Say yes to seitan

Heat wave much?  I woke up way too early on Monday because I was sweating my cojones off.  I’m not so sure fall has truly arrived after this past weekend of sunshine.  No complaints here!

Despite the four fans and six open windows keeping the triple digit temps at bay, I still had my usual vat of coffee.  Can’t fight the addiction!

See?  I’m still embracing summer with it’s seasonal fruit.  I am in love with the peaches at the Santa Monica farmer’s market.  We’re nearly out too, so Wednesday’s bounty will definitely include more of these delicious stone fruits. 

As I caught up on house chores, I snacked on One Lucky Duck grawnola.  It’s a pricey habit to have, ordering from my fave raw joint in NYC.  I can’t decide if their online store is a blessing or a curse. 

The raw granola (aka grawnola) consists mostly of nuts with the occasional chewy bite mixed in thanks to the apples and raisins. 

 

I couldn’t decide how I felt about it.  I liked it, but didn’t love it.  I think there were too many nuts for my taste buds.  Let’s not forget I’m only a recent convert to tolerating almonds and cashews…so throwing pecans into the mix was perhaps a bit too ambitious.  I also would have preferred the raisins to be less chewy; I guess that’s the raw factor, though.  I don’t want to blow my minor critiques out of proportion though, there were plenty of good things to say abut the granola.  I mean, I went back for seconds so clearly my taste buds were doing just fine. 

Mmm…

For lunch I had a simple salad.  I’d say it’s a part summer/part fall salad, which is appropriate given the seasonally confused weather. 

To me avocados are a summer food (although in CA they are pretty much in season year round).  Pears on the other hand are a fall food, especially in a salad with dried fruit. 

• spinach
• avocado
• red bell pepper
• dried cranberries
• green anjou pear
• balsamic vinegar/agave nectar

Delicious :) 

For the third day in a row, I did zero in terms of exercising.  I felt blah (read: hot and unmotivated) so I really had no desire to get super sweaty…I know these phases never last long for me though.  Soon enough the fitness bug will sink it’s teeth into me and my inner cardio worshipping self will be back in action…I’m just hoping it will kick in sooner rather than later. 

That’s not to say I wasn’t productive elsewhere though.  I spent nearly an hour at the grocery store (finally our fridge is restocked) and whipped up a batch of seitan too. 

I used a different recipe than I typically do.  Anyone interested in a tutorial?  If so, holler at me in the comments section and I’ll get on it.  Otherwise, I have the method I normally use posted in the Recipes/Tutorial tab above. 

Needless to say, seitan was on the dinner menu.

I started with carrots and bell peppers, which I sautéed in a mix of soy sauce, ginger, and NuNaturals stevia. 

At the very end I added the seitan (diced), and heaped on a huge portion of brown rice.

Seitan sautée

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp ground ginger (if you aren’t a ginger fiend like I am, feel free to decrease this amount)
• 1/16 tsp NuNaturals stevia
• 1/4 cup water
• bell pepper
• carrots
• seitan (home-made or store-bought)

Directions:

Mix soy sauce, ginger, and stevia in a bowl and add in chopped veggies.  Add to pan with cooking spray and let it sizzle.  Wait for the soy sauce mixture to start to get sticky and caramelize in the pan and then add the water.  Once the veggies are nearly cooked through and the water has burned off add the cubed seitan.  Serve with brown rice. 

Enjoy!

I may have had a few medjools stuffed with carob chips for dessert.  😉