Buffalo Wings.. with sauce

My husband and I had snagged some of the buffalo wings when they were available at Iggi's and they were heaven.  They were also soaked in grease and too expensive to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner, waa.  So being as resourceful as I like to think I am, I made my own at home!  They were cheap, way healthier and my husband even says they were better than Iggi's :)

Vegan Buffalo Wings

"Wings"

1 cup of wheat gluten
1 cup of water (or vegetable broth)


Cooking Broth

2 cups of water
.25 cup of nutritional yeast
1 tsp better than bouillon no chicken base
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
.5 tsp dried thyme
.5 tsp white pepper

Stir together wheat gluten and water/broth and knead for 5 minutes.  Pull pieces of seitan off and create whatever sizes and shapes you want although keep in mind they will expand and won't hold complicated shapes well.  Bring broth to a boil in a huge pot.  Place little seitan pieces in bottom of pot being sure they don't overlap.  Cover and simmer for about an hour, stirring every 5 minutes, until broth cooks down.  You can stop here and have naked wings for the healthiest option.  Otherwise pan fry or bake with this coating:

.5 cup flour
.5 tsp paprika
.25 tsp cayenne pepper
.5 tsp salt (or nusalt)
.5 tsp black pepper
.5 cup soy milk

Place soy milk in small bowl and dry ingredients in another.  Dip naked wings in dry ingredients, then soymilk, then dry again.  If you are baking you can combine all of this together and coat once.  Once they are finished cooking they need to be coated in the sauciest of wing sauces, mmmm.

Wing Sauce


3 tbsps Earth Balance
.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
pinch cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp garlic  powder
1/8 tsp liquid aminos
1 tbsp lousiana hot sauce
3 tbsps Sriracha


Whip all these ingredients together and dip the wings in while they're still hot.  If you aren't serving right away give them another dip before serving.  Now just so you don't miss out on anything you gotta make some ranch dip right?  Right.  Or maybe, if you want this for bfast, lunch and dinner you might have stopped a paragraph or two ago..


Vegan Ranch Dip

.5 cup nayonaise
.5 tsp garlic powder
.5 tsp onion powder
.25 tsp white pepper
2 tsp dried thyme
.5 cup soymilk (use the rest of your dipping soymilk)



Stir it all together and invite a meat eater to share with you cause they will be amazed and you won't be able to devour this alone!

Ahhhchiote Chicken

Mmm cinco de mayo bliss went down last night.  We recently found Fiesta grocery which is an amazing mexican grocery store that has food from all over the world, dirt cheap.  We're talking African, Indian, German, Irish, you get it.  Everyone must know they also sell Banyan Medium Tofu for $1.09, whhhat?  I digress, they sell achiote sauce here and I distinctly remember my husband whining about never again being able to eat his mom's delicious achiote chicken.  Whine no more little husband.  This could be the most simple recipe ever..

Achiote Tofu

1 tbsp Earth Balance
1 tbsp achiote
1/2 block of tofu

Whip together margarine and sauce.  Slice tofu into small, thin (1/4-1/2 inch) cutlets.  Coat each cutlet in the sauce thoroughly.  Let tofu marinate for as long as you want, but obviously the longer the better.  When you're ready switch on the George Foreman grill and throw on as many cutlets as you can fit and grill for 5-10 minutes then flip and grill another 5 minutes.  I threw some frozen corn on the grill too and topped my tofu with roasted corn, yum.  Then we had white rice for a side but this dish is not too spicy for having mexican rice as a side.
Hey why not give you that recipe too?  This is the authentic version from my husbands mom and not a healthified version.

Mexican Rice

1 cup white rice
2 tbsp oil
1/2 can tomato sauce (the small ones)
1 bouillon cube (tomato or "chicken" flavor)
1 onion, peeled and halved
2 cups hot water

Heat the oil in a medium to large saucepan and pour in the uncooked rice.  Fry the rice until golden brown, this takes a little while so be patient.  Pour in the tomato sauce and the bouillon cube and stir (quickly) until all rice is coated.  Pour hot water on top and bring to a boil.  Place the onion halves in the pot, cover and let simmer 20 minutes or until excess water is gone.  For healthifying purposes, we now skip the frying part and up the rice to bouillon ratio so that it's less salty. 

An un-marinated version

Broccoli Sheez Soup

This is a delicious vegan soup that I thought I would never get to enjoy again!  It is made with the vegan cheese spread below and is a lower fat alternative to the cashew cheese soups.

Broccoli Sheez Soup

3 tbsp Vegan Cheddar Spread
1 cup soymilk
.5 cups frozen broccoli florets
1 tbsp kuzu root (or other thickner)
2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until broccoli chunks reach desired size (some like them pureed some like them chunky).  Pour contents into saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 5-10 minutes until desired thickness is reached.  Enjoy with a panera baguette because they are vegan.

Soup with a super healthy spinach/cabbage salad