Teriyaki Seitan Skewers, 2 Sides, 2 Desserts

It FINALLY quit raining this weekend so we had to grill on Sunday. I drove through rain to get to the farmers market Saturday morning, then all of a sudden the sun came out. It felt so warm and I searched my purse for sunglasses that I hadn’t worn in 3 weeks. I happily began to gather veggies for the grill.

The main event was Teriyaki Seitan Skewers from Real Food Daily. I made the chik’n style seitan and one of the best teriyaki sauces we’ve ever had. It has fresh pineapple, mango, and orange juice in it, along with maple syrup and tamari. I marinated the seitan chunks in the sauce, though the recipe didn’t call for that, and I used all veggies and no pineapple on the skewers, again not according to the recipe. I found kabob size onions at the farmers market and some nice bell peppers. Chase basted the kabobs as they grilled.



The first kabob with no seitan is mine :( I selected two recipes from A Vegan Taste of Thailand for our sides. First was Pineapple Jasmine Rice. I added some shredded carrots to this (I always seem to have these on hand!) and this rice was the perfect spicy sweet complement to our kabobs.

The other selection was Broccoli, Red Pepper, and Sesame Salad. This was a cold salad of lightly steamed broccoli, and bell pepper, onions, cucumbers, and sesame seeds. The dressing was a simple mix of sesame oil, tamari, rice vinegar, garlic, and red pepper flakes. I added some grated coconut and peanuts for garnish. I made any of the recipes from this book, but so far it’s 2 for 2.

Chase asked for some bread, so I made another Buckwheat Potato Bread. It didn’t rise too good this time, but it still tasted great. (You know I like to blame the humidity when this happens!)

I had my heart set on making Alton Brown’s Lentil Cookies. The recipe intrigued me and I was sure anything AB makes is delicious. He is a food genius. I was fortunate enough to take Chase with me to one of his cooking classes at a local market a few years ago. These classes are so nice because seating is limited to about 30 people, you can ask questions and visit with the chef, and you can get autographs.

Here’s Chase’s book…..

…. and here’s mine.

I actually went to a Bobby Flay class that morning too. He was adorable and had partied too hard the night before, yet still gave an awesome demo. You know, that was an expensive day! But worth every penny in my opinion. I had a great time I’ll never forget. Oh, yeah, the Lentil Cookies. I didn’t love them warm from the oven, but the next day they were terribly addictive. I used chocolate chips instead of raisins and a flax “egg.” There’s definitely a different texture, but it’s not at all dry. And you don’t taste lentils, but there is noticeable but pleasantly different and distinct new flavor. I will definitely make these cookies again and try out lots of add-in variations.

I should tell you that the lime green and turquois placemats have been cheering me up through all of our dreary weather.

So Chase told me he WANTED the lentil cookies, but he NEEDED strawberry pie. I love when you kind of rush through a pie recipe and hope for the best, and then you hear it’s the best strawberry pie you’ve ever made! I don’t think it’s anything I did. It’s just that the strawberries are incredibly flavorful right now and I only added a little cornstarch slurry and a fourth cup of sugar to 2 pounds of strawberries to make this pie. I even used store bought graham cracker crust.

Especially yummy with Soy Delicious Vanilla.

Smokey came to dinner too and before we lit the grill, Chase pulled out this tiny harness and short leash and put on Smokey! Smokey took his first steps into grass.

He started out very hesitant, then became more curious and with a little encouragement went around about a third of my backyard.

The adventure completely exhausted him. I even saw him yawn. Isn’t that harness too much?!!!


Tomorrow is not quite my birthday, but it is my family birthday dinner, shared with my brother whose birthday was two weeks ago. We needed to select a restaurant that would please vegans and nons, and I have been curious about a new Brazilian restaurant, Sampaio’s. The flavors and ingredients in their meaty dishes sounded fabulous and there’s small print “Vegetarian Menu Available on Request.” My mom called and spoke to the chef personally who said he would be thrilled to create two vegan entrees for us tomorrow night. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for us!

I just found out in the midst of this posting that I won Urban Vegan's dessert contest! I can't believe it - I'm so excited!