Black & White Burger

In my pursuit of all things delicious, I am yearning for a solid veggie burger recipe. I have done black bean burgers before with minor success. They have all tasted great, but consistency wise fall below where I would like. Perusing the internet for some inspiration, I came across these from namelymarly.com. I find it quite nice that there is a never ending source of vegetarian/tasty/pretty/yummy/healthy blogs out there. I could literally spend all my time searching for new things to make!

I'd give these a good thumbs up, although I need to probably try them sticking exactly to the recipe. I still have problems with measuring, I'm a guesstimater you see. And frankly, I'm okay with it....it just proves difficult when trying to then reproduce my dishes on paper. Another fun fact about me: I will use the least amount of dishes and utensils possible when cooking and baking. So for this, when it called to put grind up some of the beans in a food processor, I wasn't exactly feelin' it. The parts were still in my dish rack from being used and washed earlier in the day. So I nixed that step. It may be the missing link between my pretty good patties with okay consistency and awesome patties with consistency that melts your face off. All in all, these had great flavor. They have already been eaten as left overs in the form of a wrap with veggies and simply heated up with a little sour cream on top(I wasn't feeling so hot yesterday but knew I could use a little protein).

FYI, this burger went on homemade ciabatta rolls. Yeah, that's right. I went there. A little time consuming but sooooooo worth it. And way cheaper than you would buy them for. I'll get that posted today too.

INGREDIENTS:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup cooked brown rice
3 tbls flour
1 tbls lemon juice
1 teas salt
1 tbls chili powder
1/2 cup cornmeal
olive oil
salt and pepper

*Place half the beans and onion in food processor, pulse until coarse ground.
*Mash the rest of the beans in a bowl. Add back in the other beans, rice, flour, lemon juice, chili powder, and salt. Stir to combine. Add cornmeal and stir again. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. If its still to wet, add in some more cornmeal.
*Shape dough into 6 patties.
*Heat a splash of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, place in patties and cook about 5 minutes on each side. Keep patties hot in a 250 degree oven for about 10-20 minutes, while the rest of the patties cook.
*Enjoy!

Veggie & Garbanzo Bean Curry

Tonights dinner, well lets just say it was kind of a last minute change of plans. All day I kept thinking it was Friday-not sure why. But my thought process when cooking on Friday is not like that of Sunday-Thursday. See, on those days, I'm always keeping Al in mind. Leftovers for lunch that is. So I changed it up and made this tonight instead of tomorrow. And tonights dish(its a doosey)will be made tomorrow.

This is yet another inspiration from the vegan stoner blog. Al is mad in love with curry. The boy could eat it, like always. When he came home from work he was hungry, which is totally the norm. Usually we eat dinner around 5:30, depending on the day. But this was going to take a bit longer. Mainly because my motivation for making it didn't start until later and also because I decided to make naan. For the first time. Ever. Not that it turned out to be terribly difficult, just a little more time consuming. I'll toss out the naan recipe some time in the not so distant future. Back to the curry. It was made, it was consumed, it was good. Wish I would have had some more yogurt, could have been a little more saucy. Next time! So I'm doubling what I used as far as yogurt goes.

INGREDIENTS:
olive oil
2 green bell peppers, chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
12 oz plain greek yogurt
4 tbls curry powder
1 teas garlic powder
prepared brown rice

*Heat olive oil in a medium pot, add carrots and peppers. Cook for a few minutes and then add in beans, yogurt, curry, and garlic powder.
*Mix and cook until veggies are soft.
*Serve with brown rice.

Roasted Garbanzo Beans

In my many failed attempts to go against my natural tendencies, I have resolved that: I love to eat food! So, that brings me to finding things to eat that aren't a bazillion calories, loaded with sugar or salt, or any of those other taboo things. Especially when it comes to munching on stuff...cause man, do I love to munch! Among my findings are these bad boys...roasted garbanzo beans. And yeah, they aren't exactly the lowest calorie option, but they are packed with protein and fiber. Now, I am one that currently has 8 cans of garbanzo beans, otherwise knowns as chick peas, in my corner cabinet. I'm the hummus queen, self-proclaimed of course. (I'll share one of those recipes soon I'm sure.) Basically I'm not usually without a can or two. So this was an easy thing for that reason and the fact that, well its really easy to make. They come out as this crunchy-munchy-snack that you can season to your own liking. For instance, last time I leaned towards crushed red-pepper and paprika. This go 'round was cumin, cayenne and salt. You could do straight s&p, maybe some garlic and salt, or change it up and choose something sweeter, say cinnamon sugar. The saying is true...too each their own. My oven has some hot spots, so I had to mess around with the beans a few times so certain ones weren't burning. And I also like them slightly chewy on the inside...its really about playing around and figuring out what you like. I've also tried seasoning before they go in the oven and after...again, both work.

INGREDIENTS:
garbanzo beans(I do each batch with 2 cans)
olive oil

optional:
seasonings (whatever you like!)

*Heat oven to 400.
*Rinse and drain the beans, pat dry between some paper towels.
*Toss in some olive oil and lay flat on a cookie sheet.
*Place in the pre-heated oven for about 35-40 minutes, until they are nice and golden and crunchy.
*Remove and season.