Taking on the V-Con Pt. 5

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango



Today was a very busy day. I had to take my kitty Simon to the vet, clean the house, pick up Timmy from work and this evening take photos for two very lovely ladies. I will post photos later when I give them the loving Rikki finishing touches. I thought ahead to make the quinoa, but then was rushing around to get other things done that I ended up chopping and tossing the ingredients for tonight's dish into a bowl, mixing it and stuffing it into my hungry face so fast I feel I did not give it the ample love the recipe deserves. Now, this recipe is an easy one and is not time consuming at all, but I feel the simple elegant flavors deserve more from me than being shoveled down my esophagus. That being said allow me to share the Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango.


Ingredients:
2 cups Quinoa
1 Mango chopped
1 Can of Black Beans
1 cup Scallions
2T. Red Wine Vinegar
2T. Grapeseed Oil
Salt
1 Bell Pepper
1 cup chopped Cilantro

As I said earlier chop and toss. Put it all in a bowl together and mix. How easy is that? The only prep work needed is the making of the quinoa.


looks like it could use some avocado huh?


just needs the black beans

I didn't have the scallions in my house, nor did I have onions or leeks or anything of that pungent sweet nature, but the dish was still yummy without that sharp onion goodness. Next time I want to add garlic, onions of course and jalapeno peppers, and possibly more tropical fruits in there as well.

Chickpea burgers

There is this super sweet and funny woman Marcy that shops at my Trader Joe's and over the last four years of working there Marcy and I have become friends. We email, share our pet stories and even poke fun at out crazy up tight neighbors. Marcy is so fun to speak with that often I find myself not working while at work but just chit chatting. Recently Marcy has gotten into the habit of bringing old magazines to my store for the employees to read on our lunch breaks. The magazines vary from Ode, O Magazine and Healthy Living to some I have never seen or hear before like Mother Earth News and Experience Life. Some of these magazines are absolutely uplifting and are great to read on a lunch break giving a fresh perspective to the rest of the work day. For me, one of the perks of these magazines is the recipes, though not all Vegan a lot are very easy to alter and make Vegan friendly. Experience Life just had a recipe for Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers and I made them last night for dinner, they were FANTASTIC! The best part, Timmy and I figured you could really replace the garbanzo beans with any bean and make all kinds of delicious and healthy veggie burgers. I followed the recipe as is, but next time I am going to use black beans with corn, jalapenos and tomatoes for a spicy South Western burger. Yum!

Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers


served along side with lightly friend and seasoned cauliflower

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. fresh ginger
3 T. olive oil
2 T. lemon juice
2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
3 T. diced red bell peppers
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine garbanzo beans through lemon juice in a food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add rice, bell peppers and parsley. Mix with your hands then shape into burgers. Place on baking sheet and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.


Enjoy!

Taking on the V-Con Pt. 2

Ah, the trials and tribulations of cooking. Today I had a quite simple recipe to follow and yet I managed to goof it up. The recipe, Snobby Joes from the Veganomicon.



The reason as to the less than satisfactory outcome? Lentils. The recipe calls for lentils and I assume that means regular lentils, but I used red lentils because I already had some in my pantry. Red lentils cook up faster than regular lentils and even though I cut the cook time almost in half I still had a mushy texture I was not too thrilled with. The Snobby Joes were a tad on the bland side, which I noticed Courtney mentioned in her blog, but she was more creative than I and spiced things up a bit. I however, have been in a funk and my creative side was sulking somewhere in the recesses of my brain. I followed the recipe step by step, ate my dinner then sighed. Blah. Blah day, blah dinner, blah blah blah. I am not going to give up on this recipe, I will buy the correct lentils and try try try again damnit! Until that day comes this is the result of my take on the Veganomicon's Snobby Joes.


ingredients, minus the maple syrup and mustard


soaking in its juices


it was a bit spicy from the chipotle pepper, and a bit smokey too

Don't forget to check out Courtney and Katie's blogs to see their results also!