A rather large seitanic experience......

I have kept a very well stocked pantry for a while now, and it's still serving me well. Before I go grocery shopping each week, I just go to my old house (for those of you who don't know, I separated from my husband and have been living in a winter rental near the beach since November. Since it's a winter rental, it is completely furnished and I have a small kitchen. This summer, I will be moving to a more permanent apartment and will finally be able to bring all of my belongings "home") My X does not cook, so he will never make use of my vast ingredients.
This enchilada bake is all dressed up and ready to go into the oven. It is a clean out the fridge creation that turned out soooo delicious. Leftover jalapeno hummus and sauted spinach filled this dish, topped with homemade salsa, nooch and jalapenos it was incredibly tasty. In fact, I will definitely make this again. The kids LOVED it, even my chickpea hating son. To be fair, the hummus was made with roasted jalapenos, toasted cumin, lime juice and chili powder.. so the stretch to enchilada filling wasn't too far.
I am so excited about my new job! The energy in the cafe is amazing and I feel like I will be able to do what I love to do the most. Create delicious vegan food! The fact that my boss wants to go into the raw direction is such a HUGE and welcomed challenge for me... We talked today and I brought her samples of of my seitan and other foods... Also, within two weeks, I am going to start a blog for the cafe to let you all know more about it. We will be doing some exciting drawings for free meals for those of you who within driving distance of the Seacoast in NH.. Earth Day will be our big reveal of the newer RAW and Vegan items. The cafe already has a lot of vegan fare, including baked goods.. but we are going to take it up a notch! Woohoo! Fun stuff!

Here's my all american burger.. on lite whole grain bread (trying to get away from the white stuff, even if it is "healthy"..

Seitan Corned Beef adapted from the Everydaydish.... with the addition of certain ingredients and more spices and steaming it in the pressure cooker, this was a crowd please. My son and X loved it and I even kind of liked it.... well, I did like it on my mini pita below, reuben style with baby beet greens.


Here's my seitan "turkey breast", also steamed in the pressure cooker. This totally eliminated the "bready" aspect that some of my testers were not impressed with..
..another mini pita with the turkey breast and smoky garlic aioli

Spiced Ribz, adapted from Simply Heavenly... this is the most comprehensive seitan bookbook out there... with so many ideas. I think this may have been where the original seitan RIBZ recipe got it's start? The sauce was part jarred, part homemade with a spicy sweet glaze. I actually like my 100% homemade bbq sauce better as it's MUCH lower in sugar but still tastes very sweet. (stevia)

There is actually even more food that I did not photograph... seitan cutlets, marinades, dahl... salsa... my kitchen is WAY to small for all of that.. plus the lighting really sucks... as you can tell in certain photographs...