Black Bean Burgers

I love when I find a good vegan burger. There are many out there that seem to me a little scary to try. My family of two preschoolers and a husband are subject to my kitchen makings and I want to make that a painless as possible. Most of the time I have to make my food GF and vegan which poses a challenge to find recipes that taste good for everyone, including my husband who is a flexitarian (a person who eats mostly vegetarian and occasionally eats meat.) I found The Simple Veganista blog and love the vegan options she gives. This recipe for Santa Fe Black Bean Burgers was super good. My family loved them, however it was on the spicy side and hard for one of my girls to finish. I think I will omit the cayenne next time. I made the recipe as written. I hope you enjoy.

Spicy Black Bean Burger

Ingredients

1 can (14 oz) organic black beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup oats (I use GF)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour, or flour of choice* (I used Almond flour)

3/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne (I suggest to omit this for children who don't like things spicy)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon himalayan salt

1/4 cup chunky salsa or pico de gallo, give or take (choose mild to reduce spiciness) 

1 tablespoon sesame or olive oil

corn meal, for dusting (I used course grind) (optional)

Method:

1) Drain and rinse black beans in colander. In a medium size bowl mash black beans with a strong fork or use a potato masher, leaving some chunks for texture if you like. 

2) Add oats, flour, spices, salt and salsa, mix again. If mixture is too wet, add more flour to the mix, if a little dry, add more salsa.

3) Shape your patties into whatever size you like. I made 5 patties. 

4) Give a light dusting of corn meal if you have it, it will give a nice crunch, flavor, and cook up crispy. (I did not use this as I was out of cornmeal.) 

5) Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet on medium. Cook for about 5 five minutes each side. It's ok if the cornmeal gets a little crispy.   

I served mine with peas and a side of hummus and GF crackers.

I also chose to serve without a bun. It was really yummy and filling.

This was my girls' plate.

*Suggested accompaniments: red onion slices, leafy greens, and/or salsa. Mashed avocado as spread, or sliced avocado. 

My girls eating this supper. 

Veggie Skillet

I have decided to branch out of my comfort zone of cooking and create my own recipe. I was looking at some skillet recipes online but they seem to be bland or required items that I didn't have. The recipe that I created was inspired by this zucchini skillet recipe. My family loved this, except one child who picked out the zucchini. It turned out better than I had imagined. I hope you enjoy my version of this recipe.

Veggie Skillet

Ingredients:

Spices not pictured.

1 tablespoon Coconut oil

1-1/2 cups quartered lengthwise, sliced zucchini

1/2 cup diced red, yellow, and orange sweet peppers

2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup cashews

1 can (15 oz each) organic black beans, rinsed

1 large can, crushed tomatoes,undrained

1 cup brown rice, cooked

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. Coriander 

1/2 tsp. Turmeric




Method:

1) Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. 

2) Add zucchini, bell pepper and garlic; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3) Add beans, cashews, spices, and rice. Stir.

4) Add undrained tomatoes. Increase heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Let boil until rice absorbs juice from tomatoes.

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

There are so many recipes out there that I would love to try. Tonight, I wanted to make a gluten free and vegan dish using veggies and brown rice. Behold! I found one here. Unstuffed Vegetarian Peppers. I looked at the recipe and thought that it would taste rather good, and the more I looked at it, I started to change it to fit our needs and my preference on flavor. So, with that said. This is my own version of the recipe. My girls helped make this meal and they thought it was tasty. I do have to say, one of them didn't like the red peppers, so they picked them out. It might be more of an adult choice if your children do not like peppers. 

Unstuffed Vegan Peppers

Ingredients: 

3 cups diced peppers, red, yellow and green - 1 cup each

1/2 cup diced onion

2 Tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp salt

* 1/2 tsp dried oregano

* 1/2 tsp dried basil

15 ounces tomato sauce

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used the Veggie vegan brand)

2 cups cooked rice, brown or white ( I used brown.)

* spices I added

Method:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.

3)  Add peppers and onions and cook until veggies start to soften, 5 minutes or so.

4)  Add garlic. oregano, basil and stir well.

5)  Add rice, tomato sauce and salt and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

6) Pour rice into a greased casserole dish, about 10x6 size and top with vegan cheese.

6) Bake fore 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. ( I baked mine for 12min.)

Homemade Frito Chips

Our family loves a certain meal called, "haystacks." This basically is a taco salad. For this we usually use the white tortilla chips. We don't usually consume very many chips but my girls have grown fond of the Frito Lays chips. As I scrolled through Pinterest, I found a recipe for homemade Frito chips by Minimalist Baker. Why not?! Over all they are healthier, so I thought I would give it a try. They turned out great! Needless to say, we will be eating haystacks this evening. I did however shorten the baking time to 10 mintues and it was perfect for me. The first batch I made at 12 minutes burned. 

INGREDIENTS

• 6 yellow corn tortillas
• 2-3 Tbsp olive or canola oil
• 1.5 tsp sea salt
• 1.5 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp each cumin, onion powder, garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.

Add all spices and seasonings to a large bowl and whisk until well combined. Set aside.

3. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut your tortillas into equal strips

Transfer to bowl and toss in 2-3 Tbsp olive or canola oil until well coated. Spread on baking sheet.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Watch out, they’ll burn quickly past the 14-15 minute mark. (*Mine burned at the 12 mark...10 minutes was perfect.)

5. Once removed from the oven, immediately add tortilla strips to the seasoning mix and toss to coat. If they appear to have dried in the oven while baking, you can spritz them with a little oil so the seasonings stick better.

6. Transfer to a serving bowl or plate with a slotted spatula to shake off excess seasoning. You’ll likely have extra seasoning, which you can store for later use if desired.

Vegan Oatmeal Patties

I have to admit, I have tried several vegan patty recipes and they have either fallen apart or they are really dry. This recipe I found on yummly.com, it was the first one that tasted very good and stayed together without any problems. I did find that they were not as salty as I would like and I don't usually put a lot of salt in my food. I also used gluten free oats to make these gluten free burgers for my children. The girls at three of them in one sitting. So, I will be going back to this recipe and making more. I may also freeze them too. LOVE IT!!!! I hope you enjoy them too.

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 4 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I actually forgot to add this and they turned out fine)
• 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 tsps garlic powder
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2 tsps onion powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• (I would also add 1/2 tsp. salt.)
• 
  
• Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a baking sheet.
2. Bring water to a boil and stir in oatmeal. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook 5 to 10 minutes, or until the oats are cooked and all the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
   
   
   
3. To the oatmeal add onion, oil, spaghetti sauce, pecans, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, basil, onion powder, coriander, sage and active yeast. Mix well and form into patties. Place on prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn patties over and bake another 15 minutes.

Burger Pizza Bites

Today was a long day with school and doing errands, I wanted something that I could make for the girls that was quick and still left me with time to spend with them. I remembered that I found a recipe for quinoa pizza bites by Morgan Berg, who has a blog of her own. For that recipe visit her site here. I took the recipe and changed it to make it fit to my family. As much as I love quinoa, my girls are not huge fana, I also did not have enough for the recipe. I decided to make TVP pizza bites. For those that don't know what that stands for, its Textured Vegetable Protein. It is used in a lot of vegetarian meat products. I buy it in bulk because it is gluten free and great for putting in chili. I also used onion powder as onion baked does not get completely soft unless I saute it before putting it into a recipe. I guess I could have grated it, maybe I will try that next time. The other option I would have done differently was put the bites in paper cupcake liners. This would prevent me from having to wash the cupcake pan and prevent it from possibly sticking. Well, I hope you all enjoy this recipe. The girls ate all of the bites. A true winner in my opinion. 

Kid approved!

Burger Pizza Bites

Ingredients: 

1 c. hydrated TVP 

2 large egg

1/2 t. onion powder

1 c. Veggie Mexican Blend Vegan Cheese

1 t. minced garlic

1 T. dried basil

1 t. dried oregano

1/2 t. salt

Method: 

1. Hydrate TVP (7/8 cups of boiling water to 1 cup dehydrated TVP). Let sit 5 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of your ingredients in a mixing bowl until it is well mixed.

3. Lightly spray the bottom of a mini-muffin tin with olive oil spray or place paper liners in muffin tin. Using a Tablespoon scoop into each muffin tin. I did heaping tablespoon in each one.

4. Bake them for 20 minutes and let cool.

Vegan Corn Chowder

I know that two favorite things my girls love to eat is potatoes and corn. I wanted to make something that our whole family would enjoy. I am sorry, but I can not recall where I found the recipe. It is not my own. I tried looking back on Pinterest and could not find it, so if anyone knows the source, please let me know. The soup turned out beautifully and creamy. Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 Tbs Olive oil
1/2 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup vegetable broth (I used Chicken McKays since I did not have vegetable broth)
6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 cup diced carrots
1 pkg of fresh corn or 2 cans of corn, no salt added
4 cups unsweetened soy milk (I used rice milk)
1 tsp salt

Method:

1) Place olive oil, salt, garlic in pan and cook until onions are translucent.

2) Add the vegetable broth and stir quickly to pick up the caramelized onions and flavors from pan.

3) Add soy milk, carrots, corn, and potatoes and bring to a hard boil then reduce to a slight boil (low-med heat). Let cook for 30-45 minutes on stove.

Hope you enjoy.

Vegan Hotdogs

I have been experimenting with all forms of vegan food and cooking with them. I came across this recipe on Pinterest from a website: http://www.baked-in.com. I looked at the recipe and have been putting it off for awhile. I have tried to make vegan hot dogs before and they were nothing like a hot dog. So, as the girls slept this afternoon I decided to try the dreaded recipe. It initially took me 20-30 minutes to prepare and about another 45 minutes to steam. Some form of steamer is needed. After making these, I couldn't resist trying them. WOW! They taste awesome and better than the Worthington vegan hot dogs. They were full of flavor and kid approved. I plan on making a huge batch of these and storing them in the freezer. Enjoy as I did.

Vegan Hot Dogs

Ingredients

• 5 Tbsp (30g) almond meal
• 9 oz (250g) firm tofu
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• ½ medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp smoked paprika OR several generous dashes liquid smoke (I did not have any so I use 1/2 tsp  of reg. paprika- I don't like smoked stuff anyway)
• 1½ tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• ¾ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cardamom (I did not have this item and left it out.)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1⅛ cup vital wheat gluten
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Method

1. Crumble tofu into the bowl of a food processor.

1. In a liquid measuring cup, measure the 2 Tbsp soy sauce and add enough water to get to the 100mL line. Add to food processor.
2. Add almond meal, oil, onion, garlic, paprika/liquid smoke, sugar, salt, pepper, coriander, mustard, nutmeg, cardamom, and cumin to the processor and pulse until smooth, about two minutes. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add vital wheat gluten and cornstarch to the mixture and stir to combine. Knead gently – the mixture will be soft but you’ll see strands of gluten forming.
4. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces. Roll each into a rough hot dog shape (doesn’t have to be perfect). Wrap each dog in parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Twist ends of the foil shut.
5. In a large pot with a steamer insert or basket, bring enough water to just under the steamer to a boil. Arrange your hot dogs in the steamer – close together is fine, and it’s okay if they’re touching.
6. Cover and steam for 45 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool in the pot, uncovered.

7. To cook, unwrap hot dogs and simmer in water for five minutes, or fry in a frying pan, or throw ‘em on the grill until hot and pretty with grill marks!

8. Serve on buns with ketchup, mustard, relish, diced onions, or your favorite hot dog topping.