Tonight's Dinner: Braised Seitan, Broccoli, Squash, and Rice Pilaf

Quick dinner, kind of a grab bag.

For the seitan, you need:

• 1 box seitan, drained
• 1 small rib celery, chopped
• 1 tablespoon (approximately -- 1 slice from a small) onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons oyster mushrooms, coarsely chopped (can substitute shiitakes or criminis)
• soy sauce
• olive oil
• water

Start by frying up the seitan in a little olive oil until just browned. You can skip this step if you're in a hurry or feeling lazy. In a shallow saucepan or deep frying pan, place the celery, onion, mushrooms, and seitan. Add about 1 1/2 cups water and a couple of shakes of soy sauce. Simmer for about twenty minutes.

While the seitan was going, I started the rice pilaf -- just plain old boxed stuff.

The squash was fresh butternut (though frozen would have worked too), which I boiled, mashed and then added salt, pepper and a splash of unsweetened soy milk (in lieu of margarine -- tomorrow night's going to be a big meal so we're being good tonight).

The broccoli was fresh, and I just microwaved it in a covered container for two minutes. It turns out surprisingly well that way.

The seitan turned out well and I think I'm going to try braising tofu next -- that mushroom stock was good. Dinner was ready in about half an hour, maybe a bit more, and it was pretty healthy to boot.