...and dumplings

Sunday Nights are Family Favorites

So what do you call a dish that originated as 'Chicken and Dumplings' and morphed into 'Seitan and Dumplings'. Naturally, the seitan is flavored and tender. So should it be 'Tender Seitan and Dumplings?' Sounds good to me!

This huge pot of lovely 'Tender Seitan and Dumplings' uses half a recipe of Tender Seitan, baby carrots, onions, celery and homemade feather-lite dumplings. Besides all the other junk that is in that name brand biscuit mix, there is a ton of fat. I used 4 T of Earth Balance in my whole wheat biscuit mix, and even that was painful. Fortunately, they came out just as light as they had in the past when I made them with half-a-cup of fat.

 I wonder how low I can go?

I used Bryanna's Vegan Chicken-style Broth from her site for the flavor pop and  nutritional yeast for added vitamin B12, which by the way, is important even for omnis - there are many people who are B12 deficient even eating animal products. B12 is actually made by bacteria and the animals eat them and then humans eat the animals. With all the factory farming these days, and the feeding of grain to the animals, there is a huge reduction in the animals' consumption of B12. 

Cost Breakdown:

dumplings: $1

seitan: $2

vegetables: $1

nutritional yeast: $.50

hemp milk (dumplings) : $1.50

Total to feed 8 people:

$6.00 

new england chowder

On Saturday Nights we eat 'local' - in other words, we eat American or Mexican or, if there is such a thing, Canadian. If anyone knows of any Canadian-based food, lmk.

Tonight I made something Mikel has been requesting for a while, but I haven't been able to make because of the lack of oyster mushrooms at my local market. Luckily, there are times when I will be able to order if from my CSA. Mikel was very grateful that I did not substitute for the oysters - they are his favorite - and the only mushroom he likes. Luckily, if you are not a fan of fungus, you may replace them with anything, really - roasted corn, roasted peppers, turnips, seitan, baked tofu, cauliflower, the list goes on.   

The soup is thickened with arrowroot - which is not only better for you but is also a more stable thickener than cornstarch. I made homemade stock to which I added some seaweed, too. I seasoned the soup with Old Bay, Tabasco, Worchestire sauce, salt and pepper.

When I was growing up, my parents owned a seafood restaurant and this was one of those dishes that I really loved, but couldn't really have; we weren't well off and the clams were for the paying customers.

Everyone loved this (but Cat) and serving it in a bread bowl adds mightily to the appeal.

Cost Breakdown:

mushrooms: $5

bread: $5

almond milk: $1

homemade stock: $.75

onion, garlic, pepper, spices: $1

Tabasco, arrowroot, worshech...sauce: $1

potatoes: $2

Total to impress 5 people:

$15.75

Total to make 6 servings without bread bowls:

$10.75