Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Veganish?

So I have to admit, James and I are carnivores, but this week has a been a little different.........more veganish you might say. You see, James flys out tomorrow for another out of state race and I head out Friday for a little "race" in D-town. Therefore, our fridge is bare and I really don't want to buy a bunch of food before we leave. The good news is, we are definitely EATING UP all our VEGGIES (don't want t leave them here all by their lonesome!).
Anyway, I was reading the lovely Vegan Angela's blog the other day and saw her recipe for Jiffy Burgers. Just so happened that I had most of those ingredients in my fridge, yea! I thought I'd give it a try (with a little switcher-roo in the veggies and flour). Check it!

Homemade Veggie Burgers (aka Jiffy Burgers)
Also adapted from here

cup (240 ml) cooked, drained beans (I used chickpeas)
1 cup (240 ml) chopped mixed vegetables (I used carrot, celery, cucumber, Kale, and tomato)
1 small onion, cut into chunks (I actually only used 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup (120 ml) raw sunflower seeds
1 Tbsp (15 ml) raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp (15 ml) Bragg’s, tamari or soy sauce
1/2 tsp (5 ml) dried dill weed
1/2 tsp (5 ml) dried basil
1/2 tsp (5 ml) dried tarragon
1/4 tsp (1 ml) fine sea salt
dash cayenne ( I actually used a curry spice instead)
1 tsp (5 ml) finely ground flax seeds
1/4-1/2 cup (60 ml-120 ml) flour (I used buckwheat)

Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, or spray with nonstick spray.
Place everything except the flour in the bowl of a food processor and blend until almost smooth and only small flecks of vegetables remain (I like my burgers fairly homogenous; if you prefer chunkier burgers, process a bit less). Sprinkle with 1/4 cup (60 ml) flour to start, and pulse to combine; check the texture of the mixture with your hands. It should be very moist but still hold together. If the mixture is too wet, add more flour until desired consistency is reached.
Shape the mixture into 6-8 burgers, depending on how big you’d like them. Flatten each burger to 1/2 inch (2.5 cm) thickness and place on the cookie sheet, spacing evenly (these won’t spread as they bake).
Bake about 15 minutes on one side, then flip and bake another 10-15 minutes on the other side, until burgers are lightly browned. These may also be cooked on a flat grill; spray with olive oil spray and grill 8-10 minutes on one side, then flip and grill another 5-8 minutes on the other side.
We topped it with a little avocado and chalula sauce.




So what were the results for first our "veganish" meal??? Delicious!!! And the hubs agreed! We will definitely be  making these again. Plus, we used up a ton of good vegetables and now I feel resourceful, yea!
Thanks Angela for this "jiffy" of a recipe!

Going along with "veganish" and "jiffy" theme, I wanted make the hubs some gluten free goodies to take while traveling. Joanna had this awesome recipe post this morning for Jiffy Peanut Butter Bread so I thought I'd see if I had any ingredients that were similar. Turns out, I did! Here's my Gluten Free /Vegan version. Thanks Joanna. This recipe is a keeper!

Almond Butter Currant Bread

1/2 cup Raw Almond Butter
1/3 cup Sugar (or your favorite sugar substitute)
1 1/2 cup Milk (I used unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk)
1 cup Amaranth Flour
1 cup Coconut Flour
4 t Baking Powder
1/2 cup dried currants
1tbsp cinnamon
1 t Salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend peanut butter, sugar, and milk together. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients then add it to the peanut butter mixture, blend. Pour batter into a bread loaf pan coated with non-stick spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes

Gooey Goodness!


Well, I think I got rid of a lot perishables in our fridge and pantry, phew! Just need to eat a few more bananas and we're set.

Happy Hump day!

Cheers,
LC





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