quick dinner: sticky sweet smoky maple-mustard seitan & brussels

1. loosely chop up 1 small onion, 1 small bell pepper, 1-2 cups seitan, and mince two medium cloves of garlic. cut off the hard ends of 1-2 cups brussels sprouts, cut the sprouts in half if you have big ones. i suggest making the seitan in bulk on a sunday afternoon - it saves a ton of time over the week!
2. toss the ingredients in a sautee pan on high heat with 1 tbsp olive oil for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. let the veg cook down & crisp on the edges. once a bit browned, give it a couple squeezes of lemon, a dusting of garlic & onion powder, and stir in 2 tbsp maple mustard. you can either buy this mustard, usually at farms/farmer’s markets, or just mix together pure maple syrup and a tart mustard at a ratio of 1:3. WARNING - do not use yellow mustard in this, go for a milder mustard with a kick of tartness at the end, like a nice dijon.
3. after about 5-7 more minutes of cooking, splash on a few drops of liquid smoke and sprinkle on a heaping pinch of sea salt & freshly ground pepper. the brussels should be just a bit crunchy, but soft. stir in a heaping teaspoon of the mustard, to coat. serve hot to 1-2 people.