your Julienne vegetables, placing them lengthwise on one end of your nori sheet.

- Top with your red cabbage and sprouts, then roll your nori sheet around the vegetables, just like you would with a normal wrap.
- As you get to the end either dab your finger in water, or use a small bit of hummus to seal the end of the nori sheet closed.
- Slice diagonally down the center, and you're ready to eat!