I have been falling behind again readers and I am sorry. Maybe it’s the rain, maybe it’s the time of year at work, or maybe it’s the fact that I recently started watching House of Cards. But I apologize. I will not be so lax with my posts.
Last week we tried an experiment with a fully vegan menu board. I had a lot of fun trying out some new twists on classics like Mac and Cheese and Curried Quinoa. My partner (a die hard meat eater) fared well. He didn’t complain about not having meat. Once he asked if I could please add bacon, to the Mac and Cheese of course, but that was it for rumblings. Overall it was a good week, we were satisfied, and maybe our bodies will thank us for it.
But this week we are back to meat eating. Not a lot of meat mind you, snuck 2 vegan dishes in there this week.
I am really excited about the General Tso’s Chicken. I love good Chinese food, but find it hard to replicate the same flavours at home. Maybe because I don’t want to fry everything. I will post tomorrow about the recipe and let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed it goes well.
I hate to waste leftovers, but I also hate to reheat food. It’s an odd combo I know, but I am lucky to have a garbage disposal husband who will pretty much eat anything left in the fridge if I give him the go ahead.
So after last week’s dishes I ended up left with some refried chipotle black beans from our tacos.
You can check out the recipe I used for the black beans (done in the slow cooker) on the blog One Lovely Life.
It seemed logical to turn them into burgers. I cooked up some quinoa and added that and leftover arugula to the mix. I then made them into patties, put them on a cookie sheet to bake. You could fry them, but I find that without egg they get a little fragile and end up falling apart. The oven does a great job. 400 for 25 minutes or so until they develop a crust.
Top your burgers with your favourite toppings. Ours included guacamole, chipotle “cheese” sauce made from cashew cream (also a leftover from the mac and cheese), some kale, swiss chard and spinach salad blend and a slice of tomato. My partner also added some hot sauce onto his. Add a side of paprika hashbrowns and a beer to wash it down, voila, it’s burger night!
MenuBored 