Everyday is a Day of Thanks - Seitan with Cornbread Stuffing and Brown Gravy

My mother is certain that it's Thanksgiving. The fact that Autumn has brought a bit of a chill to the air and the nursing home decided to serve Roast Turkey last week (and she's in the early stages of dementia) has her thoroughly convinced. I started to correct her but decided there was little point in disagreeing.

Of course, she's concerned that I won't be eating turkey. I promised her that I would have something appropriate and set about making seitan and cornbread. This meal does take some advance planning since the cornbread works best after it has cooled for a couple of hours (preferably overnight) and seitan can be a bit of a project. But I think that, once she sees what I'm having, she'll approve.

And even though it isn't officially Thanksgiving, every day that she graces on this planet is a day of thanks for me.

SEITAN WITH CORNBREAD STUFFING AND BROWN GRAVY

Make the cornbread several hours ahead of time, preferably the day before. Click here for the recipe I used, substituting unsweetened soy milk. You might want to work on the seitan while the cornbread is baking. This recipe worked really well and made nice thin slices when done.

Stuffing:
1 onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups whole wheat bread, cubed
2 cups cornbread, cubed
1/2 cup vegetable broth

Saute the onion and celery in the sesame oil. In a large mixing bowl, combine the spices with the bread and cornbread, mixing well. Add the onion and celery and stir to combine. Add broth just until moistened, adding more or less as needed.

Cut seitan roast in 1/8-1/4" slices. Lightly oil casserole dish or individual ramekins. Layer seitan and stuffing. Since I had some Simply Organic Vegetarian Brown Gravy Mix on hand, I went ahead and used that, adding 1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence   Pour gravy over the seitan and stuffing layers. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.