Vegan Hot Wing Love

Wing night! 

Ok, so we've been making vegan wings for about five years now, and our recipe has gone through so many iterations, we're almost ready for a new recipe journal. I'd be remiss here if I didn't give credit here to VeganDad as our recipe is still to a large extent just a minor twist off his. Notwithstanding, we went through countless subsequent trials and errors before ultimately returning to his very simple ingredient list with some jazzed up, lessons learned additions. 

Now, just like tofurkey, and chicken cheese steaks, beef lo mein, and sausage (all to be posted in good time), there are some veganized meals that require pretty substantial disclaimers. Wings might just be atop that list for no other reason than hot wings carry something of a cult-like following. Carnivores who love their hot wings really love their hot wings. And there's different styles. There's the "sloppy greasy", the "crunchy fried", the "naked". So let's just get something straight here before we get started,...these are vegan. There's no bone. There's no chicken fat. There's no slimy skin. It's wheat gluten. It's our best effort. My advice: as best as you can, don't go into it expecting a "holy s%*t, that tastes just like a wing!", go into expecting a "holy s%*t, that's a damn good alternative to me eating baby chickens". And besides, it's all in the sauce. 

Onward and upward...the basic idea with the wings is to make a glutenous dough, break it apart into wing sized shapes, and coat with sauce. The most important part is the dough (a basic seitan). 

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 c. vital wheat gluten (we prefer Arrowhead Mills or Bob's)
- 2 tsp. paprika
- 2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 tsp. onion powder
- 1 tsp. chicken seasoning
- 1/2 tsp. nutritional yeast

- 4 cups veggie broth 
- 2 cups water
- 1 piece nori or kombu
- 1 large portobello cap (cut/broken into 1 in. chunks)
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. vegan worcestshire sauce
- 1 tbsp. Bragg's amino's (alt. Tamari)
- 2 cups soy milk/egg replacer
- chicken bread crumb mix (we use a mixture of corn meal, flour, bread crumbs, and flax meal, but any similar chicken coating will work)

Method:
1. In a food processor, add portobello with 2 cups veg broth, and remaining wet ingredients.
2. In a separate large bowl, mix all dry ingredients
3. Add liquid from food processor to the dry mix and stir until all dry ingredients are absorbed, then remove wet dough and knead by hand. 
Note: Gluten is what makes dough stretchy and what, literally, holds or binds baked goods together. To obtain the best dough you can, it's really important to knead your dough well. As you begin, the dough should be wet to touch, but still binding. As you progress, you should notice am increasingly stringy and elastic texture. When the dough becomes difficult to knead without bouncing back, it's done. 
4. Form your dough into a log that is roughly 2-3 inches in diameter and let it sit.
5. In a large crock pot, add the remaining 2 cups of veg broth, and an additional two cups of water and bring to a medium heat.
6. If using kombu, add to broth. If using nori, cut into strips about 2 inches wide and add to broth.
7. Cut the seitan log into 1 inch thick sections/discs.
8. Place seitan chunks in broth, bring to a boil from medium heat, and then reduce to a simmer. Cover, and let simmer for one hour. 
9. Remove from heat and let cool. When cool, break seitan sections into smaller pieces trying to shape as desired. This is where you can try and break pieces of the dough, and form them into wing shapes. 
10. After all seitan has been broken apart, line pan or plate with one layer of paper towels, and cover with "naked" wings. Then place paper towels over top, and another layer of wings, and so on, until all wings are covered.
11. Refrigerate for at least one hour (the longer they remain refrigerated the better, and more firm, your final wing will be. Overnight is ideal)
12. Preheat oven to 375.
13. Remove from refrigerator, coat in soy milk/egg replacer, and toss in breading/flour mixture.
14. Bake for ten minutes, flip and bake other side for ten minutes. While these are cooking, you can make your wing sauce. We make a simple sauce of equal parts melted butter and base cayenne hot sauce (Louisiana, Frank's, etc.), with 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp ketchup per every 1 cup butter/sauce (this is VeganDad's creation with the added tbsp. of vinegar for some extra umph!)
15. Remove from oven and toss with sauce.

Serve appropriately (blue cheese, celery, ranch, etc.) and enjoy with LOVE!

Nacho Night!

Who doesn't love nacho night??? we have a vegan way of yummifying this one!

Ingredients:

• Vegetarian refried beans
• little soymilk (aka silk)
• 1 avocado mashed
• mini portobello mushrooms, sliced
• daiya cheddar cheese
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• one fresh lime
• a BIG bag of organic corn chips
• shredded spring mix
• diced tomatoes

Here's how its done:

• preheat the oven to 375 degrees
• heat the refried beans with a little soymilk to make it creamy but not too creamy (use common sense)
• mix mashed avocado with juice from the fresh lime and add in the 2 minced cloves of garlic to the mixture
• saute the mushroom slices
• grab a semi deep cooking dish and layer the refried beans first, avocado mixture second, sauteed mushrooms third and lastly the vegan daiya cheese.
• back for 15-20 mins
• pull from oven and top it will shredded spring mix and diced tomatoes
• serve with chips 

Add flavor to the meal by busting out salsa, sour cream, hot sauce, etc! enjoy!

Healthy Meatball Sandwiches

everyone loves a good meatball sandwich. meat eater or not this sandwich is pretty rocking and in a healthy yummy way to get you meatball on!

Ingredients:

• whole wheat rolls (big fan of wegman's bakery whole wheat rolls)
• fresh mozzarella cheese (note... avoid shredded bag cheese)
• quorn meatballs (vegetarian and non GMO) - do not eat if you have a mushroom allergy
• little bit of olive oil
• organic marinara sauce

Put it all together!

• pre heat oven to 375 degrees
• start your meatballs- do this by cooking meatballs in the sauce. remember your lid!
• slice mozz cheese thinly
• place the mozz slices on the bottom bun and lightly coat the top bun with olive oil
• put rolls in oven until lightly toasted and cheese has melted
• then simply add the meatballs to the sandwich and eat!

this is a simple easy vegetarian dish that is kind to your calories and yummy to the taste buds! serve with a side salad and smile on!

Fresh Mint and Blackberry Water

Take a few sprigs of fresh mint, a handful of blackberries, throw them in some water and BABAM,...you have flavored water!

Vegan Kale Coleslaw

Vegan Kale Cabbage Slaw (buy organic if you can)

• 1/2 head of purple cabbage thinly shredded
• 1/2 head of green cabbage thinly shredded
• 1 shredded carrot
• 2 large kale leaves de-stemmed and chopped
• 1/2 cup of veganaise
• 3 tbsp of white vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp soy milk
• salt and pepper to taste

1.) mix together cabbage, carrot and kale in a large bowl

2.) mix together veganaise, white vinegar, sugar, soy milk and salt/pepper until creamy

3.) add veganaise mixture to the cabbage and mix thoroughly 

4.) refrigerate for a few hours before serving

Dijon Asiago Tofu Goodness

Here's how its done: Pick a loaf of bread out from the bakery. Asiago bread is a great choice, however, not necessary for this recipe. If you go to Wegman's, or Whole Foods, the selection of yummy bakery breads is pretty awesome. Our choice was something called the Marathon bread from Wegman's. Multi-gran, light, sweet, and encrusted with pumpkin seeds (the pumpkin seeds sold us on this loaf). 

Ingredients:

• loaf of bread (bake your own!)
• asiago cheese (buy a wedge, not slices,...it's fresher and you get thicker slices)
• a bunch of broccoli sprouts
• 1 carrot (shredded)
• 1 package of extra firm tofu (we like Wildwood's Sprouted Tofu)
• dijon mustard
• annie's organic worcestershire sauce (its vegan)
• soy sauce
• water

Preperation:

1.) dry the tofu out. this means remove tofu from the package hours before you're ready and wrap in a dish towel. the towel will wick the moisture out of the tofu. this is necessary for a light dry saute.

2.) when tofu is ready, slice thin, but not ridiculously thin. you should get about 8 slices out of the package

3.) heat the oven to 400 degrees

4.) mix a bit of soy sauce, a bit of worcestershire sauce and a bit of water. do this to taste. everyone has different likes... this one is just a marinade to cook the tofu in.

5.) lightly saute tofu in the marinade
6.) lightly toast slices of bread 

7.) place asiago cheese slices, tofu slices, sprouts, shredded carrot and dijon on the bread to form the sandwich and place back in the oven to warm the sandwich and melt the cheese.

8.) serve!!!!

The Start Up

A healthy lifestyle isn't something that occurs over night. Its an evolution of the self. Unfortunately, in America "healthy" is no longer a learned behavior. We are surrounded with all sorts of addicting food, which I am at times guilty of indulging in. We are taught that food comes in a box or a can or a vacuumed sealed bag. We are told that food sold in the market is safe for consumption. We eat more meat than we do vegetables and fruit. With so much false food information from the world around us how could we possibly know what food is healthy for us and how do we prepare non-boxed food?

There are a few first steps. 1.) Put down the can of soda and walk away. You have the world of water flowing from your sink and you choose to drink soda. soda isn't natural. it cannot be found in nature and your body is of the earth, so logic would say eat and DRINK of the earth. 2.) learn to love the greens. Green leafy vegetables are a low fat high nutritional resource. 3.) Read all labels 4.) Get to know what GMO is and how to avoid it 5.) Embrace your local farmers market. Here is my take... I hear too many people complain how eating healthy isn't affordable, well clearly they have never visited their local farmers market. A person could walk away with a weeks worth of food for a family of 4 for under a $100.00 (if you go the meatless route)

 Moving to Massachusetts pushed me to test my culinary skills to its limits and I am realizing I haven't reached the height of my foodie capabilities. I am reminded that anything can be made at home and it will be healthier!

happy food creates a happy family which creates a happy life. food is the source of life. your body needs it. you cannot escape it. so feed it good happy food and i promise you will feel alive.