Hi my name is Marcella Rose Sciotto and I am addicted to hot wings.

I know that they aren’t good for me; I know that they are battered and fried and they are covered in butter.  In most of the establishments where I order these wings, I am almost positive that the chicken is not coming from a place that I would be proud to support. These little wings were most likely treated with antibiotics and growth hormones and the chickens who owned these “wings” before I bought them, were stuck in a cage for most of their lives because (let’s face it) I am not ordering hot wings at a farm-to-table restaurant; they are generally not on the menu at those kind of restaurants… (Seriously, someone needs to look into that; hot wings with a conscience!  What more could anyone want?)  I know that dipping something that has already been battered and fried and covered in butter and sauce in yet another fat heavy mayonnaise and cheese based sauce is probably the worst idea and that the three carrot and celery sticks that are served alongside these little wings do amusingly little to give me enough fiber to do anything productive with the horrifyingly delicious things I just ate.

I know all of these things and yet I still order and devour and try to forget.

What I am saying is, “I have a problem with hot wings.”  There I said it! They say admitting it is the first step but whoever they are, they are not a blogger.  If they were, they would say that the next step is finding a delicious, nutritious alternative and blogging about it!

Alright now this recipe might blow your mind…then again it might not.  It all boils down to what you cannot live without.  For me, “hot wings” is not really about the chicken, it never has been.  If the chicken is the thing that makes your heart sing when you bite into a hot wing, then this may not be your favorite post.  There are really healthy alternatives to hot wings that do keep the chicken, like using skinless organic free range chicken and not breading it and baking it instead of frying and leaving out the butter in the hot sauce.  That would be a wonderful way to cut a few calories out and feel better about your hot wing experience.  But for me, it’s not about the chicken; for me it’s all about the sauce.  I just go nuts for a buffalo hot sauce.  So I decided to make “hot wings” without the wings, using my vegetable of choice…cauliflower.  This little white vegetable wonder has it all.  In one cup of cauliflower you get 85% of your daily needed vitamin C, 20% of your daily needed vitamin K, vitamins B2, B3, B1, B5, B6 and B9 and close to 4g of fiber!!! It’s hailed as detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and some even say it’s a cancer preventer.   So couldn’t we all use some more of this wonder vegetable in our diet?

This simple healthy recipe really hit the hot wing sweet spot for me.  I paired it with a blue cheese yogurt dipping sauce that was out of this world good!  Look, I am not going to lie to you, you’re my readers and I respect you more than that.  I will probably still order hot wings occasionally.  However, with this easy recipe that takes under 15 minutes to make, I will definitely be reaching for the cauliflower and the hot sauce the next time I get a hankering. Then, maybe then, my craving will be satisfied and when I go out to one of those places that tout hot wings on their menu, my craving will be satiated to a point that I can actually hear my conscience.  Hey, a girl can hope!

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