Black Bean Burgers & Atlanta Underground Market

OK, first...the recipe. I have about 10 different black bean burger recipes saved on my computer. I LOVE black beans and I've been wanting to make some burgers for the longest time. I guess I've just been too lazy in the past...not sure. But I finally decided to make some. I looked online to see if I could find a good recipe and really the one that sounded the best and looked the easiest was from Sandra Lee. However, I changed it up quite a bit so I'm not posting her recipe, I'm posting mine. But again, my recipe is based loosely on hers.

Tracy is my name, photography AIN'T my game. Took this with my phone. Anyway, you can't really see the burger but it's there under the cheese. I only used half a bun because the burger was huge and the bun was too. I didn't want all that bread so it's an open-faced black bean burger. (better IMO anyway). There is a piece of lettuce under the burger too, although you can't really see it because of that ridiculously huge burger. I topped it with Trader Joe's pineapple salsa (freaking yum) and of course Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I put that sh*t on everything. LOL. Had a little bit of this new grilled corn and vidalia onion salad from Whole Foods on the side. I think it's one of my new fave's. SO GOOD. Here's the recipe for the burgers:

2 15oz cans of black beans

1/2 purple onion, finely diced

1 large garlic clove, finely diced

1 egg (I used Ener-G egg replacer cause eggs are grody)

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Cilantro to taste

Parsley to taste

Salt & Pepper to taste

Red pepper flakes to taste, optional

Place one can of beans, onion, garlic, the egg, cilantro, parsley and red pepper flakes in a food processor. Pulse into an ALMOST smooth puree. Transfer to a medium bowl and add in the remaining can of beans and the bread crumbs. Mix well incorporating bread crumbs throughout bread mixture.

Heat a grill or grill pan on medium heat with oil or cooking spray. Grill burgers about 5-6 minutes or until warmed through. MUNCH!
(If you're using a real egg, don't make the burgers too thick. You want to make sure that egg cooks all the way through...unless you're Rocky Balboa and like raw eggs.)

On another note, this past Saturday a friend and I went to the Atlanta Underground Market. I've been wanting to go for awhile now but since I've become an AUM VIP, I've been busy for the last two they had. The Atlanta Underground Market is an event where local chefs or bakers come out and allow people to sample their food. It was so much fun and I had tons of great food. In fact, I was Thanksgiving-dinner-full when I left. It was held at The Goat Farm in downtown. What? You didn't know there was a goat farm in downtown Atlanta? Yeah, me either.

So cute. It was quite a walk from the car to the actual location of the market. (They change it every time they have it.) On the walk, after we passed the goats we passed the Fresh Roots farm. They have roosters and pigs and dogs, oh my! They grow organic vegetables and even have a CSA program that they just started. I might have to look into that. I've been wanting to join one. Hmmm...ok, moving on!

I would like to post a picture of everything that I tried there but unfortunately my camera has been acting up lately and some of my pictures are coming out all screwy. Guess that means I'll have to buy a new one! Darn. ;) I did get a few pictures though.

This is Jer'vay's Catering (mouthwatering) Apple and Cheddar stuffed Zeppoles:

Joanne's Kitchen had homemade Ravioli stuffed with spinach and feta served with Tzatziki sauce. This isn't the prettiest picture ever but I think it was the best thing I ate that day. It was delicious!On to the sweets! I had a Lemon Thyme mini cupcake with strawberry icing from Dr. Sweets Cake Emporium. All of their goodies are gluten free & nut free. It was delicious...I almost went back for seconds....ALMOST.

Last but not least, I tried cake balls for the first time...FINALLY. Cake Balls by Nikki. I bought three. I got Red Velvet, Key Lime Pie and Chocolate Peanut Butter. I think the Chocolate Peanut Butter was my favorite but the Key Lime Pie almost tied with it. Here's Nikki fanning herself. LOL. It was so dang hot in that place!
What's funny is I'm not really a big sweets person...but after working on this post I realized most of everything I ate that day was all desserts!! Oh well. It was all worth it. I'm already looking forward to the next Atlanta Underground Market.


Night night peeps!

Yummy Dinner and Other Randoms

Well, here I am...still unemployed. After my layoff in February, I decided I wanted to study to get my PMP certification (Project Manager Professional) since that's pretty much been my title for the last 5 years. So from February until June 2, I did nothing but study...hard. The exam is a 4 hour exam that I had to pay $555 for and be up at the butt crack of dawn to take on June 2. I was SO nervous the night before. But I crammed for the exam that night and in the parking garage of the building I was taking it in that morning. I couldn't believe it but I PASSED!!! I was SO excited that I walked out of the testing center, got in my car and started crying before I could even call anyone. I couldn't believe that I passed. It's a pretty hard and super intense test. My friends and I celebrated like crazy that night.

So, this has really been the first week that I haven't had anything to do all day. I've gotten so used to waking up at the same time every day, studying until 11, working out, showering, then studying again until 5pm. So now I've been waking up still at the same time, checking my email and stuff, & applying for jobs. But that gets me to about 11am. I haven't been working out so I plan on getting back into that today. But I will still have a good 3 hours after that with nothing to do. You can only job hunt for so long every day.

Needless to say, I got caught up on my DVR the other day. I watched a Giada episode I had recorded (I love her!) and knew that I HAD to make one of the things she showed. So that was the last half of my day yesterday, running to the grocery store and preparing my dinner for that night so all I would have to do was pop it on the grill. It was Grilled Corn and Cheese cakes. Oh my god....SOOOOO good. The cheese it calls for is smoked mozzarella which I had never actually had before. I do believe that I am in love with it. I don't think I will ever go vegan now! Ha ha.





In the summer I'm really big on what I like to call "smorgasbord dinners". I don't like to eat a lot of warm dishes in the summer so I tend to eat a little serving of a lot of different fruits and veggies for dinner. It's just random summer favorites that most people would think weird eaten together, but I love them. My parents made a lot of lunches and dinner for me and my sister that were like that when we were kids. So now I think it's a nostalgia/comfort thing. :) So I had two of these corn cakes with a side of raw sugar snap peas and a big ole' slice of cantaloupe. I also had pickled beets too but I was eating them from the jar. As these cakes were grilling on my grill pan, I was in heaven. The smell of the sweet corn and the smoked mozzarella is literally mouthwatering. I couldn't wait for them to finish!! Here's the recipe if you're interested:


Grilled Corn and Cheese Cakes

2 cups frozen sweet corn, thawed
3/4 cups shredded smoked mozzarella
1 cup plain breadcrumbs, divided
1/3 cup fresh chopped chives
1 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup creme fraiche, for serving (I just used sour cream instead of this)


In a food processor, pulse the corn into a chunky puree. Place in a medium bowl. Add the cheese, chives, sour cream, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. Mix well. Form the mixture into 9 balls and then flatten into patties, each about 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 3/4 inches thick. Refrigerate 30 minutes.


Coat the patties with the remaining 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Place a grill pan over medium high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Brush the patties with olive oil and grill until toasted about 4 to 5 minutes on each side.


Arrange the corn cakes on a plate and serve with a dollop of the creme fraiche (or sour cream).

Yum, yum. I'm having the exact same dinner tonight! :)

Freebie Five

Sooo I'm posting my freebie five because one of my favorite bloggers did it and inspired me. That blogger was inspired by one of her favorite bloggers that did it....I think we're all just doing it so we can look up hot guys on the internet!

Anyway, it comes from Friends. If you were a HUGE fan of the tv show Friends, as I was (don't think I ever missed a single episode), then you know what I'm talking about. It's the episode where Rachel and Ross decide to come up with their top 5 celebritys that they would sleep with if given the chance. They also tell each other that if they ever were given that chance, it would be ok to "cheat" just that one time. (Turns out, Ross does end up meeting one of his top 5, Isabella Rossili, who just before he meets her, decided she was #6 and took her off the list. She dismisses him once she finds out she was taken off the list. As if he had a chance in hell either way!)

So here are my top 5, in no particular order:

Keanu Reeves. Yum. I've always had a thing for Keanu. I even saw his old band Dogstar play at The Roxy once...had front row. I think I still even have my Dogstar t-shirt somewhere(nerd alert!)

Robert Pattinson. Ok, yes, I'm a Twilight fan. I can't help it. Just look at him! That dark, brooding, mysterious thing just does it for me I guess...Keanu, Rob, and my next contestant....

Johnny Depp. Ohhh yeah. Mmmm....he is so hot. Wow. SORRY! What was I doing? Oh yeah, my post! Geez, let me just wipe the drool off my keyboard. Cam Gigandet. Soooo...I had to put one all-american cutie in here. I mean, every guy I like is "Mr. Bad Boy". So here is my one American Pie, boy-next-door, Ken doll, perfect straight teeth boy. Yum. OK! On to the next bad boy!


GOOD LORD!!!!! I mean....really? Seriously? How can anyone be this hot? salivate...salivate....salivate. Ok, (wipes lips) have I made it clear that he's hot? Wow....mmm mmmm.....jesus he is hot. YUM.

Oh yeah...the blog...yeah. Sooo....I lost my train of thought. Ummm.....so have you ever gone to "google images" and typed in a hot guys name? DO IT! Type in David Beckham. That's my suggestion anyway. Yeah....mmmm....ok, sorry, just do it.

Have a good night! I know I will. ;)

Sangria!

This past weekend was sooo nice. I was out Friday night so when Saturday night rolled around I really didn't feel like doing anything but staying in. Me and my roommate are big wine drinkers....well not big but you know what I mean. Wine is both our drink of choice! But...we decided Saturday that we wanted something different. I had seen a recipe for Sangria earlier and it looked so delicious and refreshing. So we decided to venture out to the grocery store, get some dinner, stuff to make Sangria and a movie so we could stay home and just chill.

Doesn't that look yummy? It's called Sunny White Sangria. I got it from one of my favorite blogs that I look at daily. It's OhSheGlows.com. Click here for the recipe.

On another note, I think I've found a new hobby or passion or obsession...not sure which. I borrowed a bike from a friend and went riding with my sister and BIL not to long ago. After 15 seconds on that bike I was hooked. We've gone riding every weekend since then and now I'm looking into getting my own bike. I think I've found the one I want. My BIL is letting me have an extra bike rack that he has so I won't have to buy one of those. Here is the bike I'm thinking about getting:

Here was my conversation with the salesguy:

Me: Soooo, does this bike come in any other colors?

Salesguy: :-/

Me: Was that like a total girl thing to ask?

Salesguy: (laughing) Yes.

Apparently bikes only come in one color and that color denotes the year of the bike. Every year they change the color. Apparently white is the 2011 color for this bike! Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting my own bike so I can stop borrowing my friends and start customizin'! And I'll be able to ride during the week too since I'll have my own bike rack. I can only ride on the weekends now because that's why my sister and BIL ride and they have the bike and the bike rack. SO excited!

Have a great day!

Still Unemployed

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Yes, I'm still unemployed. However, I haven't really been job searching so that's why. I decided that I wanted to get my PMP certification (Project Management Professional). So I took the online course and I've been reading, studying, and doing online mock tests for 8 hours a day for the last month. I finally finished the course the middle of last week. I had to submit my experience along with my course certification on my application. That finally got approved and yesterday I registered for the exam. I will be taking the class on June 2 which gives me a month to study. I've heard it's SUPER hard and SUPER intense. It's a 4 hour exam. So a month should be good for me to study. Wish me luck...please!

On a different note, I think I've stumbled across a new hobby. My sister and brother in law have started bike riding on the weekends. I forgot how much I loved to ride a bike. I always rode my bike every day when I was a kid. I think I rode my bike right up until the day I got my drivers license! So we've been riding on the Greenway and on the Silver Comet Trail. Now I'm all excited and I want to get my own bike. I've been borrowing a friends. I've seen bikes from $79 all the way up to $10,000! No, that's not a typo....ten THOUSAND. The only way I would pay that much for a bike is if someone was paying my ass to ride it every day. I'm thinking somewhere in the range of $100-$150 for right now. Wouldn't want to buy a $10k bike and end up having a $10k clothes rack in the bedroom in a year. Ya know? So I just have to figure out what kind I want. I'm thinking a road bike....I definitely don't want a mountain bike and I've heard hybrids aren't all that great. We'll see...I'll post a picture of my new bike once I get it. I feel all giddy like I'm 12 and there will be a new bike under the Xmas tree or something. :D

Day One of Unemployment

So back in December...December 17th to be exact, I was laid off from my job along with 9 other people. That was round 1 of 3 layoffs my company will be doing over the next 6 months. I kept working, from home thankfully, and remained on payroll up until today. Yesterday I turned in my laptop and badge and now...well, here I am on the computer because I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

I have been employed for the last 20 years which means I've had a routine for the last 20 years. Today I got up, checked my email, and just finished the daily online job hunt (which let's face it, is never REALLY "done"), and will be going to the gym shortly, but then what do I do? It's not like I can go shopping. I can't call up friends and hang out with them because they are all at work!

I cleaned out and organized closets and drawers all last week. I still have a few more of those I can do. My house can't really get much cleaner since I'm constantly cleaning out of boredom. SIGH...I just keep waiting for that brilliant idea to hit me. You know the one that people who are living out of their cars and begging for food get hit with that causes them to invent something or open some store and go from homeless to billionaire in nano seconds? Yeah, that one. I mean how hard is it to come up with an idea like the flipping Snuggie?

Ok I'm going to stop complaining and go brainstorm while I organize a closet or something. Maybe I'll post some before and after pics.

P.S. With all this cleaning and organizing, I've lost count of how many times last week I said, "OMG, I've been looking for this FOREVER!" :)

Low calorie pasta? Yes please!

Oh. My. Yum.

So I've been subscribed to this newsletter for about 3 years now. It's the Hungry Girl newsletter. I have several of her books and I used to make a lot of things from them. But since I've recently gotten off the processed foods band wagon, I don't make as much of her stuff. Yes, she does show how to make a lot of your favorite foods low fat. But she uses a lot of processed foods to do it. I still love her though and I'm still a fan! (and no, it's not even a vegetarian newsletter. But if you're a good cook, you know how to fix that.) :)

Anyway, she also has a new show on The Cooking Channel. I was watching it earlier and she made a dish that I had seen in her newsletter before but never really thought to try until I saw her making it. It was SOOOOOOOOO good!

It's a pasta marinara dish basically. But there is no pasta involved. Hmmm....curious? You can find the recipe here.

She always has such creative names for her recipes. This one was called Slaw and Order. LOL. It uses Broccoli slaw and tomato soup. I know it sounds weird but it was SO good. AND...the ENTIRE dish was only 180 calories (the way I made it). And believe me, it makes a lot and I probably only ate half of it. It was pretty filling.

The only things I changed were to saute the garlic with some onion for a few minutes in the pan before adding the "slaw". She uses Amy's Tomato Bisque as her soup. I used Imagine Organic Creamy Tomato, because I happened to have some in the fridge.

This picture isn't really pretty but what do you expect with broccoli slaw and tomato soup? Oh yeah, and I took it with my phone! I didn't have my camera ready because, honestly, I wasn't expecting it to taste SO good! But mmm...it tasted just like pasta!!

If you try it, let me know what you think.

Mc-what?

Wow...it's been forever since I last blogged. So my dad called me tonight and said, "Go to Yahoo and scroll down. Look on the right hand side and look for the link that says "What's in a Chicken McNugget"." (I never did find this link, by the way but obviously it's there because my dad would NOT have called me otherwise) He then proceeded to tell me all the ingredients, one of them being Plaster of Paris and another one being amonia which, if ingested can cause death. He asked me why that stuff would be in a McNugget. "Shouldn't it just be fried chicken?" Of course I told him that I knew this all along. I don't walk around telling people what's in the processed food they eat. The reason I don't tell people is because (and I've talked about this before in a previous post) a lot of people don't want to know. Why don't people want to know they are ingesting an ingredient that could cause death? I HAVE NO IDEA.

I know I'm a vegetarian. I'm desperately trying to be full on vegan but I will admit...it's hard. It's not hard because I crave dairy or fish or whatever. (ok maybe cheese every now and then. :) )It's hard because my friends want to order pizza or my family wants to go to a seafood restaurant. And I will admit, I'm not one of those vegetarians who says meat stinks when it's cooking. It doesn't. I haven't had meat in over 20 years. Therefore, I don't crave it. But when someone is grilling a steak outside or one of my non-veg friends or relatives is cooking bacon...it smells DAMN good! And for one split second I'll think, "well no one will ever know if I take one bite ". BUT...I still don't give in. As soon as that "smell-craving" goes away, I remember all the reasons why I'm a vegetarian. I won't even go into them.

But I just don't understand why people don't want to know, and get mad at me when I tell them, what's in their food!!! I mean...ok, fine. You want to eat organic, grass-fed meat? Go ahead. THAT...I can deal with. I know there are people that LIKE meat and they don't want to give it up. And I'm fine with that. But when someone tells you there are chemicals and non-food products and things that statically contribute to cancer and heart disease and a long ass list of other health problems...why the hell would you want to keep eating that?? I just don't understand.

It's very frustrating. I know people don't want to hear this. There are so many vegan blogs out there where I notice that the blogger never says anything about this. They just talk about what they eat every day. It's probably because they have given up trying to change peoples minds or their way of thinking. Well I'm still a new blogger. I just wish more people would pay attention to what's in their food for their own healths sake.

Anyway...I know not many people will see this. But it feels good getting my thoughts out there at any rate. Isn't that what blogs are for? :)

Good night peeps. For the record...my dad said, "I don't think I'll be eating McDonalds chicken anytime soon." Yay Dad!

Spaghetti Casserole

Mmm mmm. Tonight I decided I wanted some comfort food. Last night my roomie made spaghetti and it smelled SO good. I hadn't had spaghetti in ages. So today on my way home from work I decided that's what I wanted to have. I made a pit stop at the grocery store and bought all the stuff. But I decided to put a little spin on it and make a casserole. So along with all the spaghetti "stuff", I got some Panko (Japanese bread crumbs). Well I've never made anything with bread crumbs nor have I ever really warmed up any bread in my oven. So I don't really know how to use the...ahem...broiler.

Needless to say, after 15 minutes on bake, the bread crumbs still weren't getting brown. So my roomie suggested I turn on the broiler for about 6 minutes. So I did. But my oven has a "HI" temp and a "LOW" temp for the broiler. I didn't ask which one to use. Just flipped it on (HI) and kept it at the minutes the timer was already on, which was 4. BIG mistake. When the timer went off, my spaghetti casserole was nice and black on top. LOL. So we scraped off most of the top layer and what do you know? It was STILL fabulous! Next time I'll know to cook it on "LOW" for about 5 minutes. And I will be making this again because it was so freaking good.

I would have taken a picture but...well you know....the black didn't look very appetizing, even though it was. I'll take a picture the next time.

Here's the recipe:

1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 cup of red onions, chopped however you like
1 small red bell pepper, chopped however you like (I kind of like my veggies chunky)
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes
3 or 4 garlic cloves (diced)
Oregano to taste
Basil to taste
Parsley to taste
Salt & pepper to taste
1 pkg whole wheat noodles

Pre heat the oven to 350. In a non-stick pan, sautee the onions and garlic until onions are translucent. Add in the red peppers, sauce, tomatoes, salt and pepper and spices. Let this simmer on low heat while the noodles are cooking. Cook the noodles until ALMOST al dente. Once the noodles are ready, strain and pour into an 8x8 casserole dish. Pour in the tomato sauce mixture. Then sprinkle the panko on top, covering the entire dish. Cover with foil and cook for 10 minutes in the oven. Then uncover and broil ON LOW(!) for about 4 or 5 minutes. You may just want to keep an eye on it. :) Serve and enjoy! It's probably going to be even better tomorrow for lunch!

My $150 Butternut Squash Soup

It's been one of those days that I love...Sunday, rainy, cool...ALMOST October. I can't wait for Fall if you can't tell. I woke up this morning and saw that it was supposed to start storming around noon. I wanted to make some soup for lunch. It was a Barefoot Contessa recipe that sounded delicious. So I dragged my roomie out to the grocery store because we both needed to go. I wanted to get home before the rain started.


I LOVE SOUP. I eat it probably four out of seven days when it's cold out. So when I saw the Barefoot Contessa episode with Butternut Squash soup I knew I had to try it. The pic above is of the veggies roasting.

Now let me explain why the title of this blog is "My $150 Butternut Squash Soup". First of all, the next time I make this I will be buying pre-peeled, cubed butternut squash instead of trying to peel and cube my own butternut squash. What a pain in the arse THAT was. I think it probably took me a good twenty minutes just to peel the squash. It's very oddly shaped in case you aren't familiar with it. Thank god I have awesome knives or it would've taken me forever to cube it. So after peeling it, I took the peelings and stuffed them down the garbage disposal, turned on the water and flipped the switch. BIG MISTAKE. My disposal is now clogged and I'm waiting on the plumber to get here. I tried EVERYTHING...plungers, Drano, resetting the disposal, using that little "key" thing, sticking my hand in the drain, trying to clear it...nothing worked. SIGH. SO...I had to call a plumber. I'm guessing that it's going to cost around $100-$150 and that's why this soup is called the $150 Butternut Squash Soup. Next time it will probably only cost me about $10.

Anyway, the soup was freaking delicious. I really could not stop eating it. But I had to because my roommate is making a yummy dinner tonight. So I didn't want to be too full for that. Here's a pic of the finished product.
It's very savory, very filling and kind of sweet. I kept adding salt trying to cut the sweetness until I got it to my liking. You'll just have to do the same. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 to 4 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded

2 yellow onions

2 McIntosh apples, peeled and cored

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 to 4 cup chicken stock (I used veggie stock of course)

1/2 tsp good curry powder (I used WAY more curry powder. Just a preference)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Cut the butternut squash, onions and apples into 1-inch cubes. Place them on a sheet pan and toss them with the olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Divide the squash mixture between 2 sheet pans and spread in a single layer. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes, tossing occasionally, until very tender.

3. Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock to a simmer. When the vegetables are done, put them through a food mill with the medium blade. (Alternatively you can place the roasted vegetables in batches in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add some of the chicken stock and coarsely puree.) When all of the vegetables are processed, place them in a large pot and add enough chicken stock to make a thick soup. Add the curry powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Taste for seasonings to be sure there's enough salt and pepper to bring out the curry flavor. Reheat and serve hot. YUM!