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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Today was my first day plunging back into my exercise routine and boy did it have repercussions. I woke up at 8am and chose to go to my gym’s kickboxing class since I knew that I was not going to be able to go in the evening. I remember telling the instructor that I would be taking my own pace since I did not want to over do it. I felt like I did the best not to over work myself, but I still ended up with a red face. What does a red face usually mean for me? An impending migraine except I did not think it would affect me.
After my workout I came home and blended my morning smoothie with the new protein shake and detox meal that my naturopath gave me and made sure I followed my meal plan based on 1300 calories. I tried not to make it hard for myself when I found out I was eating too much fruit. A body that has not been detoxed tends to have other issues such as problems with too much yeast. My fruit intake require attention which meant I only can half 1/2 cup berries counting as 1 serving. I think I am going to be all right. The good thing is that I continue to make my green smoothies with half water and half almond milk. I was glad to know that the smoothie did not taste all too bad.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
My work day continued and I kept in mind that I was to eat every 3 hours whether it was a snack, lunch, or another smoothie. Do you know that I felt full most of the day? I really did not crave anything but I felt like I was full of good stuff.
Upon rising: Vitamin C powder (1tsp) in water
Breakfast: Protein Smoothie with berries, almond milk, and spinach
Snack (skipped) was too full from smoothie
Lunch: Leftover Multi-colored Green Salad
Pre-workout Snack: Another smoothie
Dinner: BBQ Seitan Ribz with a big green salad.
I played raquetball with Ryan even with a headache but at my own pace. I managed to get dinner together and decided I did not want to take anything for my migraine since I was detoxing. I did not see the need to ingest unnecessary pills. But here I am at 11pm, after 9 hours of this dreadful headache, wondering if I eill be able to sleep tonight and be ready for a VOICE LESSON! Sigh. I hope and pray so! All I know is that tomorrow is another day and today is an evening to share a new recipe for me.
Seitan is the new vegan meat for me. I first tried seitan when I bought Uptons Naturals and made the Lasagna in a Bowl and Supreme Vegan Pizza. I really like their products but since they only sell them at Whole Foods and it is nearly an hour away, I decided it was time to try my hand at making seitan. Now I know I have many non-vegan readers so I want to start by explaining what seitan is made of.
Seitan is pronounced SAY-tan and is “‘wheat meat.‘ It’s made by a process that removes the starch and bran from whole wheat flour. The result is a dough-like food with a high gluten content which has no saturated fat or cholesterol.” Essentially it is considered a wheat protein and is heavily consumed by vegans.
It has been nearly 10 months since I transitioned into veganism and I had yet tried making my own. I had read many articles and blog posts sharing that it was MUCH MORE tastier when made at home as opposed to buying it pre-made.
How did I decide what recipe to make? Well, it all depended on the time I had so I came across Susan’s recipe on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It sounded too easy since most recipes required boiling or steaming. Even so, I decided to make her recipe which required oven baking and grilling. I had a hard time planning tonight’s meal because I had not tasted this recipe so I winged it. This dinner came out more like a COOKOUT meal than ever. I steamed some corn for Ryan and I made a big romaine lettuce and kale salad to accompany the Seitan Ribz. The seitan recipe is a mock on real ribs, which I NEVER preferred, but this recipe won me over.
I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I mixed them together to bring the dough together. I used my hands since it require kneading.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
I then sprayed coconut oil on an 8x* glass dish and spread the dough onto the dish. I cut the dough in 16 parts with a knife.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
It baked for 25 minutes, while I preheated a stovetop grill with olive oil. When the seitan was baked, I added 1 1/2 Tbsp BBQ sauce and brushed until evenly spread. I turned it over on the grill for a great flavor.
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
After 5 minutes, I removed from heat and RIBZ were ready to pull apart!
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| From An Opera Singer in the Kitchen |
Prepare a big salad and enjoy!
BBQ Seitan Ribz
serves 4
slightly adapted from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons tahini or other nut butter
1 teaspoon Liquid Smoke (I omitted, since this is not healthy, I added Dijon)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 Tbsp BBQ sauce + more for serving
Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly spray an 8×8 baking dish with coconut spray. Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix the water with the nut butter, Dijon, and soy sauce and add it to the dry ingredients. Stir to mix well and then knead lightly in the bowl for a couple of minutes.
Put the dough into the baking dish and flatten it so that it evenly fills the pan. Take a sharp knife and cut it into 8 strips; then turn the pan and cut those strips in half to form 16 pieces:
Put it in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. While it’s cooking, prepare your grill.
Remove it from the oven and carefully re-cut each strip, going over each cut to make sure that the ribz will pull apart easily later. Generously brush the top with barbecue sauce. Take it to the grill and invert the whole baking dish onto the grill (or use a large spatula to lift the seitan out, placing it sauce-side down on the grill). Brush the top of the seitan with more sauce:
Watch it closely to make sure that it doesn’t burn. When it’s sufficiently brown on one side, turn over and cook the other side, adding more sauce, if necessary. When done, remove to a platter and cut or pull apart the individual ribs to serve.
