I would be a liar if I said I never craved junk food. The foods from days of yore, before I knew better, before my health declined, before I gained weight. Thankfully logic and common sense (and the threat of a super unhappy gut) keeps me from running out and eating the junkiest junk foods ever created, but this doesn’t mean that now and again I don’t think of it. Every so often I find myself fondly dreaming of those foods I used to indulge in.

The good news is, from these random cravings oftentimes I am inspired to create a healthier version of those old dishes.

Around here I find myself far more inclined to create dishes using seasonal produce. I want to inspire you to get creative, to find ways to introduce more healthy vegetables and fruit, to possibly look to foods you wouldn’t otherwise, inspiring meals you maybe wouldn’t have thought of. Nothing makes me happier. But on the rare occasions I recreate these old foods, I feel like it’s just as important to share these. If I am craving these flavors, surely I am not alone.

I grew up in Buffalo, NY. Special occasions, birthdays, graduations, Christmas eve, even visits to the hospitals, funerals, and the like – these are often celebrated (or not) with pizza and wings. It’s a Buffalo staple. It’s been a long time since I could just bust into the box of sheet pizza and go to town. Buffalo wings, oftentimes are likely gluten-free, but sometimes breaded or coatedthey are also just so loaded with grease, tons of butter (or butter-like flavor) and who knows what else. Beyond that, chicken fingers, which used to be my junk food jam, those are just as bad, if not worse. Oh by the way, speaking of foods I will never, ever, eat again, if you haven’t had a chicken finger sub in Buffalo, you haven’t lived.

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