Black Bean and Quinoa Veggie Burgers

We've all had a bad veggie burger. They're bland and mushy and leave you unsatisfied. 

Before I made these black bean and quinoa burgers, I had only tried one other time to make vegan burgers. They were okay, but I wasn't going to hold onto the recipe. The other day I had my friend over for dinner because she was considering going vegan and wanted to pick my brain. Since I was leaving to go out of town the day after she came over I didn't have much food to work with, but thankfully I found a recipe for veggie burgers using most of the ingredients I had in the house. Overall the recipe reviews were positive, but I wasn't sure how "veganizing" the burgers would affect their consistency and more importantly if they'd hold together. Nobody likes a crumbly burger.

Thankfully, these turned out great! They actually had flavor and didn't fall apart with each bite we took. If you're okay with spice, I'd highly recommend increasing the seasonings even more to bump up the flavor. These are also great burgers to freeze and reheat throughout the week.

Black Bean and Quinoa Veggie Burgers

(Serves 5)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup cooked black beans (or one can, drain and rinsed)
• 1/4 cup dry quinoa*
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth*
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 2 tablespoons minced onion
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon frank's hot sauce
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 3 tablespoons warm water)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced

*If you already have some cooked quinoa, you can substitute the 1/4 cut dry quinoa and 1/2 cup veggie broth for 3/4 cup cooked quinoa.

Directions:

1. Prepare your flax egg by whisking together 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons of warm water. Set aside to "gel".
2. In a small sauce, bring the quinoa and vegetable broth to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the quinoa is tender and the broth has been absorbed.
3. While the quinoa is cooking, place the black beans into a large bowl and mash them with a fork until there are only a few whole beans left and a paste has formed.
4. Add in the flax egg, oat flour, onion, garlic, cumin, salt, hot sauce, cilantro, corn and jalapeño and mix everything together using your hands.
5. Form into 5 patties and if possible let the patties rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray a baking tray with cooking spray. Place the chilled patties on the baking tray and spray the tops with cooking spray.
7. Bake the patties for 15 minutes, flip the over, and bake for 15 minutes more.
8. For extra delicious patties, after the patties have baked in the oven, "fry" them on a hot skillet for 2 minutes on each side using cooking spray.
9. Serve on whole wheat buns with any fixings you desire! In my opinion, lettuce, tomato, avocado and spicy mustard are always winners.

Notes: Adapted from All Recipes.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the burgers after baking. They went too quickly!

Eat Consciously,

Faith

Cilantro Lemon Quinoa Salad

I don't know about you, but sometimes I completely forget about certain ingredients that I love. I know, I know. It doesn't really make sense to forget about something you love, but I did. I guess with cooking there are just so many different ingredients that I want to experiment with that I get excited about a certain cuisine or ingredient and then others get forgotten for a while.  

This happened with quinoa. Ever since I was introduced to quinoa I loved it. It's so easy to cook and you can go any which way with the flavor by using different seasonings. You can use it as a side dish or make it the main course by adding in some veggies and beans. 

This past week Brett and I were at my parent's house in Virginia. On Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day at Great Falls National Park with my parents and my brother and sister-in-law. The day couldn't have been more perfect. It was warm with a nice breeze and we got to the park early enough to scope out a good spot. The only unfortunate thing that happened was that the water in the bathrooms stopped working and there were only two porta potties for the whole park. It took about 30 minutes to wait in line. Other than that we had a great time together as a family! I got to go on a trail run earlier in the morning and the rest of the time I spent reading, walking around the park, people watching and talking with my family. 

The week before Mother's Day, Brett and I were super busy meeting with people in the area for work. We ate most of our meals out so by Sunday I was aching to cook. I asked my parents if I could be in charge of the Mother's Day meal and they gladly let me take over.  I decided to go with something that would be easy to make the day before and that didn't have to be served hot. This Cilantro Lemon Quinoa Salad was the main course which I paired with Homemade Grilled Flat Bread and hummus. For dessert we had Vegan Strawberry Shortcake with Coconut Whipped Cream (recipe coming soon!) My brother and sister-in-law also picked up a roast chicken. Everyone said everything tasted great which was encouraging. I'm always a little nervous cooking dairy-free and meat-free meals for others. 

I'm also thankful that quinoa is now back in my life.

Cilantro Lemon Quinoa Salad

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or 1 3/4 cup cooked chickpeas)
• 2 avocados, chopped
• large handful of cilantro, chopped

For the Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• juice of 2 small lemons
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon agave nectar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. For the quinoa: In a medium-sized sauce pan bring the vegetable broth and quinoa to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and let the quinoa cook for 10-15 minutes until all of the broth is absorbed. After the broth is absorbed, remove the sauce pan from the heat, still covered, and let the quinoa sit for a few minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool. While the quinoa is cooking prepare you veggies and dressing.
2. For the Dressing: In a bowl whisk together all of the dressing ingredients and set aside.
3. For the Salad: Once the quinoa is done cooking and your tomatoes, avocados and cilantro are all prepped, stir together the quinoa, tomatoes, chickpeas, avocado and cilantro in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well to combine. If possible let the salad sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes before serving to allow all the flavors to meld. Enjoy!

Eat Consciously,

Faith

A Day of Eats

After being in Tennessee for a week, traveling long hours in a car, eating too many pretzels and not getting enough sleep it was so nice to have a day off of work on Monday to rest, recuperate and exert some energy outside. I slept in until 8:30 (I know, I'm a wild one) and started the morning with an orange and a bowl of oats with chia seeds, ground flax and a dollop of almond butter. It's hard to not have some kind of nut butter with my oatmeal these days.

After digesting I went for a 7 mile run in the beautiful Florida air. It felt so good to run long and slow after being in the car for 19 hours on Sunday. Afterwards, I refueled with some chocolate soy milk from Trader Joe's and stretched.

For lunch I made a curry quiona wrap with hummus and spinach in a whole wheat pita pocket, also from TJ's. 

I love the ingredients in these pita pockets:

I put peas and raisins in my Curry Quinoa and it's delicious. Sometimes I'll just put it on a bed of spinach for a salad.

For an afternoon snack I had an apple with "peanut butter" made from peanut flour and water...

...and an orange. We have a ton of apples and oranges in our house so I felt like I needed to do my part in eating them. Don't mind if I do.

For dinner I cleaned out some of the frozen veggies that have been in our freezer since before Brett and I got married (Yikes!). I made some brown rice and simmered the veggies with this Green Curry Sauce from TJ's.

I also made some breaded baked tofu to go with it and the whole meal was delicious and came together so quickly! 

I was still pretty exhausted from such a long day driving on Sunday so Brett and I just went on a walk around the UCF campus and went to bed early. 

There you have it. Monday's eats!

Check out other people's daily eats over at Peas and Crayons for some creative ideas!

Curry Quinoa

Welp. It's currently 3:30 in the morning and I'm awake. I thought for sure I'd sleep like a baby after a long day at work, my four-mile run and a hearty Curry Quinoa Wrap for dinner. Unfortunately that wasn't the case and waking up in the middle of the night isn't unusual. Ever since getting married I've had a hard time sleeping. I used to be able to conk out as soon as my head hit the pillow and sleep straight through the night. If I sleep through the night now, I seriously squeal "I did it!" when I wake up. I like to believe it will get better, and it has, but I still get these random "wide-awake-at-2-AM-and-I'm-hungry-and-need-a-snack" nights. And since one of my least favorite things is trying to sleep, I've decided to just get up when I feel wide awake and not fight it. Usually after an hour or so, and some food, I'm able to fall back asleep.

I hope it gets better soon, because being awake in the middle of the night can really throw off my schedule. Not to mention I'm exhausted at 9 PM and fighting to stay awake. Good news is I don't have to go into work today and I'm also planning on going to my first ever Yoga class at the gym. I'm excited for some good stretching. Maybe the "Zen" atmosphere will help me sleep through the night tonight.

Enough about my unfortunate sleeping cycle. Let's talk about this easy curried quinoa.

Brett and I are heading out of town for Christmas on Friday, so as is the usual, we're trying to finish off the random food in our fridge. I'm also trying to be better at using all the pantry items I buy, instead of just letting things pile up. This quinoa was perfect for both those goals. Whole wheat wraps, hummus and tahini are a few of the things still left in our fridge so I looked up wrap ideas and came across this curried quinoa wrap recipe from Healthy. Happy. Life. I didn't have all of the ingredients (and obviously didn't want to buy more stuff right before we leave) so I tweaked a few things and simplified it and it turned out great. It's made me excited to experiment more with quinoa and spices.

Curry Quinoa

(Makes 8 Servings)

 Ingredients:

· 3 cups water

· 1/2 cup vegetable broth

· 2 1/3 cup quinoa, unrinsed

· 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

· 2 teaspoons sea salt

· 1 1/2 cup frozen peas

· 1/2 cup golden raisins

Directions:

1. Place the water, broth, quinoa, curry powder and salt in a large sauce pan. Stir and bring to a boil.

2. Once boiling, cover the pot and turn the heat down to a simmer.

3. Let the quinoa simmer for 11 minutes.

4. After 11 minutes, turn the heat off and let the quinoa sit for another 10-12 minutes. Don’t take off the lid!

5. Once it’s ready, fluff the quinoa with a fork and stir  in the peas and golden raisins.

I highly recommend putting this quinoa in a large, wheat tortilla with hummus, green onions and a drizzle of tahini. Wrap it up and enjoy a filling, flavorful meal!

 Eat Consciously,

     Faith

2 Dishes, 5 Days

It seems like I'm always starting my blog posts with, "Brett and I just got back in town" OR "Brett and I are about to head out of town again." This post won't be much different either, because it's true. Brett and I just got back from Virginia on Sunday and are heading to New York City on Friday. This month has been a whirlwind. Thankfully the craziness of it all doesn't seem to affect Brett and me and we're always excited for our next trip. 

Since we weren't going to be home for very long, I decided to make a couple main dishes that Brett and I could eat throughout the week. The theme ended up being Mediterranean. On Monday I made a big batch of tabbouleh with quinoa and chickpeas, baked falafel and some cranberry apple muffins for easy snacks on the go. I wanted something that could be versatile so we wouldn't get sick of it by the end of the week. Tabbouleh and falafel are easy to stuff inside a pita, eat over-top of a salad or enjoy plain so I figured they were a good choice. 

I made some freshly ground Guatemalan coffee to drink while I cooked up a storm. Enjoy some pics of my "What I ate Monday...while meal prepping". 

Breakfast:

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pancakes

Oh man. These turned out great! 

Since we had just gotten back from being out of town we didn't have many groceries available for breakfast. I whipped up these beauts and Brett and I started our day happy and full.

Lunch:

After breakfast I picked up groceries for the week and then started cooking away.

Can I just say that I cooked dried beans for the first time this week?

It took awhile, but was so easy and one cheap bag made a bunch of beans!

I also love knowing that there is no added salt in these bad boys like when I buy them from a can.

Look at how pretty!

I used the chick peas I cooked make one of Brett and my favorite dishes: 

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa and Chickpeas from the Forks Over Knives cookbook.

I haven't made many recipes from that cookbook yet, but this is the second time I've made this salad.

I enjoyed some tabbouleh salad over spinach as I relaxed by our friends pool.

Rough.

Before I dug in I topped my salad with some baked falafel fresh out of the oven.

They had great flavor, but I stuck the rest back in the oven for a few more minutes because these were still a little mushy on the inside.

I haven't had the greatest experience with meatless balls since going vegan. 

They usually turn out a little mushy.

I'm gonna keep trying though!

I also whipped up some Cranberry Apple Muffins.

The smell of these muffins makes me so nostalgic. 

My mom always made them when I was growing up and they are the first memory I have of making muffins on my own. 

I made some substitutions to "veganize" them and they turned out great!

Brett ate two as soon as they came out of the oven.

Recipe coming soon!

I had to try one too!

Dinner:

For dinner it was more Tabbouleh, chickpeas and falafel.

Hopefully we won't be sick of Mediterranean food by the end of the week!

Head over to peasandcrayons, hosted by Jenn, to get some delicious creativity from others!

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa and Chickpeas

I've only been a vegan for a few months now and I will humbly admit that the first month or two had some rough patches. Botched meals, oatmeal for dinner cause I didn't know what else to make, and frustration at my lack of vegan knowledge were common occurrences. I'm pretty sure the thought of giving up crossed my mind at some point. But I hated the thought of eating meat and dairy again so I kept pressing on and man, I'm so glad I did. And thanks to other vegan bloggers and writers I was constantly reminded that I was not alone in this difficult quest to cut out all animal products from my diet.

I gotta say that I am so thankful for all the vegan cookbooks out there. I have yet to become confident in my own cooking skills to try out any personal vegan recipes. I always need a recipe to look at and from there I'll make occasional small changes. I'm excited for the day when I'll be able to whip up my own recipes, but until then, cook books it is.

For my birthday I got the Forks Over Knives cookbook and have tried out a few recipes since then. I tried out this tabbouleh recipe a few days after a failed attempt at vegan pad thai and I was nervous that I would again ruin another dinner. But, lo and behold, this salad turned out fantastic. My husband and his best friend loved it. We like it best in pita pockets smeared with hummus. It's so light and fresh and versatile. You can eat it plan or put it on some greens and be done. Yum.

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa and Chickpeas
(Makes 7 heaping cups)

1 cup quinoa, dry (equals 2 1/2 cups cooked)
2 cups water
3 medium roma tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber
1 can chickpeas

, thoroughly drained and rinsed.
8 stalks fresh green onions, finely
1 cup chopped parsley
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the quinoa and water in a medium sized sauce pan, cover and bring to a boil. Keeping the pan covered, reduce the heat to medium, and continue to cook the quinoa for 15 minutes until the water is absorbed. Take off the heat, uncover and let cool to room temp. You can fluff the quinoa with a fork after it's been off the heat for a few minutes.

While the quinoa is cooling prepare the rest of the ingredients. Peel the cucumber, cut it in half and seed it and then give it a good chop. Chop the tomatoes as well and feel free to get rid of some of the juicy seeds.

Drain and rinse the beans well.

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, squeeze the fresh lemon juice over top and season with salt and pepper.

Eat plain, on top of a salad, or in a pita with hummus, sliced cucumber and tomatoes.

Nutrition Facts: Cals: 170; Fat: 2g; Carbs: 33g; Fiber: 7.6g; Sugars: 2.5g; Protein: 7.6g

Eat Consciously,

     Faith