Vegan Black Bean Burgers

Good evening! I hope you are having a great Thursday. :)

I finished the Healthy Living Summit Glo Bars just in the nick of time today! They are currently on their merry way to Chicago!

This is what 230 Glo Bars looks like in a HUGE box! Luckily my strong baking arms had no problem carrying it.

Actually when I was packing up the box, I put too much crinkle paper in the bottom and the Glo Bars wouldn’t fit in the box. I had to empty it all out and start over. I was a bit flustered as I was just minutes away from the deadline.

I felt like I just dumped my Halloween Trick or treat loot. Too bad none of it was mine! ;)

Last night, I made Emily’s Vegan Black Bean Burgers that I have been eying for weeks now. They were really easy to throw together too…just the way I like it.

Emily’s Black Bean Burgers

Recipe from The Front Burner. The only changes I made were adding 1 chia egg and 1 minced garlic clove.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup dry rolled oats
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia + 3 tbsp warm water, mixed well)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions: Preheat oven to 325F*.  Add carrots to food processor and process until finely grated. Next, add the oats and pepitas to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped (they will still be a little chunky).  Let it run for roughly 10 seconds.  Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil.  Process until lightly mixed. Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then mix in the rest of the beans.  Form into 6 medium sized patties.  Place patties on a lined baking pan, and bake at 325F  for 40 minutes, turning once very carefully after 20 minutes (note: The patties are fragile!).  Note: If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300F, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.

*Note: I baked my burgers at 325F and not 300F as in the original recipe.

Meet the newest carrot from this week’s CSA…a little something I would like to call the TRIPOD CARROT:

I wasn’t sure if this was equal to 1 carrot, 2 carrots, or 3….so I went with 2. =)

When I flipped the burgers after 20 minutes, a couple of them broke apart. I would suggest flipping them very carefully! However, once they were done cooking they held together pretty good.

When Eric got home from work, I had the cooked burgers sitting on the baking sheet. Shortly after, I asked Eric if he was ready to eat dinner, and he said:

“Oh is that what you made? I thought those were COOKIES!”

I laughed, “Really? Didn’t you think they smelled unusual for cookies?”

“I don’t know, but I didn’t think they looked like GOOD cookies.”

If I ever write a cookbook, I shall title it ‘Delicious Vegan Recipes…and $hit My Husband Says About Them’ ;)

He’s right, they do look like cookies though…!

Dinner tonight was a Black Bean Burger Ezekiel wrap…

Inside the wrap: 1 black bean burger, 1/2 avocado, 2 tomato slices, carrot slices, curly lettuce, spicy hummus, and freshly ground black pepper.

It was major.

We had our wraps with a delicious and colourful salad:

In the salad: Romaine, Tomato, Carrot, Avocado, Sesame seeds, and Better than bottled balsamic vinaigrette!

My sweet tooth is looking for a little something, so I might go raid my chocolate stash in a bit!

Ladies and gents- I finally found a salad spinner that works…

I have gone through SO many salad spinners over the years and all of them break. Well (*knock on wood) I found one that I love. The pump is so effortless to use! Finally a salad spinner I don’t feel like I am trying to start a lawnmower to use.

Meet the OXO 2 in 1 Salad Spinner:

It functions not only as a salad spinner, but as a beautiful steel serving bowl as well. I purchased it at William Sonoma with my gift card. Score.

Well my friends, I must say I am feeling really good tonight. Three big work items checked off my list and tomorrow is Friday! Eric and I are really excited about having our first Saturday free since June. It should be a great weekend.

Tonight’s question: Do you have an appliance or kitchen tool that you constantly battle with? What is it?

For me, aside from salad spinners (and previously, blenders!), my kitchen tool demise has always been CAN OPENERS. I don’t know what it is but I cannot find a good can opener for the life of me. We buy a new one and within a month it is on the fritz. We try different brands to no avail. Yesterday, Eric purchased this OXO brand so here’s hoping it works good! So far it works well…(famous last words in my kitchen!)

Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow morning for a very special discussion on Happy Weights and an Operation Beautiful book giveaway!