Black Bean Burgers with homemade buns!

 I can't stop thinking about it. I even have a hard time falling asleep. I am just SO excited to participate in the farmers market this year. I never realized how much planning would go into this. Can you just imagine how stressful it is for those selling produce? I'm just making something in an oven they're growing stuff! Sorry, got off track. This post is about burgers... black bean burgers. The entire time my husband eats these he says "This is by far my favorite meal." Well, the are pretty much amazing.

This meal is quite time consuming. It doesn't have to be but I guess I like when its more difficult. I could easily buy canned beans, shredded carrots, hamburger buns, and french fries. But I like to be difficult.

Black Bean Burgers
1 cup dry black beans
2 carrots
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup diced onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Soak beans and cook according to package. I usually cook them for about 2.5 hours, the softer the better. Peel carrots, then grate them. Mince garlic and onion. Add cooked beans, carrots, garlic, onion and bread crumbs to bowl. Mash together. I doubled the recipe so we could have leftovers.

Once beans are all mashed form into patties.

Put a little bit of olive oil in a pan. Place patties in pan and brown on both sides.


Hamburger Buns
Adapted from here.

1 cup warm water
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
about 4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

Add water, oil, sugar, salt, 2 cups flour, and yeast into bread machine. Then add 1/2 cup of flour at a time until it forms a ball and is only slightly sticky. Once bread machine is done separate dough into 12 balls.   Turn balls in hands folding edge under to make circle. Press flat between hands. Place on greased cookie sheet. Let buns rise for about 30 minutes. I can't ever get them to rise very much so you may not see them rise much. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

I also like to make french fries with this meal. Peel the russet potatoes, slice into strips. Soak for about 30 minutes. Lay flat on greased cookie sheet, let dry. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

This is the only picture I took of the fries.

Then enjoy the meal!

Breadsticks!!

One of my favorite restaurants used to be Pizza Hut. I loved their breadsticks. It seems like my goal lately has been to recreate all of my favorite foods into dairy free versions at home. I found a great recipe online for these breadsticks and while they don't taste the same, they still taste great! Gabe practically begs me to make these anytime we have spaghetti.

Pizza Hut Style Breadsticks
Modified from this recipe.

1 1/3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
About 4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp instant yeast

Combine in order into bread machine. Once done roll out with rolling pin and place on greased cookie sheet. Cut into desired sizes.

Topping
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp oregano
butter

Melt the butter and spread on dough, sprinkle with topping and let rise for about an hour. Bake for 12-15 minutes 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

Failure turned great

I learned a very hard lesson yesterday, always check for ingredients before baking. Last time I made that mistake I was 16. At least its not a mistake I make often.

I ran out of white flour. It wasn't that big of a deal, but when you have yeast that has already been proofed then you kind of have to rush. I ended up just using wheat flour for the rest of it.

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Recipe from Vegan Yum Yum. (Although I did change a few things)

Yeast Mixture
4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
1 Cup Warm Water

Dough
1 Cup Almond Milk
2/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup Best Life Butter, melted
2 tsp Salt
2 Ener-g Egg Replacer Eggs, prepared, optional
Yeast Mixture, from above
About 4 cups white flour
About 2 cups wheat flour

Dough Filling
1/2 Cup Best Life Butter, melted
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
3 Tbs Cinnamon

Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp almond milk

Combine yeast mixture and set aside to proof.

In bread machine add melted butter, almond milk, salt, egg replacer, and sugar. Once yeast is proofed add to bread machine. Now add the flour until the dough is no longer sticky but not falling apart. Here is where my oops moment comes in. It is supposed to be 6 cups of white flour but I forgot to check to make sure we had all of the flour. Luckily we had wheat flour that I could use. You can bet I'll always check for flour now before baking!

Before flour.

With a little flour.

Now just let it rise.

Once it has risen, roll it out.

Now spread melted butter all over the dough.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Now its time to roll it up.

It is going to make 12 rolls. So cut it in half, then cut the halves in half. Which will make 4 sections. Cut each of those sections into 3. The easiest way to cut them is with thread or dental floss, just run underneath it, cross it and pull.

Coat 2- 13X9 pans with butter and place the cinnamon rolls in them. Two rows of three. Cover and let rise overnight in the fridge.

Next Morning

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Right out of the fridge.

Place in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. While rolls are baking make icing. Just combine powdered sugar and milk. It will be pretty difficult to stir but it'll get there.

Put icing on cinnamon rolls and enjoy!

They actually turned out great. I was nervous that with the wheat flour they wouldn't taste as good but they were still amazing!!! Definitely worth it.

Banana Bread

I learned a very important lesson today. Make sure you have all of your ingredients before going to bake something. You'll hear more on that tomorrow.


Today, its all about banana bread! Anika loves bananas, so we always have some in the house. Well a few of our bananas were starting to go bad which always means banana bread! I haven't found my perfect recipe for it, but this one comes pretty close!


Banana Bread
Adapted from here.
4 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted best life butter
1 cup sugar
1 ener-g egg replacer egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 t baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Mash the bananas and then combine with the butter. Add sugar, egg replacer and vanilla to banana mixture. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over the top. Combine flour until just combined. Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour.

As with all my breads, I put a little butter on top. I just love the way it shines.

Sweet Potato and Pear soup

My husband, Gabe, and I don't really eat with the seasons. I think last year we ate more soup in the summer and fall then we ever do in the winter. Gabe is sick right now with a cold so he wanted to eat soup for dinner. Last year we made a sweet potato and pear soup for him that he fell in love with! Unfortunately, I haven't made it since, I don't have all the strength that he does to chop sweet potatoes. Who knew that a sweet potato would be so difficult to cut?!?! Not me! When I was done I felt like I needed to ice my hand for an hour.

Sweet Potato and Pear Soup
From Oh She Glows
1 tablespoon vegan margarine
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped carrot
1/4 cup chopped celery
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 pears, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
5 cups vegetable broth
1/3 cup coconut milk (I used almond milk)
2 teaspoons maple syrup, or to taste
2 teaspoons lime juice, or to taste
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Chop carrots, celery, and onion. Peel and cube sweet potatoes and pears.

In pot, heat margarine on medium heat. Saute carrots, celery, and onion for about 1 minute. Add sweet potatoes, pears and thyme and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add paprika and veggie broth. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until sweet potato is soft.

Puree in a blender or food processor until smooth. Return to pot. Add almond milk, maple syrup and lime juice. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper, adding more syrup or lime juice as needed. Drizzle with maple syrup if preferred. Can be made up to 2 days ahead of time.

The soup tasted great, but I am not a fan of eating pureed food. It just felt weird. Eating this soup and trying to feed it to Anika made me very thankful that we did baby-led weaning with her. We never had to feed her puree's so this was so different to us, and quite frustrating too. Put some in her mouth, her spit half of it out, wipe her face off, repeat.

Next time I make this soup I will make it like I did the first time, we won't puree it.