Homemade Chicken Wings 3 ways!

Last night I had a serious craving for wings….something about Friday night really makes me not feel like cooking. Last night I was driving home and was really tempted to convince my husband to go to our favorite local wing place (Randy’s Up the River) to grab some wings and Friday night beers. However I knew it would be much more economical to make it at home and just grab a six pack of beers. So this is precisely what I did!

When I went to the grocery store they didn’t have wings in the meat section, and I had to ask the deli if they had any….they seriously looked at me like I had 8 heads. Why? After getting over their initial puzzlement I left the store with a ziplock bag full of chicken wings. Lol.

I decided to make a variety of flavors. I went with

1. Honey Mustard

2. Traditional Buffalo

3. Smoky Spice blend from Practical Paleo.

I also tried to re-create the sweet potato fries that we had last time we went to Randy’s….last night I whipped up some carrot fries. Just as good!

I had 15 wings (an assortment of wings and legs). First, I rinsed them in the sink and patted them dry with paper towels. Then I melted about 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a bowl and tossed the wings. I baked all of them plain except the ones that got the dry rub. In retrospect next time I might try putting the sauce on THEN baking them. I put them on a cookie sheet (sprayed) and I baked them at 400 degrees for about a half hour (Or until the internal temp reached 165).

Honey Mustard Sauce:

2 tablespoons of your favorite mustard

2 tablespoons raw honey

2 tablespoons water

1/2 of a garlic clove

salt and pepper

 

This local mustard we love made them a little spicy as well.

Buffalo Sauce:

1/2 hot sauce (I love Frank’s Red Hot)

2 tablespoons coconut oil

As mentioned, I baked them in the oven and then when they came out I tossed them with the sauces. Except for the smoky spice blend ones. Those I dry rubbed before they went in the oven, and they came out great! They were my favorite. Practical Paleo = My Bible.

Disgusting cookie sheet….sorry.

 

Okay…so maybe they weren’t as good as Randy’s…..but it definitely satisfied the craving!

Wings where we live (in WNY) are really good since we are kind of close to Buffalo. I have yet to visit the “famous” Anchor Bar or Duff’s though.

What are your favorite type of chicken wings?

Have you ever tried to make them at home?

Grilled PB&J and Chocolate Coffee Protein Shake

Happy Sunday Funday! I’m milling around on some blogs before popping my Buffalo chicken wing dip in the oven and heading over to a friend’s house for a Super Bowl party. I tend to hate football and I really don’t care about the game- I’m just looking forward to food and friends.

Oven Ready

I don’t really have any super interesting topics to blog about, besides some of the delicious food I’ve eaten this weekend. None of which are recipes I 100% made up, but worth sharing nonetheless.

Yesterday after the gym was craving a caffeinated beverage (I didn’t sleep well on Friday). I knew I should get some protein in to let my muscles recover from the hardcore intense strength training    super lame elliptical workout I have to resort to because of my back.

Here’s what I popped in the blender:

1 cup almond milk

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 packet of Folger’s instant coffee crystals

1/4 cup coffee (left over from the morning- it was cold!)

4-5 ice cubes

Serves 1: 130 calories!

Yum! It tasted like a mocha iced coffee.

 

Also, I have been meaning try try grilled PB&J  ever since I saw it on Clean Eating Veggie Girl a couple of weeks ago. Today was the day! So worth it! Delicious.

Just take two slices of bread and ‘butter’ them with coconut oil or butter. (You could use real butter but I thought coconut oil would give it a sweeter taste).

Put on peanut butter and jelly of choice and grill on both sides. I used my pancake griddle.

 

 

Drooooool! So creamy and delicious! Must make again soon!

 

 

Are you going to any Super Bowl parties? What are you making?

2012 Challenge + Weekend recipe wins

Hope everyone had a better Monday than I did…..have to admit it was a rough one. Well- it’s almost over so I’ll look on the bright side. Today I just wanted to write about a couple of things I discovered over the weekend.

My French toast coffee got me through the morning.

 

 

One of the recipes I made last night was some peanut butter granola from Peanut Butter Fingers, and it turned out great!!! I’ve made more of her granola recipes and even though I burnt the first batch it was a winner.  It was the perfect accompaniment for my morning snack.

Another winner for the weekend:Peanut Butter Protein Cookies via Dashing dish. Sorry- no pictures, I scarfed them down quite rapidly.  They are a keeper recipe for sure. I might use these as the base for the kiss cookies I want to make for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, I was actually able to get some wrapping done this weekend!

 

Woo hoo!

Anyways, I thought I’d share the challenge I joined on Saturday- I’m actually quite excited about it. I heard about it from Emily’s blog and turns out the leader of the challenge is from a blog I regularly read, Sweet Tooth Sweet Life. The challenge is to do 2012 different body weight reps by the end of December. I chose:

Burpees

Mountain Climbers

Push Ups

Lunges

I simply divided 2012 by four which works out to be 503. So I will do 503 reps of each exercise by the end of December.  It’s do able. It works out to about 13 reps of each a day. Piece of cake. I have been doing 25 reps a day so far because you never know when you might need a skip day. I decided that no matter what my workout is, I am going to do these in addition to whatever is included in the workout. Like today my workout included mountain climbers and push ups, but I did the ‘challenge set’ at the end just to add to my overall workout. It’s fun! You should click on Courtney’s site link if you want to sign up!

Question: What gets YOU through Monday?