Tasty Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers

Over the weekend, I watched the documentary Forks Over Knives. It talked a lot about how what we eat affects our health. The people on this documentary promoted a raw vegan diet (they said it another way, but I can’t think of the term they used now-they didn’t say vegan). While I’ll never be able to give up meat totally, I do eat probably way more than I need to. So, that night, instead of making up some hamburgers like I wanted, I decided to try black bean burgers. I found this recipe on www.forksoverknives.com. It was really easy and good.

What you’ll need:

1 15oz. can black beans- drained and rinsed

2 tbsp. Ketchup

1 tbsp. Mustard (I would use less next time, but I am not a mustard person)

1 tbsp. chopped red onion (recipe called for 1 tsp. onion powder, but I wanted to use fresh)

1 clove garlic-chopped (again, recipe called for 1 tsp. garlic powder, but I wanted to use fresh)

1/3 cup instant oats (I used 1/3 cup oatmeal and ground them in the food processor-it is supposed to hold them together better)

Crush the black beans with a fork. It is ok if some are still whole. Mix in all the other ingredients.

Divide the mixture into four parts and form into patties. Grease a cookie sheet and lay patties on to bake. Bake at 400 degrees for 7 minutes, then flip patties and bake for 7 more minutes.

I jazzed mine up by adding some fresh salsa on top. Here they are without the salsa on top:

I think the Chickpea Burgers I made in this post http://remnantsdiy.blogspot.com/2012/03/tasty-tuesday-chickpea-burgers.html were better, but these were really fast and still good.

Try them for yourself and let me know what you think!

Lexi

Tasty Tuesday: Mexican Stuffed Shells

This weekend, I made one of my new favorite recipes, Mexican Stuffed Shells. I found this recipe via Pinterest (surprise!), and was pleasantly surprised with how good it is.

 

Here is what you’ll need:

1 lb. ground beef
1 package low-sodium taco seasoning
4 oz. cream cheese
14-16 jumbo pasta shells (I use a whole box)
1.5 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce                                                                                                                           1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions
Sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the noodles. While the noodles are boiling, brown the hamburger.

Once the hamburger is browned, add the taco seasoning according to the package directions. Then, add the cream cheese and allow it to melt.

Meanwhile, pour the salsa into the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

When the noodles are fully cooked, drain the water and lay them out on a cutting board to cool. Then, you can start stuffing the hamburger mixture into the shells. I will admit, I hate this part. It is tedious, but its worth it in the end. Set the shells in the salsa once stuffed. I did run out of the hamburger mixture for the last couple of shells, so I just threw them in the pan. You could probably add more hamburger/taco seasoning/cream cheese to fill all the shells.

Pour the taco sauce over the top. Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Top with cheese and bake another 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Top with green onions, sour cream, and your other favorite toppings (black olives are great on top and so are sliced grape tomatoes).

Soon, I will be trying another recipe that I found on Pinterest for homemade taco seasoning. I am excited that I will know exactly what I ‘m putting in my food versus trusting in packaged seasonings. I’ll let you know how that works out!

Lexi

Tasty Tuesday: Chickpea Burgers

You know when you find one of those recipes that is so good you just have to share it? Today’s recipe is one of them!

My friend and I decided to make a “pinterest meal” on Sunday night (all our dishes were recipes we had found on www.pinterest.com) We decided to make Chickpea Burgers, Avocado Fries, and BLT Pasta Salad (this was actually a leftover from a gathering on Saturday night). Our absolute, hands down favorite dish of the night was the Chickpea Burgers! They were delicious, easy to make, and healthy!

I didn’t take pictures while making any of these, but I will link you up to the recipe source-http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/03/bbq-cheddar-chickpea-burgers/ 

The only changes we made were that:

~We had our burgers on “slims” from Trader Joe’s instead of on buns.

~My friend also just chopped the veggies, rather than putting them in the food processor. We both liked having the veggies a little bigger in the burger. It added some texture.

These were so good that my friend and I are going to make another batch this week!

For those of you pinterest users who may have pinned the Avocado Fries, I would suggest skipping them. They were not good and were kind of time consuming to make.

The BLT Pasta Salad was good, but needed a little jazzing up. It was good, but lacked a little something. I remember my sister-in-law making this once, and hers was much better.

Happy cooking!

Lexi