It’s only been 15 days?! Wow, it’s been a challenging two weeks with ups and downs but some major victories! Most of my victories have taken place in the kitchen! Every day I have been trying new things! I’ve said many times, “I’m going to outsmart this ‘diet’!” And I think I have! I’ve created some incredible meals for every time of the day as well as snacks to keep the cravings at bay!

Tonight I wanted to do something extra special! Day 15 calls for a celebration! I’ve never made it any further than this, and I look forward to seeing what comes next! According to my Whole30 guide, I’m at the top of the rollercoaster and the rest of the ride will fly by! With lots of “sunshine, rainbows, and puppies (i.e., good stuff)” headed my way! Yay!

On to the sushi! For this creation, I had to consult 3 different blogs for various recipes because so much had to be made from scratch! I felt like there were a few science experiments going on in my kitchen tonight! First of all, I’ve only made sushi one other time and it was mediocre and a total pain! Not worth all the trouble! I will say, this sushi did not disappoint! And it was by far my favorite Whole30 creation yet!

The inspiration for this Spicy Salmon Roll comes from Cheryl at 40 Aprons. She raves about how satisfying it is in her post and I mostly followed this recipe except for a few items that were either left out or edited. The Whole30 can be so darn tricky! Sugar is in practically every store-bought condiment and I am sensitive to spice anyway, so I had to come up with my own plan for the seasoning and sauce. I consulted Leaves and Beards for their Whole30 Japanese Hibachi pink sauce! Then I realized quite quickly that I’d need to make my own ketchup! After some digging around on google, I was lead back to 40 Aprons for a delicious sugar-free ketchup recipe that uses coconut aminos instead of dates!! This is a real winner! Especially if you are getting a little tired of dates! Lol, that’s a Whole30 joke for sure!

If you can handle lots of spice, follow the 40 Aprons recipe all the way! She also has a recipe for making your own siracha because the store-bought kinds all have sugar in them as well! Of course! Nothing is easy! It just goes to show how much of our foods contain additives and most of us never really think about it until we wind up on some crazy diet like this! LOL! But really, I’m loving it!

Back to the sushi! Two things were challenging about this recipe. 1. The cauliflower rice turned out excellent (thanks again 40 Aprons! I’ll never put rice in sushi again!) but it was a pain to get it off my hands and onto the seaweed wrapper. You need a lot of patience when smashing it down and spreading it out. And I didn’t want to add water and mess the whole thing up… 2. I was worried that my version of pink sauce was not going to turn out well! I used most of the Leaves and Beards recipe but I omitted the apple juice, which I didn’t have, and added cayenne pepper to spice it up a little more. I also didn’t measure any of it because I was making a smaller batch and just kept adding and tasting, adding and tasting, until I was happy enough. I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t something to be eaten on its own! And that it would taste lovely on the already delicious sushi rolls.

And don’t think that this was the only thing I made tonight! While the ketchup was simmering on the stove, I quickly whipped up another batch of my new favorite chicken salad (which will be lunch for a few days)! And before all that, I made another juice, which I’ll drink tomorrow. Daily juicing can be a chore, but I’ve definitely felt the benefits all over my body. I miss it when I skip a day and I find that it’s a nice alternative to midmorning snacking at work. This option comes with an energy boost and it speeds up the metabolism!

Happy Day 15!