Recipes – Page 17 – a hippie with a minivan

Adventures with Seitan…

Since last week I have really felt really put off by meat… So last week my meal plan involved more veggie meal than meat based ones and this week they are all veggie based…

Yesterday when making my meal plan I looked over a few YouTube videos on how to make Seitan… and having Vital Wheat Gluten already in my cupboard today I decided to try it out and make some Seitan Souvlaki…

So I put about 1 1/2 cups of gluten in a bowl with nutritional yeast, a bit of flour and a few spices

Added Broth (water, tamari and spices)

Knead together and let rest…

Boil in Broth and simmer for an hour…

It doubles in size and looks… well… a little like a brain…

Took it out of the broth and patted it dry…

and then I cut it in bite size pieces and marinated it in a bit of oil, lemon juice, garlic, tamari and oregano for a few hours… and then took it out and placed it on a baking sheet…

Then Broiled it for about 10 min…

It turned out really good!!

I made some Tzatziki with some homemade yogourt that I drained a bit before mixing with drained shredded cucumber, garlic, salt and a bit of dill… and then served it on a pita…

I really liked the texture, especially after broiling, and the broiling added a bit of crunch like when you BBQ…. Simon and the kids liked it also…. So I think that I will be trying out different ways to eat it…

there's going to be a whole lot of baking going on…

Yesterday… when taking out my old loathed stand mixer from under the counter (a ten year old 30$ west bend) the glass bowl fell and broke into a million pieces… and no, I am not exaggerating by saying a million… there was not one large piece left in tact and there was tons of glass dust everywhere…

Anyway… Ironically I had sent Simon a link last week of my dream mixer…

you know the kind that you don’t have to hold down with all of your force when it is trying to knead dough….

the kind that doesn’t start smelling like burnt plastic after 2 min…

The kind that can actually mix a batch of cookies and not cry out for help…

Well… guess what I am getting for X-mas!

Cuisinart 7 Quart Stand Mixer

I just ordered it today because it is on sale at Sears until Friday… (150$ off…)

Omg… I can’t wait to get it!

yumm…. vegetable chowder and pumpkin butter…

After feeling awful yesterday morning I needed some light comfort food to keep my tummy happy happy…

I cleaned up the house a bit, dusted and cleaned the kitchen (cooking is always better with a clean kitchen)

I got the pumpkin in from outside cut and roasted it and then pureed it…

Then I made an amazing Vegetable Chowder… a variation of a recipe that I got on Recipezaar (I add a lot more seasonings and more veggies and broccoli instead of peas and not as much dairy) and we ate that with some of my sourdough bread…

I started to fill some mason jars with pumpkin puree when I remembered a recipe that I had “stumbled” on a few days ago…

Pumpkin Butter

So easy to make and SO delicious!

One batch made 4 jars worth…

and of course while it was still warm I had to scoop a bit on some vanilla ice cream…

mmmm….cranberries and lemon…

I made some cranberry-lemon cake/bars yesterday…

and… they were so good that there is not enough left to get a good pic…

Of course, It did help that I got a call at the last minute yesterday reminding me that there was a homeschooling meeting last night so I packed them up and brought them to share…

I will make them again though and share the pic but for now I will share the recipe…

2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups cranberries (or less if you don’t like them as tart as I do)

1. Beat together eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla.
2. Mix in Lemon zest and juice
3. Add flour and baking powder and mix well.
4. Fold in cranberries.
5. Pour into 9 x 9 cake pan.
6. Bake@ 350 degrees 40-45 minutes .