Why did the chicken cross the road softly?

Cos he couldn't hardly walk.

Yay for me again! I made chicken Seitan yesterday and turned it into an apricot chicken -type casserole served with asian greens and rice.

I boiled it this time instead of baking and it's amazing how much it expands. I now have seitan coming out my ears, and have to come up with fabulous ways to use it.

To turn it into a 'chicken' analogue, I used the previous recipe, but left out the tomato paste, soy sauce, paprika and cayenne. And used Massel 'chicken' stock in the same liquid quantities. I also added finely chopped fresh rosemary and sage and then boiled it in the following broth:

BROTH

7 cups water

1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

1 tbsp black peppercorns

2 cups celery leaves

1 tbsp vege spice

1/2 an apple

5 cloves garlic.

I then coated my small torn pieces in rice flower and shallow fried them til golden brown and crispy. Then popped them in the Casserole dish with 3 carrots julienned, one red capsicum julienned, 1 large white onion in wedges, 1 packet of french onion soup mix, 1 1/3 cups of fruit juice (I would have used apricot nectar but didn't have any so I used a guava mix I had), 2 tbsp hot chilli sauce and some salt and pepper. Baked this monstrosity for 1 hr.

GREENS: De-seeded cucumber julienned, broccolini, celery sticks julienned, zucchini julienned and frozen edamame. I just tossed these with some five-spice, garlic, salt and pepper and a tiny bit of sesame oil.

It should be mentioned that this recipe was entirely inspired by the fact that I have nothing else in the house. Literally. My fridge is now bare (except for the remaining carrots in the bag and a jar of olives). Oh, I think I have a few spuds and an onion. So I'm quite proud of my thrift and how yummy it all turned out to be, in spite of my questionable ingredient combinations! Brett was suitably impressed and took the remains to school for lunch (this is the litmus test in my house as to whether or not he actually enjoyed his meal or just said so to please me.)

Next experiment: 'Corned Beef Seitan'. It's going to have to wait til I've been shopping though. Tonight will probably have to be carrot soup. Harumph. I'll try and come up with something interesting....