Black Bean Burgers

I did it again. That's right. I took my computer into the kitchen! I'm waiting for the day I spill honey or soy sauce all over the keyboard and fry the entire thing. As of right now though, I made it through a new recipe with all electronics in tact!

I found this recipe on Angela's blog, Oh She Glows. I was feeling burgers for dinner, but not the meaty kind. This recipe was perfect!

Here's what you need:

2 cans black beans rinsed and drained

2 grated carrots

1/2 cup dry rolled oats

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp each cinnamon, cumin, coriander, chili powder, onion powder. (I skipped the cinnamon)

1 Tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 Tbsp water (also known as a chia egg)

1 clove minced garlic

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Pre-heat oven to 325*

Put carrots in food processor and grind finely. Add in the oats and pumpkin seeds and give it a spin. It's OK if they stay a little chunky. Next toss in 3/4 of the black beans, all the spices, and the olive oil. Process well. Scrape mixture into a bowl and stir in the remaining beans. With your hands form it into about 6 patties, depending on your preferred size. Sticky, I know, but you can do it!

I actually ended up with 7. Place on a lined baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, carefully flip, and bake another 20 minutes.

These can be reheated on the grill, and they seem to freeze pretty well. Thanks again to Angela for posting this on her blog! SO good!

To go along side these I made some sweet potato fries. Just cut raw sweet potatoes into strips (as evenly as possible for consistent cooking), soak in a bowl of water for 1 hour, drain, and put into a deep fryer. I know, not the healthiest. But definitely the yummiest!

I whipped up some hummus as a spread for our buns, with parmesan cheese and sundried tomatoes as the stars. Use the roasted red pepper hummus recipe, minus the peppers, then add 1/4 cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes and 1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese.

Blend until smooth. Yum!

I also threw together a fruit salad, to balance the fries. Optional additions were plain yogurt or lime juice.

Lettuce, tomato and avocado were our burger fixin's, along with the usuals.

Oh, this is gonna be good!

And it was!!! A reasonably healthy and very filling meal. Mission accomplished!

Happy eating!

Healthy Eating and Exercise: A Second Attempt

Yikes! Wednesdays are CRAZY! Every Wednesday I work 2 shifts at the bakery; A day shift to check in with my boss/friend Nora for order day, and my regular night shift with the guys. Not to mention that because I have a day shift I ride my bike the 6 1/2 miles to work in the morning. Not a lot of sleep happens, and things can get ugly.

Luckily, everything went just fine yesterday, and I got a good nap in. I also slept like a rock last night. Oh yeah!

So today I decided that I really need to step it up with the whole exercise and eating right thing. I've been feeling sorta chubby lately, and every time I look down at my midsection I think of Pulp Fiction and pot bellies. Not good! I did however weigh myself today, and I'm back down to 135 after being 140 for most of the year! Woot woot! Now I just have to keep working at it!

To work on the whole eating right thing I decided to try out a new recipe from Angela at Oh She Glows. Curry chickpea burgers. Of course my wonderful husband offered to help with dinner, which means we're having fresh french fries, but I promise I won't eat many(as in I won't take seconds ;) ) I hauled my laptop into the kitchen yet again ( I know, livin' on the edge!) and got out everything I needed for this recipe.

Things came together pretty quickly, as the recipe promised, and I love how few main ingredients there are. Granted, we haven't eaten them yet. But if they're as good as I think they will be, then i'll have to try this same basic recipe with other herbs and spices. I bet there are endless flavor possibilities! Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself here.

I formed the patties and laid them out on my sil-pat lined baking sheet. I only got 5 out of this recipe, but I made a couple of them kinda big for B and his dad.

Then I popped them into the oven for about 25 minutes. I did flip them once, just so they'd be evenly cooked. I plan on warming them on the grill just before we eat. We actually have some ripe avocado, so that'll go on top with some lettuce, mayo, and hopefully tomato if I can find one. We have fresh whole wheat Kaisers from the bakery too!

I think they came out looking pretty good! Great color, and seems like a good texture. I'm having a hard time restraining myself from demolishing one right now!

While doing the dishes I got to admire our yard and view. We live in such a beautiful place!

This of course inspired me to work on the exercise routine, so I started drying off (I say drying off, because it tends to look like monsoon season when I do the dishes. The counter, cabinets, my shirt, and shoes were all soaked!). While toweling off I discovered this! Guess I was a little too enthusiastic with the green food coloring at work last night! Seriously, that's above my elbow! How do I manage these things?!

I snagged one of my tasty banana spelt muffins from the other day (still delicious!) for a quick snack.

I think Izzie wanted some too!

Then we got ready for some cardio. Izzie LOVES walks! She recognizes my workout shoes/clothes and starts dancing around making happy sounds. SO cute!

We went to our mailbox and back, one mile each way plus lots of huge hills. I did intervals of 1 minute walking, 1 minute jogging the whole way, hills included. That got my heart pumping! When we got back I did some strength training. I use 5lb weights, and today I did arms. Here's the routine.

2 sets of 12 reps each:

chest press

overhead triceps extension

chest fly

triceps kickback

side lateral raise

alternate bicep curls

front raises

shoulder press

concentration curl

one arm dumbell row

I need to go finish dinner now, and get ready to go to work. Gotta get my stuff together for tomorrow too, as B and I are going to Victoria for errand day. The weather's been so nice, maybe we'll see the Orcas out and about on the ferry ride!

Do you guys work little errands in throughout the week, or do you do one big errand day? We obviously do it all at once! Sigh, it's gonna be a looong day tomorrow!