Big Country Update

I have a few really cool things to share with y'all. 

Oct 6th

First I tossed the home fries in the oven, heavily seasoned with sea salt and cracked pepper. Steak fries would have been more traditional, but I just love 'em in morsels.

Tenderloin time! Once the seitan has been made, these come together quick. I pulled out my largest pieces and coated them with a mixture of flour, greek seasoning, cayenne, salt, pepper and chili powder. Let the frying begin!

For those of you familiar with western Missouri tenderloin sandwiches, you know they have to be huge; way bigger than the bun. I could not get those kind of slices out of my seitan. What to do? Cut the center out of the buns to make them smaller, duh. 

I present to you, seitan sliders!

cute n' tasty

Put some horseradish on and they're ready for chompin'. The most critical member of the table, my carnivore brother, thought they were pretty darn good, but similar to the buffalo wings we made. We brainstormed some ideas to make them more porky.

Oct 7th 

The next morning I went to Gentry County to help get my grandparents stuff ready for auction. Some people say "It's hard being a vegan in [insert city]." Those people have never been to NW Missouri. I lived up there for a year, where the closest people get to veganism is "Did you say vegan? I heard about that on the food network!"

Several years ago my dad asked "so what can I make for you now?" My answer: "Just plants." Ever since then, it's been no problem. For lunch he made a lettuce salad with 'maters, radishes, cucumber, green onions and carrots. 

thanks pops!

 After a full day of moving old fridges and stoves around, he asked me what we should eat. I decided chili. One pot simplicity and the ingredients are at the grocery store. I grabbed an onion, green bell pepper and a can of: kidney beans, pinto beans, diced tomatoes (two cans), kernel corn and green chilies. Diced up the veggies, drained the beans, tossed in the cans and added plenty of chili powder, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Before I scooped it in my bowl, I put tortilla chips in the bottom. This turned out tastier than I imagined it being. 

 
After coming home from a concert with Most Awesome Girlfriend and seeing that she had some leftovers to snack on, I decided to whip something up too.

Remember those mini tenderloin buns? I'm not one to be wasteful with food...

Chili in a bun!

Thanks for reading! I have more food excitement planned for today, with an update in a day or two.

Seitan luvvers Part 1

It all began last night. It's so much better to whip some pre-made out the next day rather than add over an hour of prep time to any dish you want to use it in. For the broth I usually use veggie bullion cubes, soy sauce, garlic powder, herbs, spices, onion slices...

Just like my party days when I got overwhelming munchie attacks at 2am, I made some stove-top popcorn while I waited. Then while I waited for the popcorn, I sliced up some tofu and plopped on some vegenaise stirred w/ curry and pepper. YUM. Sometimes I used to go up to five layers deep with it. It's all in the timing.

Some of the seitan will be used in The Amazing Western Missouri Vegan Tenderloin Collaboration Sandwich that I will make with my brother soon. Tonight, I invited a test subject over and just improvised. Here's what I came up with:

Jasmine rice in the rice cooker (if you don't have a rice cooker, get one and change your life).

then sauté:
1/4c onion, softball sized, chopped
5 BIG cloves of garlic
1/2 red and 1/2 a yellow bell pepper

Then I cut the seitan into strips and battered it with a mixture of flour, salt, pepper, cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder... go wild with it and FRY IT UP.

Put it in a bowl, topped it with fresh parsley, romaine and alfalfa sprouts.

The rice and the zingy seitan kept it heavy while the fresh greenery lightened the whole thing up nicely. Success! Variations of this will happen in the future.