Black bean burgers

Ha! Try saying that five times fast!

I was just looking for a generic vegan burger recipe, so I turned to my latest and greatest...AGAIN. If I was looking for a super duper vegan recipe I would have choosen something different, but it had been a busy day and these came together pretty quickly. This is one that is vegan AND gluten free thanks to the oat flour. I didn't have any oat flour, so I made my own by blending some oats in my blender.



Since my blender was already out and dirty, I used it to chop up the mushrooms and onions as well. It didn't go all that well, I wouldn't do it again.



Meanwhile, you mash up the black beans by hand and add the processed oat flour and onions and mushrooms.





I cooked on my nonstick skillet for about 8 min on a side. Easy peesy.



I served like regular burgers (not gluten free) with sweet tater fries from Trader Joe's (I have really come around on Trader Joe's...I love it).

Spicy Tortilla Casserole With Roasted Poblanos

I made the Spicy Tortilla Casserole with Roasted Poblanos from the book Viva Vegan!. (there is an exclamation point in the book title, lest you think I am overly excited about the first sentence).

It is vegan and gluten free and takes about 2 hours to make. Overall - I liked it, as did the husband. The kids didn't touch it, as I expected. They had rice and produce for dinner.

I halved the recipe, since I knew the kids wouldn't eat it. I also only put the Pine Nut crema (pine nuts, tofu, corn starch, nutritional yeast) on my half, as my husband is deathly afraid of all things tofu. I'm actually not a huge tofu/processed soy eater myself, but wanted to try it in this recipe.

Chunky Vegetable-Lentil Soup

Yay! I have a picture for this one! (Courtesy of BHG.com)

I found this recipe in the January Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and finally tried it out tonight. Jury's still out.

This was the first time I've ever tried lentils (gasp!). I mostly like it. Has a very "fresh" taste to it, which I really like. Not crazy about the onions the way they're cut, but that can be easily remedied. Hubby doesn't like mushrooms and is picking around them (we're eating this soup as I type), and suggested that we try it again with either a beef or chicken broth. Oh, and I left out the celery and put in some extra carrot. The napa cabbage on top is a nice texture touch. I think we'll be making this one again.

Chunky Vegetable-Lentil Soup
(You may get asked for you email address since it's a brand-spankin' new recipe, so I'll post it below just in case. It has the nutritional info on the website.)

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, cut into thin rings
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry green (French) lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 lb. whole small mushrooms (halve or quarter any larger mushrooms)
• 4 medium carrots, thinly sliced (2 cups)
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cups water
• 1 14-oz. can vegetable broth
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 of a head napa or red cabbage, sliced into strips (2 cups)

Directions

1. In a 4-quart saucepan or Dutch oven heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in lentils; cook and stir 1 minute.

2. Add mushrooms, carrots, celery, water, vegetable broth, salt and pepper. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 25 minutes or until lentils are tender.

3. Divide among soup bowls; top with cabbage. Makes 6 (1-1/2-cup) servings.

Oven-roasted veggies

Yep, nothing to look at here. (The one picture I took didn't really turn out...)

I made a batch of roasted veggies the other night, which turned out to be an experiment-gone-right for a change. Easy-peasy.

I cut up potatoes, red bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and cauliflower, put them in a baking dish, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and some balsamic vinegar, shook out some garlic powder, ground ginger, ground sea salt, and ground pepper over it, and tossed to coat every thing. Threw it in the oven for, oh, 35-40 minutes at 400*, stirring a few times to keep everything from sticking to the pan.

Super easy, gluten free, and vegan.

Black Bean Tacos

Nothing too revolutionary, but this is an easy vegan and gluten free dinner that we seem to eat once a week.

Make Your Own Tacos or Taco-Salad

Black Beans - simmered in taco-style seasonings if I'm feeling ambitious, plain if I'm not

Lettuce

Avocado

Rice - I made a cilantro-lime version and a plain version

Salsa

Taco Shells

Cheese (de-veganizes it)

Supper Club

Since the inspiration for this challenge was my supper club, I thought I should tell you about my supper I hosted. Unforuately, the above picture was the only one I took, there was just too much going on!

For my dinner, I served fajitas. I marinated and grilled steak, chicken, and portabella mushrooms. I also served sauteed peppers and onions, mexican rice, and black beans. I had the other members bring an appetizer (7 layer dip), a salad (avacado feta), magaritas (skinny girl), tortillas (flour and corn, corn is gluten free!), mexican beer, and dessert (margarita cupcakes!).

There are twelve people in this supper club. Do you have an idea how many people twelve people are? It is a lot. It is all our matching plates, we were short one fork, and don't even get me started on the wine glasses. Luckily we all fit at the table, but just barely.

Supper club is really less about the dinner and more about the company. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. For the first time I have leftover meat, but ran out of the veggies. The mushroom fajitas were probably the best! Mexican is great for something like this becaus everyone can pick and choose depending on their own diets. However, I think next time I will do shrimp and grits...don't tell!

Bree's Lentil Soup

I am so behind.

I made this recipe about two weeks ago. No, actually I made it years ago, wasn't all that impressed, but after hearing some recent glowing reviews about it, decided to try it again. I am on this vegan kick and I love making a bit pot of soup at the beginning of the week and eating it for lunches after that. This recipe makes a lot so it would be perfect. I made it the night before our snowy day. One major change I did from the original is that I backed way off the heat. The first time I made it I remember it being unbearably hot, and I like heat! This time I used no red pepper and half the chili powder. Results this time, eh, it was ok. I think the problem is that I have another lentil soup that I liked better. For lunches, I added more chili powder and purreed the whole thing up. Glad I did. This one is actually vegan/gluten free.



Oh, but a key component of lunches is some great bread:



And honestly, it was just screaming for a dollup of greek yogurt, so not vegan either:



We ended up being stuck at home for about a week. We traded lunches with the neighbors and I fed this to a few different people. They all said it was good, but again, I felt it was just ok.