Mama Pita Here I Go Again

How can you resist this? Thinly sliced and lightly crisped seitan filled with the aroma of Greek oregano, rosemary, cumin and garlic topped with a healthy dollop of a creamy and cool tzatziki sauce with onions and tomatoes all supported by a fresh and fluffy piece of pita bread. The flavors all balance so well together and the sauce is practically to die for! You could eat a gallon of it or put it on your favorite salads for that Middle Eastern feel. The best part of the meal besides the amazing flavor is that it's low in fat and good for you. You get your protein, your carbs, your vegetables all on one little piece of bread.

(Vegan Gyro Meat Ingredients)

• 1 and 1/4 a cup of Vital Wheat Gluten
• 1/2 a cup of washed and mashed Pink Beans
• 3/4 - 1 cup of cold Shiitake Broth (soak Shiitake Mushrooms in hot water for a few minutes)
• 1/2 a teaspoon of Iodized Salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon of Cumin
• 1/2 a teaspoon of Oregano
• Desired amount of Rosemary and Thyme
• A few dashes of Black Pepper

Served with:

Vegan Dad's Tzatziki Sauce (not mine. I left out the dill and canola oil.)

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/02/tempo-gyro-with-vegan-tzatziki.html

Pita Bread Recipe from Novel Eats (not mine):

http://www.noveleats.com/bread/how-to-make-pita-bread/

(Directions)

• Combine the ingredients together and add the cold Shiitake Broth after all of the other ingredients have been mixed together. Make sure to only mix the seitan enough to form it so as to not toughen it up.
• Prepare your steamer. You can use more shiitake broth or use plain water for this, maybe even add in a few fresh herbs for extra flavor if you like.
• Steam the seitan whole for about one hour or so, then let it cool. Pat it dry and slice it to your liking.
• Fry it up in some olive oil.
• Serve with Tzatziki and Sauce Pita Bread along with your favorite veggies.
• Enjoy!

This is an extremely filling meal but you can serve plenty of vegetables to dip into your sauce such as carrots, broccoli or cucumbers, but if you're in the mood for a few extra calories you can bake off some french fries in the oven with some garlic, olive oil and rosemary and serve them right up too!

Where The "Buffalo Wings" Roam

*New picture will be added soon*

It's sweet, spicy, tender, full of garlic flavor and has just the right size and texture for this sort of seitan. The best part about this meal is how quick it is, provided that you have all of the ingredients ready. It's almost impossible for you to miss any of the ingredients, but even so - it will still be a great meal. I was craving something hot and spicy for this meal and if you're feeling the same way then take a look!


Seitan Wings Recipe:
1 and 1/4 a cup of Vital Wheat Gluten
1 cup of Cold Veggie Broth
1/8 a cup of Nutritional Yeast (make it 1/4 if your yeast doesn't look powdery)
1/2 a cup of Washed and Mashed White Beans
1/2 a teaspoon of Iodized Salt

Combine all of the ingredients together, making sure to add the broth last and to stir carefully so that you don't toughen up the seitan too much. After that, prepare your steamer with the rest of your broth and shape your "wings" to the shape and size of your thumbs (or any shape of your choice), just keep in mind that the seitan will expand to about twice its original size.

This recipe makes a pretty substantial amount of seitan pieces (I have small thumbs), so make sure not to crowd your steamer with too many at one time. More than likely you will have the put each piece in at intervals, but the wait is definitely worth it. Steam each set of seitan chunks for about 30 minutes or so, then let it cool on a cold pan while you put the raw seitan into the basket. After the final set of seitan is done, let them all cool for about 15-20 minutes to let them set up on themselves and to draw in more moisture.

While you're allowing your seitan to cool, begin to mince a small onion together with a clove or two of garlic, and soften them in a pan over medium heat with some olive oil. Once the onions have softened enough, add about 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of sugar with 1/4 a cup of sriracha sauce to the pan. After the mixture has been brought together, feel free to add whatever you do to make your food special to you. You could add some vegan margarine or just toss in your newly-cooled seitan. If you want your seitan wings to be extra-saucy then you can keep them like that, but if you want them to be more similar to store-bought buffalo wings you can fry the sauce into the seitan and allow it to permeate the pieces all of the way through.

You could also leave it like that, but then you would be missing your delicious creamy dipping partner. This hummus recipe brings a more garlicky punch to the party but can be adjusted to suit your tastes.

Hummus Recipe:
1 16oz can of Drained and Washed Chickpeas (save a small amount of liquid before you wash them)
1/2 of a tablespoon of Tahini
2-3 cloves of Minced Garlic
1/4 a cup of Olive Oil (non-fruity)
A splash of Lemon Juice
Salt to taste

Mince the garlic and place it into the food processor, giving it about three runs to ensure that no large chunks will get in the way of your delicious hummus. Afterwards, add half of the chickpeas to the mix and blend it together into a sticky and chunky paste. Once it looks like that you need to add the left-over liquid and a splash of lemon juice. Process that together and then add the tahini, and after you've given that a few turns -  add the olive oil and mix it all together. Taste it, and if it seems flavorless then you can add the salt.

Combining these two flavors seems like it would never work, but when you have a creamy but garlicky dipping mixture tying together the other garlic flavors already in the buffalo seitan it's like they belonged together from the start. The cumin also manages to help get rid of the heat from the wings and presents two Asian flavors surrounding a classic American bar food.

                             Signed,

<3 Bou Shin <3

Quick! Breakfast!

As a (non-professional) food-blogger, I believe that you need to be proud of the taste and look of the dishes you make as well as the way you present it. It doesn't need to be hard to make but it doesn't need to be extremely easy either. It should open up new worlds and new flavors and textures for the palette to experience. In this case, my meal is simple but requires a bit of listening and care, as well as having an abundance in flavors.

Last Sunday I decided to make breakfast for my sister - it wasn't because it was her birthday or any other celebration, I'm just nice like that. I also decided to make it vegan, although she most definitely is not one - she could appreciate what I was doing for her along with the delicious and beautiful food. I made sure that she could enjoy some of the food (she's avoiding a few types of carbs) and I also made it so that I could enjoy the food as well.

The night before I made a loaf of delicious oatmeal bread that had bits of chia seeds running throughout it for an even healthier meal.

Oatmeal Bread Recipe:
1 cup of All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons of Chia Seeds combined with 1/2 a cup of Cold Water (or another equivalent for one whole egg)
1 packet of Rapid-Rise Yeast (2 and 1/4 tablespoons)
1/2 a cup of Light Brown Sugar
1 quarter teaspoon of Iodized Salt
1/4 a cup of Milled Quick Oats (I used a food processor)
3/4 a cup of Whole Quick Oats.
1 cup of Boiling Water (enough to cover the oats)
1 cup of Lukewarm Water for the yeast

I put the yeast and the lukewarm in a large bowl and set it aside for ten minutes to let it boil. During that time I combined the oats together and covered them with the boiling water, once the water soaked in I added the all-purpose flour and added the mixture to the yeast. After that was mixed together for a few seconds, I added the rest of the ingredients, being sure to add the salt after everything else was added.

I oiled a small pan and poured the dough into the pan, I then placed it onto the side of the oven and covered it with a small kitchen towel. I then preheated the oven to 350 degrees and allowed the bread to rise for about 45 minutes, and once it had risen to about twice its size I placed it in the oven for about 30 minutes. The time will vary on your oven so be sure to check it with a knife in the middle once you think its done, if the knife comes out clean then the bread is ready, so put it to the side of the oven and let it cool before you slice into it.

If you only want the bread, you can sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon or spread some vegan margarine on top and enjoy. Otherwise, you can slice the bread and place it into some butter and cover it with some cooked apples. I decided to make a caramel sauce with about half a cup of brown sugar, a tablespoon of pure coconut oil and some almond milk once it was finally cooked through.

I set it aside and worked on making my souffled pancake. I set the temperature at 350 degrees and put together 1 cup of all purpose flour, 1/2 a tablespoon of baking powder, 1 quarter teaspoon of salt, 1 quarter cup of sugar, enough soy milk to cover the mixture and 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla. I whisked the mixture together and made another caramel sauce layered with walnuts, and while it was hot and bubbling, I poured the pancake mixture into the pan, put some cinnamon into the middle and swirled it around and finally shoved it into the oven. It took about 15-20 minutes, but you can check with the pancake as you did with the bread.

After I finished that I put some extra-firm tofu into my food processor and blended it until it looked like a thick mayonnaise, then I added a very light pinch of nutritional yeast, salt, and some turmeric. I set that aside and put together some minced garlic and mushrooms with a few bits of broccoli around into a pan with some olive oil on medium heat. I sprinkled a small amount of salt, pepper, and rosemary on them, and once the vegetables looked cooked and softened I put them into a small bowl and cooked the tofu the same way, making sure to chop it up once in a while. Once it looked fully cooked I added the vegetables back in and mixed them together so that everything would be fully incorporated and heated back up. After that, I felt like something was missing - the one thing in any vegan or non-vegan household that everyone needs.

That glorious necessity is (veggie) bacon, whether smoky and crispy or salty, crunchy and hand-made - it's wonderful. Now of course there will be no pig in this bacon - so I decided to thinly slice some tofu long ways and sprinkled it with a dash of paprika, soy sauce and sprinkled it with a small pinch of nutritional yeast on both sides. I put the pieces on the pan and baked them at the same temperature as the pancake souffle, turning them once they start to get a slight crisp around the edges on the bottom. If you like you can also precook the bacon in the pan and then continue with the process as I said before.

After that, pour a little bit of maple syrup over your delicious treats (aside from the tofu eggs) or enjoy them in your plain glory.

I hope you enjoy!

    Signed,

<3 Bou Shin <3

Buns, Buns, Be My Buns

             *New picture will be added soon*

When I tell you that this bread recipe is delicious - it is positively delicious! The recipe doesn't take too long, is easy to make your own, and produces the fluffiest and most flavor-filled bread you will ever eat. You can use rosemary, thyme, oregano or any other herb mixes you like. The key ingredient here is a little bit of garlic powder - which hits off the parade of flavors that hit your tongue. After the wonderful shock of garlic powder being a delicious component in my bread-making (I normally use fresh), I could taste the fresh bursts of rosemary and Italian oregano that I used. There's already extra virgin olive oil in the mix, but  I decided to coat each of my breadsticks with a mixture of salt, garlic powder and more olive oil.

(The bread recipe belongs to Enjolinfam on http//www.food.com/, and is titled "Healthy Italian Breadsticks or Pizza Crust)

After I pulled those babies out from the oven, the aroma hit me with wave upon wave of flavor. I knew it smelled positively delectable - but did it taste and feel just as delicious? Normally I would have waited for them to cool down but that smell was much too tantalizing to me. I picked up one of the smaller buns for a taste test, and after one big bite I knew I was in trouble. Soon I doused it with more of the olive oil-garlic mixture that I used for the coating and had eaten a little over half of the bread on the plate (there were quite a few more before the picture was taken). I made sure to save a bit of the dough and the already baked bread for a meal for the next day, but this time I decided to kick it up a notch. I had a can of chickpeas that hadn't been used in any Middle Eastern dishes yet and I always keep some form of seaweed in the house. I felt that it was time to introduce these two ingredients in the "Not-Tuna style".

I could never stand the taste or smell of mayonnaise before becoming a vegan, meaning that even the alternative "Vegenaise" was out of the question. I decided instead to just wash, drain and mash the chickpeas, strip up about a quarter of some nori, and add in some salt, rosemary, olive oil and finely diced red onions. I tasted it - and it was most definitely to my non-fishy liking. It wasn't too strong and it would go perfectly as a protein filling for this tasty bread. I wrapped up my "Not-Tuna Salad" and stashed it in the refrigerator overnight. I let the buns cool down some more and they followed the same route.

The next morning I heated my oven to about 250 degrees and put my buns on a baking sheet to warm them up. While the oven was being preheated I took out my "Not-Tuna Salad", mixed it up with some more olive oil to keep it from being dried out and tasted it once more. I found out that it tasted even better after it had been refrigerated for a few hours, and after the rolls had been toasted I slit them in the middle and stuffed it with the cool salad. I then proceeded to stuff my face with the delicious sandwich. Perhaps it would have been even better with some cucumber slices. Alas, I didn't have any and could not see for myself, but I was most definitely pleased with what I had then.

Enjoy!

             Signed, 

<3 Bou Shin <3