That was the good part of the weekend. The bad part was when I woke up Sunday morning with a huge kink in my neck. I spent half of the day on the couch laying on the heating pad. Not how I had imagined the day going. But luckily I was back up and running by the afternoon. I finished painting shelves for my studio, planted my snap peas in the garden, got all the laundry done (which I haven't touched in a month, yeah I know, I'm a sad mess sometimes), and cleaned the house. And I did this all without disturbing the busy student. Impressive.
But now it's Monday again, and I'm back to the daily grind. Work has been crazy busy and I'm trying to get two different projects finished up. Let's just say they aren't necessarily cooperating. Yay Science. That's what we say when things aren't working. But I have a nice 4 day weekend coming up, so it will be worth it. I think I see some painting in my near future.
And because this was a boring update with no real projects or any real content, I'm including my Black Bean Recipe.
Black Bean Burgers
Ingredients
- 2 cans black beans (I like to use the jalapeno beans)
- 1 c frozen spinach, drained (fresh can be used, but I've found it works better with the frozen)
- 1 small onion
- 1 sweet pepper (I used half green and half yellow)
- 4 cloves garlic (give or take)
- 1 1/2 - 2 c bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper
- Lime juice
- Dice sweet pepper, onion and garlic. I use my food processor and dice them very small. Saute this mixture with olive oil until fragrant and the onion is transparent.
- While this is cooking, rinse the black beans. Place in bowl and mash with a potato masher. You want this to be somewhat chunky.
- Add spinach and egg. Mix up.
- Add cooked veggie mix to bowl and mix.
- Add bread crumbs. I start with one cup and add more as needed to get a nice consistency. You want them to form nice firm patties.
- Add salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste.
- Once it's all mixed up, place in fridge for one hour.
- Then form in to patties and saute on both sides until golden brown. I will brown them on both sides and then move them to the grill to finish.
- Serve with your favorite toppings.
- I don't normally cook them on the grill with foil, but if you are having trouble with falling a part you may need the foil.
- If they don't seem be holding their shape, add more bread crumbs.
- I've even formed them into patties, placed them on the skillet, and then decided they were not the right consistency. So I threw them back in the bowl and added more bread crumbs. This is a pretty forgiving recipe
- The last time I made these, I cut up half a jalapeno (seeds and all, we're spicy rebels) and added it to the saute mixture. Turned out really great.
- Feel free to try this with other types of beans. This is based on a recipe I found on Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice, which uses white beans. Stop over there to see the original recipe as well as a fantastic recipe for sweet potato buns.
- I normally get 8 patties from this recipe. Me and J only can eat about half of them, so I freeze the left overs.
- Just place patties on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer.
- When they are completely frozen, I wrap each one in freezer paper and place them in a freezer bag marked with what they are and the date and throw them in the freezer.
- Then I just take them out and let them sit on the counter to defrost (the microwave might work as well) and then just grill or saute them.
- Perfect for a night when we need a quick meal.
I love me a good beef burger (and a buffalo one even more), but I love black bean burgers. They are sooooo good. Now if you've never had a bean burger, don't expect them to have a "meat" consistency. They don't, they have a "bean" consistency. But don't let that scare you, give them a try. They are super yummy.
Now it's time to get back to science. Good thing I have Deals Gone Bad to keep me company. Stay creative everyone!
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