Hello friends! Last night I decided I would make some black bean burgers using the recipe I had in my head from my past black bean burger venture. Turns out, my brain recipe was totes wrong. See? It IS a good thing I didn’t post a black bean burger recipe all willy-nilly!

Let’s start this post with a little bit of background information first. I don’t buy canned beans anymore. This is a recent development in my life and I thought I’d do you guys a solid and let you in on a little bean secret: buy them dry, soak them overnight, drain the water and rinse the beans, put them in your crock pot with some spice and cook during the day while you’re at work. Boom. Awesome tasting beans ready for you when you get home. Black beans cook faster than chickpeas so keep that in mind when you’re planning your cook time. Try it first on your day off and get your temperature and cook time right. Depending on how much time I have before I plan on using the beans, I’ll shift the temperature on the crock pot from high 6 hours to low 8 hours.

Onto the recipe! I made a lot of black beans yesterday….a lot. I drained most of the spiced bean liquid out of the crock pot (reserving some for the burgers themselves). In a bowl I mixed diced onion, diced green and red pepper, black beans, juice of 1 lime, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. I used a hand masher to create a semi bean paste but leaving some beans whole so it looked nice. After, I added sun dried tomatoes, a little bit of flax meal and couscous and stirred it all together. I made the couscous last minute because I had put too much liquid into the recipe and needed something to soak it up and also keep the beans together (flax meal helped with this too). The amount of spices and vegetables you use depends on how many beans you’re using. I made enough to feed a freaking army. Guess who’s eating black beans burgers for dinner again tonight? I’m not even mad about it either–they’re delicious. Anywho, I formed the mixture into giant patties with my hands and cooked them in a spray oiled pre heated skillet. I flipped them about 3 times making sure to let the outsides sear in the pan.

Loren and I built our burgers on sprouted wheat bread with rice cheese, red onions, banana peppers, avocado, salsa, greek yogurt and pickles. If we weren’t going out of town for the weekend I would have also added spinach, jalapeno and lots of tomato, but alas, we are and who wants food sitting in your fridge while you’re not home? These ingredients are an end of the line kind of deal, ya dig?

Hey guys.  Forgive my tardiness? Here are photos of some of the new recipes I’ve been working on since I last posted.  I can’t in good conscience give you recipes that I’m not 100% finished with so I’ll show you photos and hope to improve what I’ve done.

Probably one of the best raw meals I’ve made to date. Someone who has been eating raw for awhile may not be able to handle the heaviness of the nut cheese but if you’re a beginner raw foodie this is the dish for you.

My crust is my flax cracker recipe (flax seed, sun dried tomato, red pepper, yellow onion, garlic, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes, splash of water, fresh ground black pepper, dash of sea salt) spread out into a circle on a ParaFlexx sheet. I dehydrate it at 115 degrees for 24 hours (flipping it over after the first 5).

The sauce was made from sun dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, garlic, the juice from 1/2 a lemon, broccoli, sweet onion, green pepper, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes and a dash of sea salt all processed in a food processor (process the fresh tomatoes last so they remain in tact). I don’t keep exact measurements for this. When you’re eating raw, the foods you’re making are still meant to resemble their cooked brethren. The reason I use sun dried tomatoes and broccoli in my sauce recipe is to add texture and thickness to it; the other ingredients are for flavor. Use as many or as few of these ingredients as you’d like, just keep it thick so the flax crust doesn’t absorb a bunch of liquid and turn to mush.

My cheese was my macadamia nut ricotta recipe. I added fresh rosemary and the jucie of 1/2 a lemon to it to keep everything taste aligned.

I used a soft spatula to spread the sauce and the cheese onto the flax crust and then I put it back into the dehydrator for another 15-20 minutes at 115 degrees. You can keep it in longer or not at all if you’re starving.

For our side, Loren went out into the garden and grabbed a bowl of leafy greens.

Things you (should) already know about me:

• I LOVE Mexican food
• I LOVE Italian food
• I love to combine things that I love to make one big love fest (in my mouth) (thats what she said).

There are many names for what I’m calling Mex-agna; Mexican casserole, Mexican lasagna, Latin Lasagna, etc. Call it what you want, but I’ll call it delicious.

To get this dish started, preheat your oven to 375 degrees, grab a skillet, some heart healthy oil to sauté with, can-o-black beans, 1 corn on the cob, your favorite salsa, vegan cheese (with melting ability) and some fresh vegetables. I sauteed sweet onion, shredded carrot, green pepper and mushrooms with some cumin, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and cayenne. Do a light sauté to take the tiny bite out of the onion, soften the carrots a tad and to take some of the reserved water out of the mushrooms (the salt with help with this task). Set the sauté aside and sprinkle it with some fresh lime juice. All you need to do to prepare your black beans is open the can and then drain and rinse them. To prepare the corn; cut it free from it’s cob. Spray the sides of your cooking dish lightly (<–seriously) with olive oil, sprinkle a light layer of salsa at the bottom to coat and start building your Mex-agna! I used organic whole wheat big tortillas and ripped them into quarters. My casserole pan was a deep square so I layed out each piece of tortilla so the bottom of the pan was covered. I traded off each layer of the Mex-agna between sautéed veggies with salsa to black beans, corn and cheese. Once you have completed building the Mex-agna, make sure the top layer of tortillas are covered with salsa and then sprinkled with cheese. Cover your baking dish with foil and cook for 35-45 minutes depending on the quality of melty cheese you have. You’re basically warming the dish but also ensuring the tortillas soak up the juices of the veggies and salsa and melting the cheese. I plated mine on top of a bed of spinach with sliced avocado on the side.

My neighborhood in Decatur, GA offers a ton of veggie friendly food options. We have a pub, South American, Mexican, Irish, Italian, pizza, panini and coffee shop food spots within 2 blocks from our house. This post I’ll be talking about Saba, my neighborhood Italian restaurant. Since my first visit in October of 2009, I have gone back tri*monthly for the excellent (and reasonably priced) brunch, lunch and dinner menu.

Whenever I go for brunch I always get the tofu scramble ($5.95). What an incredible price for whole wheat toast, tofu scramble, potatoes and 2 pieces of soysage. They also have vegan french toast and a $4 mimosa, bloody mary and blood mary bar. I pretty much want to go every Sunday (brunch hours are Saturday and Sunday from 10-3).

My first trip in was to celebrate my boyfriend and I’s 4 year anniversary. Once the staff found out it was our anniversary they had us multiple glasses of wine to taste test, gave us incredible service and even brought us complimentary dessert (home made cannolis and tiramisu cheesecake). I always order the Vegan Vindaloo Pasta off the dinner menu (I request buckwheat noodles and add broccoli and onions). Pastas come with a side of bread, sandwiches are ginormous and come with a salad and anything you order is going to be delicious.

Anytime I can support my community I do.  I am a strong believer in voting with your dollar which is why I shop at the Dekalb Farmers Market, visit local restaurants and breweries and pay special attention to my community’s pet shelters and gardens.  One of my favorite spots in my neighborhood of Oakhurst village is Mojo Pizza N Pub.  The staff is awesome, they have daily beer/drink/food specials and weekly events (like trivia).  If you’re vegetarian, they have tons-o-options.  For us vegans, we can do cheeseless slices, salads or the vegetable sandwich.  I always get my vegetable sandwich stocked full of pesto and marinara sauce. It’s…incredible.

Have you guys heard about Gardein? I’m a little weary of fake meat and haven’t used any in a long time but I decided to give it a chance. So far I have used the Pulled Pork in enchiladas, Beefless Tips in a quinoa/vegetable mix, Chick’n Scallapini with veggies, Chick’n Good Stuff on top of spaghetti, Crispy Tenders in a taco, Buffalo Wings in a sandwich, and I think that pretty much makes me a full on fat ass. It’s a good addition to any meal…the consistency is what you would expect. Be sure not to overcook it and let it rest for 1 minute after cooking for it to firm back up. If you avoid fake meats when cooking, cook for you. I feel it’s my job to review them and let you know.

There was a article published yesterday regarding a harmful chemical called ‘hexane’ which is being used to process soy protein in a lot of popular veggie friendly foods (i.e. Morningstar Farms, Amy’s, etc). Read about this chemical here as well as find out if your favorite veggie food is effected.  One of Gardein’s active ingredients is soy protein….whether or not they use hexane to process it is unknown. They are not listed on the good or bad side.  What I got from reading the article is that most fake meats labeled organic are hexane free but the others are not.

When you think about your favorite foods, does your mind automatically go to pizza or hummus? I often think about both of these foods so I thought, “Why not combine them and make one promiscuss victus?”

Behold! Hummus Pizza!!!

I buy my whole wheat pizza crust at the Dekalb Farmers Market.  It’s $2.50, organic and vegan so you really can’t beat that with a stick. I cook the crust in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes depending on how much it poofs up. I want the crust to resemble soft pita so I avoid over cooking by constantly checking up on it.  Once its done I let it cool for <5 minutes and apply my sun dried tomato hummus and a variety of raw vegetables (usually cucumber, spinach, carrot, red onion, sun dried tomato, tomato, olives, banana peppers).  Cut and serve with some crushed red pepper flakes and oregano.

Recipe coming soon…..

i know…i siked you out. i’ll put the recipe up soon and notify you via Twitter once i do. if you’re not following us on Twitter already, do so here!

During these cold winter months, nothing tastes better than a piping hot bowl of vegetable soup.  On this particular Sunday night dinner at my parents house, my ma and I planned on making a vegetable soup but didn’t have any direction with it.  I’m going to give you the order in which we made our soup and if you have any helpful ideas you’d like to add, drop me a note at the bottom of the post!

The vegetables we used are as follows:

• 1/2 a napa cabbage cut into chunks
• 3 large carrots cut into discs
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 butternut squash cut into little squares
• two 15 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• the corn cut off of 1 cob
• frozen peas (we just kind of poured them in)
• diced fresh green beans
• 1 large zucchini sliced and then cut into quarters

We emptied two boxes of organic low sodium vegetable broth and some water into a large pot (water amount depends on how much broth vs veggies you want–always use a least 1 pint’s worth to dilute the broth a little).  We added the carrots, onions, squash and cabbage and brought it to a boil.  We seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper, covered the pot and let it cook for about 15-25 minutes until the squash was soft but still a little firm to the bite.  We then added the rest of the ingredients, seasoned again and turned the heat down to medium high and cooked for another 15 minutes (still having it covered).  Consider the squash to be your taste tester to make sure everything is cooked through.  We ladled our soup into the serving bowls and let them cool for about 5 minutes before setting them down at the table.  Cheese eaters should freshly grate some parmesan cheese on top of their soup after the 5 minute cool down.