Hello Tuesday!

Good evening, bloggies! What a Tuesday!! Last night, we had some pretty rough storms, but this morning brought a beautiful sky to wake up to!!

Quite lovely! I had gotten up pretty early, so I decided to try my first ever steel cut oatmeal! I simmered a 1/4 cup on the stove (and had to keep adding water to it) for 30 min, and then mixed in a few drops of agave, some frozen organic raspberries, and a T of raw almond butter. It was pretty good!! Really chewy, but filling. I paired it with an orange- yum!

For lunch, I decided to make a salad with a thinned out version of the 'guacamole' I made yesterday for dressing (just added more water). I decided to take a break from work and go watch airplanes land (I work about 5 miles from the airport).

My salad was very good!! Nice size, and light. I got to watch my FAVORITE airplane land, too...


If you click on the picture, it'll get big. Then you'll see that the airplane is SHAMU!!! I LUV Southwest!!!

After work, I stopped by Kroger to get some ingredients I was out of for Happy Herbivore's Black Bean Brownies. While I was there, I picked up a Bora Bora bar to wave off starvation until dinner.

A little blurry (sorry), but VERY GOOD!!

I couldn't wait to get home to try the beanie brownie recipe! I switched on the TV and was pleasantly surprised to find...



WHOO HOO!! Good start to the evening, I must say!! Anyway, I proceeded to make my brownies. Here's the batter, pre-baked. The texture was a little thicker than normal batter...


Like my silver shoes? HAHAHA. While the beanies were baking, I made myself a 'Sushi Salad', made out of roasted nori strips, brown rice, carrots, cucumber, avocado, and soy sauce. VERY VERY GOOD!



By the time I was done eating my 'salad', the beanies were done! They smelled SOOO good.


I cut them up and dug in. My husband had a great idea of putting natural peanut butter on top...



So how were they? Well, they tasted like bananas, but overall, I thought they were good, and so did Brenton. I don't think I would make them for a party that non-vegans... 'normal Americans' would be at, but I'd DEFINITELY make them for us again!!

So until next time, take some time off during your day to enjoy yourself. Go watch Shamu land on a runway!! Namaste.

Vegetarian Burgers (Black Bean)

Lately, my husband and I have been eating mostly vegetarian-lacto/lacto-ovo. Why? Well, a few reasons-

1- it's cheap!

2- it's easy

3- it's healthy (with the right combo of nutrients/food groups)

4- did I mention that it's cheap?

We used to buy those frozen black bean, veggie, mushroom, everything else type of veggie burger from the store, but then I thought to look what was REALLY in the ingredients. OMG! Chemicals, unknown 'natural flavors', etc. etc. etc. So, I scoured the Internet to find other alternatives. I've looked at many recipes for bean burgers, and compiled the best of all of them to make my own version! Here it is!

Ingredients:

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/4 cup packed cilantro

1-2 grated carrots (depending on how many you have)

1 piece of whole wheat bread, or 1/4 cup of bread crumbs

1/4 cup of salsa (any kind you like!)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Optional Ingredients:

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

Dash (or two... I like a lot of dashes!) of Tabasco/Franks Red Hot sauce

Avocado slices

Toppings:

Lettuce

Onion

Tomato

Cheese

Whole Wheat Bun

Ketsup/Mustard

Directions:

In a food processor, pulse the piece of bread to make bread crumbs (if already using bread crumbs, put them in the food processor)

Add beans, onion, cilantro, grated carrots, salt and pepper, and pulse together. BE SURE TO NOT OVER PULSE, OR YOU'LL LOSE THE MEATY TEXTURE.

Put the mixture in a bowl, and fold in the salsa

Mold into patties. I like to mold this recipe into 6.

Spray a skillet with cooking spray, and cook patties over medium heat until heated through. I like to cook until brown on each side.

Serve immediately.

If you would like to freeze these burgers, put them on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer them to a freezer container, or plastic zip top bags.

If you make 6 equal size burgers, each one is 100 calories (before condiments). I got this number from Calorieking.com.

Happy black bean burger making, and until next time, Namaste.