Have you ever eaten Seitan?
Pronounced “sey-tan”, as in “say, you look tan.”
Seitan.
I stopped eating meat in early 2007, and even though it’s a “meatless meal” substitute, it wasn’t until this year that I’d ever tried the stuff.
My first time was at a veg friendly restaurant, and it was one of the dinner specials. When the waitress described it, she said it was made out of wheat gluten, is high in protein (120 calories, 2 g fat, 21 g protein per serving!) and its texture is a lot like meat.
T minus 36 hours until Steamtown, tonight has been all about getting ready for a three hour road trip to Scranton, PA tomorrow and then a 26.2 mile race on Sunday.
I’m definitely excited to run this marathon, but I ain’t gonna lie – I’m plenty nervous too, mostly about my knee. I’ve been stretching my IT Band like Gumby on an organic taffy pulling machine and am pleased to report I’m currently pain free – but still.
I mean, that’s sounds like good news, right? I thought so too, but then I started listening to the horror stories my friend Google tells me when I search for “running a marathon with ITBS”.
I threw some tempeh into the shopping cart last week – not because I had an awesome tempeh recipe in mind, but more because I need something to serve along side these dang Brussels sprouts I can’t seem to stop making. Seriously, it might be time for an intervention. I don’t know how much longer I can get away with making them as the main course before an official complaint is filed.
Until recently, Brussels sprouts were not something I was eager to eat. Truthfully there aren’t many vegetables I’m afraid of, but when it came to The Sprouts? I simply saw no reason to even put them in the shopping cart. Why bother if I’m only going to have to bribe or threaten myself in order to choke them down later.
But then I figured out how to cook these guys and oops! I accidentally fell for them. It was love at first bite.
I’ve written casually about my favorite way to make Brussels sprouts before, but now I feel that this vegetable dish deserves an official post of its own because:
1. I make them all the time and have therefore seriously improved my method
2. I want to flesh out each step that goes into preparing Brussels sprouts in this manner
3. Cooking vegetables can be highly meditative – as I will now demonstrate
OK. Before we get started, let’s take a couple of deep, cleansing breaths. In through your nose… out through your mouth. Yes, that’s it. Very good.
Earlier this week we met up with some of our unschooling, nature loving friends for a salmon run adventure.
We were the first to arrive,
so we figured out how to keep ourselves entertained as we waited for our friends to join us.
One by one a colorful gang of kids showed up,
and then the creek walking and fish stalking began.
Right around this time every year, the salmon make their way back up the creeks and streams in this area to spawn,
More Mama’s Weeds
