Creative In The Kitchen

I like seitan as a meat substitute and have tried several times to make it following a simmering recipe.  I have ended up with a sort of weird, moist, doughy concoction.  Not so good. 

I have found a few other recipes to try for baked seitan which look really good…but haven’t made the time to try them out. 

So today when I stumbled on this recipe for seitan in the breadmaker, easy peasy, no kneading necessary (by ME anyway) I had to give it a try!

Of course as usual I subbed out what I didn’t have.  No chickpea flour?  No problem…spelt flour instead.  Out of thyme (always it seems..oh..not -that kind of time!), in went italian seasoning instead.

Can’t read it? Marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and basil.

This was dump and go! 

Ten or less fast minutes dumping everything into the breadmaker pan and then just set it to go. After the first mix… And as I type this, still waiting for the results!

So while we wait…on to dinner.

Remember last night when I wanted to make Shepherd’s pie but didn’t want to use the cream of mushroom soup?

Well I still wanted to make it tonight.  But with something other than the canned soup!  So I came up with my own recipe!

I have fresh carrots, peas, and potatoes…but I really want to get some of the stuff I have in the pantry and freezer gone for good already!  We don’t seem to use the freezer as much now that we are getting so much fresh produce to use every week.

From the freezer I found a half bag of mixed veggies…and another half bag of baby peas.  In they went!

I dumped them into a measuring cup just to get an idea of how much I had…but I wasn’t really measuring anything. Also a bag of Boca Crumbles.   Publix had a sale a while back and I stocked up…so I have lots of bags but rarely use them!I just got 2 pounds of Yukon Gold taters in my box on Monday….but I used this from the pantry, this has been sitting there for ages…..I just want to get rid of it already!As I start off most recipes…some onion and garlic sauteed in some EVOO.In went the Boca Crumbles…then when they were mostly defrosted I added the frozen veggies. 

Now came flavoring time!  In lieu of the can of soup (I need to get those out of the pantry too…but I will probably donate them to a food bank.  (Shhhh…don’t tell FabHubs!!!)

Fresh on my mind from the seitan, I poured in some Worcestershire sauce and some amount of water that looked good (I didn’t measure)…and then I remembered this tomato sauce left over in the fridge just begging to be used in something!  Perfect.    I made the mashed potatoes and “iced” the filling with it!

This came together so fast!  Browning the “meat” took the longest…and that was not long at all!

FabHubs came home from work and saw this…and said it sure looks like Shepherd’s pie but that would be an impossible dream in this house…and then proclaimed it a crime for me to call it Shepherd’s pie.  He redubbed it Farmer’s pie…and so it is.

I put it aside while I assembled the salad and the rest of dinner, and a little while before dinner was ready I baked it until it was heated through and browned on top.Alongside…a yummy salad… Sliced avocados that were almost past their prime!  (I cut the spots out before serving)I wasn’t feeling the oil and vinegar dressing tonight for the salad so I decided to whip up a version of a concoction my mom used to make.  I didn’t know the quantities of the ingredients…so I just made it up as I went along.

Fresh organic lime juice and minced garlic mixed with a little sea salt and EVOO.    So good and such a nice change!!!! And of course my pie Farmer’s Pie which was So Good!And we can’t forget the seitan!

Okay…it looked really weird when I pulled it out of the breadmaker…lumpy and bumpy!  And very dark.  I wasn’t expecting that! I cut a piece off to try it.  It was crusty on the outside, but inside was stretchy and a little doughy…perfect seitan texture!  Tasting it, it was a little salty for my taste (less tamari next time..and no added salt)…and surprisingly it had quite the kick!  I think I added ground red pepper instead of sweet paprika!  Oops!

But this will be perfect for recipes and was so easy!  And ready to go for a future “quick to put together” dinner.

Do you eat unprocessed?  What kinds of shortcut foods do you use to get dinner done in a hurry?