Buffalo "Chicken" Dip

Sorry for lack of blogging lately, December always gets so nutty and busy, and truthfully, I was a lil burnt out from Vegan MOFO, but I'm feeling inspired to share my food again, so here goes...

Today we were invited to a New Year's Day party at the hubby's Dad's house. I wanted to share a snacky..

I have never actually eaten Buffalo Chicken dip, but I've seen it brought to many parties, and it sounds like the type of food I'd like, you know.. creamy, spicy, salty. So I decided to attempt to make my own vegan version. Made with processed food, for sure, so not healthy at all.... but I wasn't really going for healthy anyways.

ingredients:
Gardein Frozen Buffalo Wings
Vegenaise
Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
Frank's Red Hot
powdered garlic
powdered onion
Chipotle Parma (vegan parmesan cheese)

-I prepared the buffalo wings, on the stove top, as suggested on the package. I ended up using about 1 and 1/2 packages of wings, as that's what I had in my freezer. Once the wings were all cooked, I added one of the sauce packets that comes with the wings to the pan, then coated the wings. I then put them in the food processor, and pulsed several times, until the "chicken" was shredded.
-I combined the shredded "chicken" with 1 tub of Tofutti, ~1/2 cup of vegenaise, a couple dashes of hot sauce, with garlic, onion and Parma sprinkled in.
-I put this in a baking dish, topped with a lil Parma, and warmed it up in the oven til hot.

So, this was amazing, maybe nothing like other versions of Buffalo Chicken dip, but yum yum yum!

corn dip RECIPE :)

This is one my most requested recipes. So, I guess I'll share ;) I believe I copied down the general idea from an old issue of Vegetarian Times, but I'm not really sure. I've changed the ingredients a bit to suite my taste anyways...

ingredients:
2 ears corn -cut off cob (you could use like 2 cups frozen, wouldn't be nearly as good though)
2 Tb vegan butter
salt/pepper
1 small red onion -diced
1 jalapeno pepper- seeded and diced
1/2 red bell pepper- diced
2-3 scallions- sliced
2 cloves garlic- crushed
1/4 Vegenaise or other vegan mayo
dash cayenne pepper
optional:
1/4-1/2 cup vegan cheese

-heat butter in skillet over med-high heat, add corn and cook for several minutes. season liberally with salt and pepper. when the corn starts to get golden, transfer to a bowl
-in the same skillet, add onion, jalapeno and red pepper, cook for several minutes until everything starts to soften. add the scallions and garlic and cook for a few more minutes.
-combine all the cooked vegetables together, season with a lil cayenne pepper, add the Vegenaise and "cheese" if you are going to use it. then transfer to oven safe bowl
-bake for 20-30 minutes, at 350, until its all hot and bothered

-i always feel weird about serving corn dip with corn chips. so i usually buy kettle cooked potato chips or flour tortilla chips. enjoy!

corn dip and mexican millet

It has been a lovely long weekend spent with my wonderful husband and lil puppy dog. We've been running around, seeing friends, and family and eating lots of good food! We originally had plans to have a 'Mexican night' with my brother and sister-in-law's family tonight. But the whole family isn't feeling well :(

We decided to cook the dishes we were planning on contributing at our house and enjoy a quiet night at home.

For an appetizer, I made my corn dip :) This stuff is super addicting! All the produce (for the whole dinner) was fresh from the Greenmarket yesterday, so the flavor of the fresh corn, and peppers were amazing in this dip! We gobbled it up with some tortilla chips.
For dinner, I was planning on making Mexican millet as a side for tacos. Since we didn't end up having the ingredients for tacos, we ate the millet, with some canned re-fried beans and some more corn chips. And we both added a lil dollop of Vegenaise, cause we can't resist the stuff!
I've made this Mexican millet recipe (from the Veganomicon) many many times, but it definitely turned on the best tonight. The secret? I followed the recipe exactly, for once :) I even topped it was some fresh lime juice. yum-my! I think I could eat this stuff every day.

cook-out food :)

The hubby and I hosted a cookout the other night. Here's some goodies from the night: I made my spinach-artichoke dip. It's a hit every time :)

ingredients:
1 block silken tofu
1 1/2 c. vegenaise
2-4 cloves garlic
salt
pepper
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1 package frozen spinach
1 can artichoke hearts

-using blender, combine tofu, vegenaise, garlic, salt and pepper to taste and nooch. make it super creamy!
-once mixture is texture of sour cream and totally smooth, fold in frozen spinach (you might want to thaw spinach, and squeeze dry) and chopped artichoke hearts (i like to chop them a bit smaller than they come in the jar/can).
-combine mixture, spread into baking pan (10"by 10")bake 20-25 min @375 it's done when slighty brown and bubbly
-serve with chips/crackers

For the main course, we had a couple pasta salads, hot-sauce tempeh from the Veganomicon and some corn on the cob. It's was a beautiful night with friends on our great deck! :)

nachos!!!

Yay for nacho night! Also, yay! for new digital camera, I'm gonna have much better pictures of food!

So... its tortilla chips, covered in Amy's Black Bean chili, some spring mix, a nacho cheese sauce (w/ black olives) and avocado.

Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe! (i found it here!)

ingredients:
2 cups. water
1/4 cup raw cashews
1 4.25 oz. jar of pimentos
1 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tb cornstarch
1 Tb lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cumin

-blend all together until really smooth (i use the stick blender)
-heat in sauce pan over med-high heat, whisk alot.... it'll get really thick and nacho-cheesey in like 8-10 mins

buffalo chicken pizza and french onion dip :)

i made another buffalo 'chicken' pizza, here's before and after baking.... i made the dough w/ white whole wheat flour, a 'blue cheese' dressing made out of vegenaise, tahini, cider vinegar, garlic powder and crumbled tofu (this dressing is SOOOO blue cheesey!) and buffalo chicken bits (health is wealth nuggets + frank's red hot), topped with FYH mozzerella

this pizza comes out so greasy and amazing :) yum yum yum


there is a going away party at work tomorrow, so i decided to try out a recipe i found in vegetarian times for french onion dip... (i did not follow recipe very closely, the recipe said to use store bought vegan sour cream, but that stuff is very chemically and weird...)


1. baked 2 sliced onions, that i tossed with olive oil, balsalmic, salt and pepper (450 for 17min)

2. let onions cool off, then chop up

3. made a creamy sauce in the food processor (1 box silken firm tofu, 1/4 raw cashews, 1 tb vegenaise, 1 tsp bragg's liquid aminos, dash onion powder, 1 tb olive oil)

4. then i stirred it all together with 3/4 tsp crushed dried thyme


i tasted it and it is awesome!!! yay! (hopefully it is appreciated at work!)

taco layered dip :)

from the bottom up

-1 can refried black beans
-1 recipe tofu sour cream
-2 chopped avocados
-1 jar roasted garlic salsa
-chopped organic spinach
-chopped black olives and onions