Seitan and Onion Gravy...vegan

Good morning. Beautiful day in the metro Atlanta area, pushing the 70's, sunny, breezy, and I have a front lawn full of buttercups, so cheerful and happy looking, lol. All that is outside, tho. It's not all that cheerful and happy in here...again...altho yesterday I had a really good day. But, since I have to go back to work tomorrow, I expected today to be a depressed one, sigh. It's just getting harder and harder to go to work now, and to enjoy it once I'm there. Waffle House has changed so much over the years, and every change they make seems to make life harder for the wait staff, and generally seems to hurt our tips, as well. So, I just don't like the job anywhere near as much as I used to!!!

Anyway, yesterday was good, like I said. I went to the library and took out my usual 10-14 books, two of which are cookbooks. One is vegetarian, by Linda McCartney, wife of Paul of Beatle fame, and the other isn't vegetarian, but it's sort of a "story" cookbook, from Amish country. Then I went to Kroger and bought two pints of my beloved Tofutti "ice cream," along with a few other groceries, including tortillas and picante sauce for burritos for my supper last night. I used the Tofu Taco Filling that I've posted here, along with re-fried beans and "cheese," and the leftovers, I think, will go into some vegetarian chili for supper tonight. Maybe. Depends on what kind of mood I'm in by then.

Today is day 29, 858 cigarettes not smoked, $164.43 and 6 days, 13 hours of my life saved! Not bad, eh? Do I want to smoke? Oh, yeah, I can't candycoat this in any way at all, because I do want a cigarette. I'm just not going to give in, that's all. Fortunately, the cravings are coming slower now, so hopefully they'll all but disappear before too much longer.

Ok, I admit it: I'm having a love affair with seitan, believe it or not. My latest way to use it is to dice it up and make a gravy with it, sort of like beef tips only beefless. And yes, it's very, very good. I've made it a couple times, and each time ate leftovers for a couple days afterwards, enjoying them as much as the original dish. There's still some in the freezer, but yesterday I bought another bag of the vital wheat gluten, and will be trying yet one more seitan recipe before too long, I think. Each time I make it, I learn a little more about it, and eventually, I think I will have my own recipe for seitan, from combining a little from this recipe, a little from that recipe, etc.

So, again, no actual recipe, just "as you like it" amounts for the most part, ok? About two cups of diced seitan, and one medium onion diced. Saute them both in a hot skillet with about two tablespoonsful of olive oil, Earth Balance, Blue Bonnet, whatever you prefer. When the seitan is browning and crisping, and the onions are starting to also brown a little, add about one tablespoonful of steak sauce(I use the Kroger version of 57 Sauce, which is called 1883 Sauce)and stir until it's incorporated thruout all the onions and the seitan, letting it sort of "scorch" onto the bottom of the pan. Just before you stir in the steak sauce, sprinkle a teaspoonful of minced garlic over the onions and seitan, and stir it in well. Then go ahead with the steak sauce. This should all take between 10-15 minutes, btw. While things are browning, stir one tablespoonful of corn starch into one cup of cold water until it's dissolved. Add one cup of cold water to the skillet, stirring to get the "scorched" off the bottom of the pan, and then add the cornstarch/water mixture, stirring until it comes to a boil. If it looks too thick, add more water. Otherwise, turn the heat down to very low, and just let it simmer for about ten minutes, add salt and pepper if you wish. And that's it, that's all there is to it. Easy, eh? It's really good over any kind of potato, altho my two choices are mashed potatoes and baked potatoes, and usually baked, because it's so much easier, lol: Just stick it in the oven(well, ok, you have to scrub it first, and then I always stick a knife thru it in a couple places, to keep it from exploding in the oven)at 400ºF and go back and take it out in about an hour!!! So, potatoes and gravy, and whatever vegetable you'd like to go with it...green peas go really well with it, I think.

I can't think of anything else to say, so, until next time, Happy Eating.