Eat Seitan Keep Slim

One of the dominant features of the skyline in my hometown is a grain elevator that reads, "EAT BEEF KEEP SLIM". The sign is painted either red or purple each year, depending on the outcome of the K-State/Nebraska football game.

Obviously, I don't eat beef. But, since I'm back in Kansas, I have a nice down home meal for you. My Mom made mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, and a barley salad and I made breaded, baked seitan cutlets. We got the barley salad recipe from this month's Cooking Light magazine. I couldn't find it online, but this recipe from a year ago looks similar.

Here's how I made the seitan:

I cut the seitan (which I made using what I could remember from the VwaV recipe) into cutlets about 1 cm thick. Then, I breaded them. First, I dipped each piece in flour, then in some soy milk, then in a mixture of bread crumbs (unseasoned), pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste. Then, I put them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper and baked them at 350 for 25 minutes. Then, I increased the temperature to 425 for about 7 more minutes. I flipped them halfway through and sprayed some cooking spray on each side because I'd forgotten to do so at first.

They came out very firm and crisp, but not very flavorful. I should have added more spices and especially salt. Frying would have also been more tasty than baking, I'm sure. It was a nice, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal even so.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal might just be the most amazing food ever. It has tons of fiber, it's good for your heart, it fills you up, it's fast, and it's cheap. But, it's sort of gross plain, which turns people off. Plus, those little pre-packaged flavored oatmeal servings are not nearly as good as the real thing. I eat oatmeal almost every day. Here are a couple of my favorite ways to do it.

The basics:

Pour about 1/2 or 1/3 cup of quick cooking oats in a microwave safe bowl.

Put just a bit of salt over the dry oats.

Cover the oats in water, just enough so that there are no dry oats and there's some water pooling on top.

Microwave for just over a minute (depending on your microwave). If I go much over 75 seconds the oatmeal starts to cook over the top of the bowl.

Let the oatmeal sit in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Now you're ready to add stuff in!

Peanut Butter and Cranberry

This is my go-to recipe. I have this for breakfast most days.

1 or 1 1/2 tablespoons of peanut butter (or almond butter, apple butter, etc.)

handful of dried cranberries

That's it! It's so good!

Blueberries and Spice

I made this one this morning because blueberries were cheap at the store.

1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar

a bit of cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon?)

1/8 cup of soy milk

handful each of blueberries and dried cranberries

When I add in soy milk I usually microwave the oatmeal again for about 10 seconds to warm it back up. I also meant to crumble a ginger snap over the whole thing for some crunch, but I forgot.