Seitan and shoes

I know how much that looks like dog food, but hear me out. Seitan is wheat gluten protein, and has a ton more protein than tofu does. In the entire batch that I'll show you in a second, there was over 140 grams of protein. That's a LOT! I like seitan because it has more of a thick texture than tofu does, and can be paired with almost anything. I also wanted to try and make this, since a full block of 120 grams if about $5. I'll calculate how much this was later.

Since I'm working a lot, I figured I could make this so I have some extra protein to eat this week. I took the recipe from here, but I modified it slightly.

Ingredients:
-1 cup vital wheat gluten flour
-handful of nutritional yeast flakes
-1/2 cup cold vegetable broth
-1/4 cup soyakki from trader joes
-1 lemon fresh squeezed into juice
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-1 tablespoon garlic powder
-1 teaspoon paprika
-1 teaspoon chili powder

-4 cups vegetable broth
-4 cups water
-1/4 cup soy sauce

Method:
-bring the 4 cups of vegetable broth and water and soy sauce to a boil.

-in a large bowl place the flour, the nutritional yeast, and the spices. Give a quick whisk or mix.
-place all the wet into another bowl, and mix it.
-mix the wet into the dry with a wooden spoon until you can pick it up and knead it
-knead the dough for a few minutes, until it feels really weird (you'll know what I'm talking about)
-break the dough into three sections, or however many as you want.

-place the odd dough balls into the simmering broth, and cover almost all the way. Let them sit for 45 minutes, turning every once in awhile.

-After those 45 minutes turn the heat off, and let the dough sit for 15 minutes, or take it out and let it sit in a colander.
-cut and enjoy!

I paired it with some zucchini for lunch today, just to add some vegetables into the mix.

So delicious and so easy! Yum! I think next time I'll add some more spices, or some vegetables into the actual dough.

As for shoes, I knew that I needed walking shoes for Manhattan in a month (A MONTH!), and that my beautiful toms wouldn't cut it. After searching for over an hour with my sisters (thanks!) we stumbled upon a brand called Simple. They make vegan friendly shoes, and also non-vegan friendly shoes. Even though their non-vegan friendly shoes have leather, they still strive for environmentally friendly shoes. Their leather only comes from places where they care about the environment.

I bought these shoes:

They are way more durable than my toms, and are actually pretty cute. Of course they are the vegan friendly kind, since I have to stay true to my colors.

They were also on sale at the place I got them, for 20% off. Cheap shoes!

The lid of the shoe box says it all: "How we make our shoes is just as important as why we make them. We strive for 100% sustainability."

Go check these out!! If the shoes I bought feel awesome, and still look good in 2 weeks, I'm going to buy a second pair and ship it to my dorm.

Hope your weekend was great!