Cleaning out the Fridge

So, due to circumstances somewhat beyond our control my roommates and I spent the last couple days without electricity and heat.  Which is part of the reason I got back into blogging since I've spent a lot of time at coffee shops lately.  Despite filling the fridge/freezer with ice, and maintaining a somewhat normal temperature, some of the veggies definitely needed to be used significantly sooner than they did 3 days ago. Yesterday was one of those days where I had too many good ideas floating around in my head, and I ended up attempting to combine them into one recipe, sometimes this works out really well, sometimes not so well.  I'm going to give my Chx Scaloppine a 5-star on that one.  Yummy, yet I feel the urge to remake it with some significant changes.

Although I got the idea for this dish from Vegan Dad who was inspired by an equally delicious looking recipe on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, the end result was pretty different for a couple reasons.  Firstly, I had some Fresh Wheat Gluten that I had found at an Asian market, and it had to go.  I had opened the package the day before we lost power and the texture is similar enough to bread where it seems to me that it would go bad fast. Secondly, years ago, when I ate meat, I had a favorite spicy, olive chicken recipe that I actually got from Giada on the Food Network, so I ended up referring back to that recipe more than either of the others when I was cooking.

For those of you that haven't seen Fresh Wheat Gluten at a store before, it is weird.  I don't know if it always comes the same way, being as this is the first time I've ever seen it.  I honestly can't remember how much I paid for it either, since I saw it, knew I must try it, and that was that!  But I'm guessing still a better deal than the typical Westsoy seitan pieces you see more often in a grocery store.  And totally different.  Did I say it was weird?  It basically looked like a chunk cut out of a big round loaf of bread.  Very spongy, and way dryer than any seitan I've seen.  It makes me wonder what Quickie's seitan looks like before it's marinated and cooked.....

I'll have to do some research on this style of seitan and get back to you, but I think for certain recipes it could work really well and and be totally delicious.  For my recipe, I'll make my seitan from scratch next time.

This is what the Fresh Wheat Gluten looked like after I breaded and pan-fried it.  Probably not necessary, but I was hoping the Whole Grain Drink (how does that manage to sound ghetto?) I soaked it in would stop it from soaking up all the wine/lemon juice from the scaloppine  portion of the dish, and then since I had it soaked in Drink, I figured bread that shit and fry it! Hells ya!

This is the Fresh Wheat Gluten back in the pan with all the other ingredients from the recipe, plus tomatoes.

Individual portion.  I made pasta because that's what I used to eat with it when it was a dead thing....in hindsight, waaaaay too many carbs.  I felt incredibly full afterwards, yet still hungry.  Dammit all to hell! But isn't it purty?

I think after all these paragraphs and pictures the life lesson of the day is: why would you ever deviate from Vegan Dad's idea.  DUMB!