It’s the simple things in life, right?

Saturday night my inclination was to do what we’ve been doing a lot of lately – phoning dinner in. And I don’t mean auto-pilot doing the same ol’ same ol’ in the kitchen. I mean picking up the phone and literally dialing dinner in. I stopped myself, though, and decided to woman up. What could I make that was quick and easy?

I began by tossing a mix of farro and barley into the rice cooker (with homemade vegetable stock). I had a package of Upton’s Naturals traditional seitan in the refrigerator and grabbed that. I sautéed garlic and onion in veggie stock in a saucepan and added the seitan (which is already cooked) and reduced the heat to simmer – as in barely a flame – and added a splash of tamari. I covered the pan and let the seitan get good and tender while my grains were cooking. Soon I had this big bowl of deliciousness.

I tweeted out what I was concocting and my friend Evan replied “gluten on gluten.” You know it! I am not a celiac or even close to being a gluten-free vegan, so I don’t fear the wheat! (I have some thoughts on gluten which I will be sharing soon. Stay tuned!)

The hearty bowl lacked a vegetable, though. Sadly, the only fresh vegetable I had on hand was a head of romaine lettuce. Actually, not sad at all – I love romaine. But I wanted something colorful with a little Saturday-night-decadence to go with it.

Creamy Strawberry Salad Dressing {Vegan}