Hellllooooooooo. Hope your Thursday is going great!
I left you with a bit of a teaser this morning….
Eric and I are crafting.
As part of my ‘stay off the computer during the evening’ pact, I decided that I could use my evening downtime to craft!
I am notorious for never printing any of my photography shots, so I decided that I needed to put an end to that. I submitted a ton of my favourite shots to Costco for enlargement and printing and then Eric and I picked them up last night. Costco has amazing prices and super fast service. Afterwards, we booted it to Michael’s Craft Store for oodles of picture frames (thanks to Amanda for the tip). Michael’s has aisles and aisles of frames…who knew!?!
Eric is also a photography fanatic like I am, so he was quite pumped about this project and offered to help! [Although, he insists what he is doing is not ‘crafting’…lol]
I said, ‘Ok, Ok, you are building things with your super manly hands, does that work??’ :biggrin:
We took the prints and each selected our favourite ones. I had over 60 shots printed off and we had to narrow them down to around 20! I felt like I was picking my favourite children.
Dearest maple baked beans and healthy spelt pancakes for one, I’m really sorry you didn’t make the cut this round. For some reason you didn’t look good blown up. Love, Ange. (tear).
I bought a mixture of frame styles because I wanted a bit of variety. We also got some frameless ones that I don’t have any shots of yet.

Is this real life?
How amazing would a bowl of oats that huge be?!?
Food picture enlargements = always a good thing.
I also put one of my favourite quotes on one of my most recent shots!!

The quote says, ‘To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.’
I also made it the feature of my quotes page if you want to check it out.
Mmm strawberries!

Then I lined up all the ducks in a row!

Now we need help on how to hang/organize them!
We want to do a big collage all mixed and matched and eclectic looking, however we have no idea how to organize them. Maybe something like this…
We have about six 8 x 10’s and about ten 5 x 7’s.
Maybe it would help if I put them all out on the table and took one group shot of them together for you to see?

It was serious business.

Well, not really, but we pretended it was…heh.
Look at this adorable giraffe print we also picked out from Michael’s!

We are going to hang it in the family room as the first thing on the wall after living in our house for a year and a half!
Well, aside from our TV that is.
Our walls have been naked for a long time. Eric was perfectly happy with the flatscreen TV being the only thing hanging on the wall. I, however, was not. :biggrin:
This makes my heart melt.

Eric proceeded to poof out his lips and kiss my forehead like the mama giraffe. I was a bit scared.
I fled from his Giraffe like grip and found solace in the kitchen…

In A Jiffy Curry Chickpea Burgers
These are delicious and majorly addicting curry infused wheat-free chickpea burgers that bake to a beautiful burnt orange colour. The seeds give the burgers a fantastic crunch and texture. You won’t be able to stop at just one…or two…or three…
Adapted from my In A Jiffy Spelt Veggie Burgers and Emily’s Vegan Black Bean Burgers.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1/2 cup regular oats
- 10 baby carrots or 2 carrots
- 1 tbsp coconut oil (or oil of your choice), melted
- 1.5 tsp Arvinda’s Curry Masala (or other good quality curry powder)
- 1/2 tsp Paprika
- 1/4 tsp Tumeric
- 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt, to taste
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp Parsley flakes (optional)
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. In a food processor, process the oats, carrots, and all the spices/seasonings (sea salt, black pepper, curry masala, paprika, tumeric, optional parsley) for 30 seconds or until somewhat smooth. Now add in the chickpeas at 1/2 cup increments and coconut oil (melted), stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. [My food processor was quite cantankerous during this process (it didn’t process the chickpeas well, but that may have been because I doubled the recipe and I had too much in my bowl!)]. Once the chickpeas are mostly processed and smooth, take the mixture and place in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the sunflower seeds and pepita seeds. Wet your hands and shape patties or balls. Makes about 6-8 patties depending on how big you want them. Note: You can also pre-bake these for about 20 minutes and them pop them on the BBQ to finish them off!
For my first test batch, I made smaller patties and left some chickpeas whole…

They turned out delicious, however the whole chickpeas made the burgers fall apart a bit too easily.

They will be great for crumbling over salads!!

Afterward, I loved them so much I decided to make another batch and this time I doubled the recipe above! It was almost too big for my 12-cup food processor. I made 6 huge patties from the mixture.

I baked these huge burgers at 375F for 20-25 minutes on each side until golden.
They turned out incredible!!!!!!! Look at that rich orange/golden curry colour…Mmmmmmm!!

I also made Eric’s favourite new snack for a side…

That would be shredded carrot salad with my Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing!
Eric has a little obsession with carrots! They are his favourite veggie. He walked into the office the other night with a huge honking bowl of shredded carrots (plain!) and wouldn’t leave me alone until I tried some. I admit, they are pretty good…but I’m feeling a little ‘carroted out’ at the moment.

Somehow this happened again….!
That would be two patties with a 1/4 cup of roasted red pepper hummus smothered in between.
I swear to you, no buns are even needed! It might just be one of the best creations in the world. The Double Down need not apply!
I froze a ton of these burgers and I can’t wait to pop them out of the freezer for quick and easy meals.
Well, we are off for our evening stroll + chat. Then it is more crafting…or as Eric would say ‘constructing’. Night!
Aaww, what a wonderful way to spend an evening! And those Chickpea burgers looks DELICIOUS!!
We saw a bunch of framed food photos at IKEA the other day and my mom suggested we print of mine out to frame in the kitchen!
They’d make great holiday gifts too dontcha think?
Allie, these would be a GREAT gift idea.. especially if one of the ingredients or meals is from a dish that you make w/ a certain friend often. that way when they look at the picture they always think of you :)
Angela,
how do you get the carrots to shred so finely? thanks!
For the post I did today, I needed to shred carrots but found that our shredder was moved to our soon-to-be-new-house. I just whirred it in the magic bullet and out came shredded carrots. I may never use a shredder again!
I think they would make an AWESOME gift!
I used my KA food processor to process the carrots
As always, I have a million things to say about your amazing post. I just love your blog so much–it makes me ramble! Ha
Ok, well, I love your picture/craft thingamajig. I think all of your pics are great, especially the one with the strawberries.
I have the SAME giraffe picture on my wall. It’s actually in the background of one of the pics I posted today on my blog! SO go us for having the same picture in our post. woo!
Your chickpea burgers look and sound delicious. And so does the shredded carrot/balsamic creation. LOVE your hummus burger. :-) THE end.
aww thanks!
I love that your printed some of your pics to frame!!! I haven’t printed any of mine either, but I just might have to!
Those chickpea burgers look so yummy!
Love all the food photos. I’ve been wanting to decorate my kitchen with pictures of my food. :)
Jenn
Oh my goodness how beautiful! I want more close ups! Photography is something I really want to get more into.
Gorgeous pictures! Love the one of the strawberries! It will look amazing!
Oh Man
I love the pictures they are just so clear,
Ha ha, I had a little chuckle about the whole giraffe thing
I just want to tell you that I find your blog such an encouragement and it seems that you cover every topic I struggle with Thanks :)
Thanks Hannah, glad you laughed at that..I sure wasnt laughing! ;p hehe jk
Your pictures look absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to see them all together and up on the wall. Your creativity gives me lots of ideas. Thanks!
Your pictures look gorgeous! I can’t wait to see how you decide to hang them on the wall. You are a talented photographer.
Also, I love chickpea burgers! But, I have the same problem. They never want to stay together!
This clip might help you!
http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/08/getting-the-hang-of-it/
It’s one of my favorite blogs–I think you’ve probably heard of it :)
What a creative idea!!! I love the “eclectic” look of different sized pictures/frames on walls. Are you thinking you want to stagger them as well?
I really wish my bowl of oats every morning was as big as the picture you blew up. For Real, that would make my life sing songs of praise.
The chickpea burgers look DELISH! And I was lol’ing so much when you said you were running away from Eric’s mama giraffe kissies hahaha :D I can’t wait to see how you’re going to decorate the walls! Sounds like a lot of planning but also loads of fun and quality time well spent. Good luck!
I love your photography. Your house is going to be a foodie dream come true :)
I love carrots, but whoa not as much as Eric! haha
What a great idea! Those pictures are going to be a great addition to your home decor! Can’t wait to see them all up. Oh, and those burgers sound DELISH!!!
I love all the photos! They are going to look fantastic on the wall!
I love the last picture so much! Two patties with hummus in between, that sounds yummy :)
I hope you realize people would BUY your beautiful photographs — they would!
I have the quote on my blog too – it’s a favorite <3 <3 <3
These burgers look amazing! It’s definitely a must try. :) Love all the pictures & frames! GL with your crafting project! ;)