Sun Dried Tomato Bean Burgers

Hello everyone! This post is so long overdue, and we apologize. It's not that we haven't been in the kitchen. In fact, we've estimated that we spend 25% of our lives in the kitchen! We just haven't been documenting. Today, that changes with this delicious recipe!

Keeping in tradition with summer, we are posting about burgers again! Inspired by 101 Cookbooks, we have made a vegetarian burger for any of you who need a break from traditional meaty burgers.

You'll need:

• 3 cups cooked beans (use any type you want; we use the Gourmet Bean Blend from Costco - use just over 1 cup dry to get 3 cups cooked)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 cup whole grain bread crumbs
• 2 oz sun dried tomatoes (not in oil), chopped
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons raw, hulled sunflower seeds (pick these up in bulk at Whole Foods)
• Rosemary, to taste
• Oregano, to taste
• Basil, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons walnut oil (or any cooking oil you prefer!)

Combine beans and eggs in a blender or food processor.

 Looks delicious, right?...Trust me, it gets better than this. ;) Blend until you get a liquidy paste texture.

Pour into a bowl. Add onion, sun dried tomatoes, sunflower seeds, rosemary, oregano, basil, pepper, and salt, and mix well.

 Add bread crumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes. It's possible that experimenting with oats instead of bread crumbs here would give a nice flavor. Let us know if you try! By now, you should have a sticky mixture, that forms into patties well. Heat walnut oil over medium heat. We used 1 tablespoon for the first batch of burgers, and 1 tablespoon for the second batch. Depending on how large your pan is and how many burgers you're cooking at a time, adjust accordingly.

Divide bean mixture into 4 oz patties. You should get about 11-12 burgers.  Cook in oil, flipping when the burger is nice and browned. Be sure to cook thoroughly, as eggs are in the mix.

 You can see I flipped the top 2, but the rest are what the burgers look like raw.

They should start to look nice and browned. Once they are all cooked, add fun toppings and enjoy!

Here, we added some yogurt cheese (recipe for that coming soon!) and grapefruit. It would also be amazing with avocado, sprouts, etc...The possibilities are endless!!

Nutrition Information (per 4 oz burger; yield 11 burgers):

Calories: 196

Carbohydrates: 24 g 

Fiber: about 5 g

Fat: 7 g

Protein: 9 g

Sweet Potato Heaven Burgers

Hi everyone! It's been such a crazy time for us here. School is in full force, work is taking over our lives....but we are still cooking! We have plenty of recipes stored in our overly saturated brains, just waiting for the right time to be posted. (When I say "right time," I mean time. Period.)

It's time.

So, we all know that red meat is not the healthiest source of protein, due to its high content of artery-clogging saturated fat. If you didn't know that, you'll quickly learn here!

Anyway, while the rest of the country is enjoying some chilly weather, it's beginning to get warm again here in Arizona. It feels as if summer, baseball, and BBQs are quickly approaching. The holidays may be a difficult time for people to make healthy choices, but the burgers, hot dogs, and sausages of the summer don't do much for our waistlines either.

Oh, the burgers. Yum. There are so many ways to eat a burger. With bacon. Avocado. Egg. Blue cheese, ranch, cheddar, onion rings, double patties, triple patties, the list goes on and on. And we totally encourage indulgences here and there. But guess what. We have a recipe that belongs on a list of gourmet burgers. You don't have to treat it as an indulgence, because it's so deliciously healthy. But the taste screams indulgence. Seriously, neon flashing lights, indulgence.

This burger consists of turkey, sweet potato, and fennel, among other ingredients. Turkey is an amazing lean source of protein, and it's a nice substitute when you feel like one more piece of grilled chicken may drive you to the nearest insane asylum. Sweet potatoes are packed with various nutrients, phytochemicals, and antioxidants. (Generally, the richer in color a fruit or vegetable is, the more nutrients it has!) And fennel. Don't be afraid of the fennel. Embrace the strange, bulb looking vegetable for its incredible flavor. Fennel has a slightly sweet, licorice flavor when raw, and when cooked, transforms into a magical ingredient given to Earth from the gods.

Is your mouth watering yet? Give in to your taste buds.


Servings: Three approximately 3.5 oz burgers

You'll need:

• 4 oz 99% lean ground turkey breast, raw (try Jennie-O brand or any other you like)
• 1 small sweet potato (if you have a food scale, somewhere around 4 oz)
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 1/4  cup chopped fennel
• 1 1/2 oz goat cheese
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• Sliced tomato
• Salt and pepper, to taste

What to do:

• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. 
• Poke holes with a fork into your sweet potato. Put into the microwave for 2-4 minutes, until soft enough to mash. 
• Mash the potato, turkey, onion, fennel, basil, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Mash it really well! Pretend it's your ex-boyfriend's head and mash it. Leave the skin on for some added fiber (just make sure you washed the potato really well beforehand!) Squish it around until it's really well mixed. Mix, mix, mix.

• The consistency should now be sticky, but firm enough to form patties and have them stick together. Form 3 patties. 

• Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes. This is really an estimate, because I have no idea how long it should take in other ovens. Just make sure your turkey is thoroughly cooked! It shouldn't take too long, since there isn't much turkey, and a lot of vegetables. 
• After the patties are cooked, put 1/2 oz of goat cheese on each burger, and let cook for another 5 minutes or so.

• Take out, top with sliced tomato, and ENJOY! It is so delicious. Mushrooms and balsamic would be even more delicious (A second round of pictures was taken with this combination) Be adventurous. Tell us about your adventures. We aren't jealous here. We just like really good food.

Being a vegetarian would be easy if this was what was on the menu everyday. 

Nutrition info per patty (including cheese!):

• 135 calories
• 14 g carbohydrate
• 2 g fiber (this is actually probably more since we left the skins in!)
• 4 g fat
• 2 g saturated fat
• 14 g protein

Hello?!?! At these stats, you could eat the entire recipe. And you'd be so, so full if you did that. Serve with a side salad of seasonal veggies from your local farmers market, and eat to your heart's content!

Tortilla fiesta!

After a whirlwind first week back at school and a jam-packed weekend helping with a study, we de-stressed by bringing out our inner Mamacita! 

In this house, tortillas go with everything. Whole wheat, flour, yellow corn, blue corn….we love them all. The only problem is that calories can add up quickly. The real, authentic flour tortillas can easily pack on nearly 200 calories and 5g of fat. And those giant sheets they call tortillas at Chipotle? Just one of those adds nearly 350 calories and 10g of fat to your day, and that’s just the outside of the burrito!

Megan and her dad found this awesome tortilla recipe on a great vegan blog over winter break and loved it. Needless to say, we loved it too. The only oil in these tortillas comes from walnuts, which are made up of heart-healthy polyunsaturated fats (the good kind!). They’re also low in sodium and are a good source of fiber, all for a guilt-free 90 calories. Plus, they taste way better than store-bought whole-wheat tortillas. And don’t worry if you don’t like walnuts—you can’t taste them at all. I know it sounds too good to be true, but believe us—it’s true!

Grab a friend and set aside a couple of hours for this recipe. You’ll have fun mixing, rolling, and flipping, but these tortillas require lots of love. Don’t worry though—all the love you put in, you’ll get back double. We’ve enjoyed our tortillas spread with PB & J, slathered in salsa, and wrapped around scrambled eggs. They’re so versatile, and our refrigerator and freezer will both be stocked for a while.

You’ll need:

•   2 cups warm water
•  1 cup rolled oats
•  ½ cup walnuts or pecans
•  1 ¼ tsp salt
•  4 ½ cups whole wheat flour

Making the dough:

·

• Combine the warm water, rolled oats, walnuts and salt for a few minutes in a blender. Make sure the mixture is thoroughly blended (smoother than in the picture below), since you want be sure to make a smooth dough.

•  While you have the blender going, put the flour into a large mixing bowl.

• Pour the batter from the blender into the flour, and start to combine. You can use an electric mixer if you have one, but if you’re a grad student with limited supplies (like us!), a little elbow grease works just as well.

•       Mixing might take a while, but with a little persistence, you’ll get a smooth dough.
•       Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a most towel, and let it sit for approximately 30 minutes.

Making the tortillas:

• After the dough has been set aside, you’re ready to separate it into individual balls. We just so happened to have exactly 45 oz of dough, so we made 1 ½ oz balls of dough (about the size of a golf ball) to make 30 tortillas.

•  Sprinkle some flour on a flat, clean surface, and start rolling! You can make your tortillas as thick as you want. With some extra rolling you might get your tortillas up to about 10 inches in diameter, but ours were about 8-9 inches each.
•  Be sure to cover the dough you aren’t measuring or rolling so that it doesn’t dry out.

•  When you’re ready to cook your tortillas, heat a large skillet over high heat. Place a tortilla on the skillet and flip once it starts bubbling—keep an eye on your tortillas because this might not even take a full minute (depending on how hot your skillet is).

•   Cook the second side until you see bubbles, and repeat for the rest of the dough.

And finally, enjoy!!! 

We enjoyed our first tortillas straight off the pan and dipped in freshly made salsa :) 

Ok…get ready to see this amazing nutrition breakdown:

Per 1.5oz tortilla:

• Calories: 90
• Fat: 1.5g
• Sodium: 80mg (less than 4% of the daily value)
• Carbohydrate: 15g
• Fiber: 2.2g
• Protein: 3g

Have fun, and let us know what you think! 

Bianca, Sarah, and Megan  

           

Introduction--Bianca

Hi! I'm Bianca, and welcome to my life as a daughter, sister, grad student, aspiring dietitian, outdoor-lover, wanna-be-runner, and food lover! 

I'm a University of Arizona grad and a graduate student in Human Nutrition at Arizona State University. As much as I love the amazing Sun Devils I've met so far at ASU, let's just be clear from the start: I'll always be a Wildcat at heart <3

I have always been a nutrition nerd. Yes, I was that kid in sixth grade who brought tuna and carrot sticks to lunch, while every other normal kid enjoyed pizza drowned in ranch dressing. I have my mom to thank for this--she has always inspired me to eat well, live healthy, and stay strong. 

My mom and I hiking in my beloved Catalina mountains!

That's not to say I don't enjoy a cookie...or two...or three...now and then--my dad always reminded my brother and I that "junk food" was good for the mind. As ridiculous as it sounded that a couple of Oreos could be good for my mind, I think my dad was onto something. I am a true believer in balance, and balance in nutrition is no exception. 

Nutrition is my passion, and I hope this blog will help me share my quest for balance, peace, mindfulness, and happiness with all of you :)

My brother and I in Seattle this summer!

Introduction - Sarah

Hi everyone! So, we finally did it. We have been talking about creating this blog for quite a while, and every time we make an interesting recipe, someone says, "Take out the camera! We need to put this on our blog!" Well people, it is 2012. We are going all out. Let's celebrate our last year on earth with food. ;)


I guess we should start off by introducing ourselves. Each of us will be posting here, so it'll be great for you to get to know us! We want everyone to feel the love here, because we have plenty to give.


Here it goes! My name is Sarah, and I am 23 years old. I just moved to Tempe in August for graduate school, and I absolutely love it here. Nothing is better than desert scenery and sunshine all year long.


I am attending ASU for a master's degree in nutrition, and will soon (hopefully) be a Registered Dietitian! I love to cook, especially creating new recipes. I like whole grains, chopping vegetables, and making sweet tea. My favorite vegetable would either be brussels sprouts (don't wrinkle your nose yet - we will teach you how to make them delicious!) or asparagus. My favorite fruit is any kind of berry, because the colors are beautiful. (I'm an artist at heart - photography and drawing are two passions of mine!)


I believe a dish can never have enough garlic, cilantro, or onion, and a little bit of citrus can make your whole day better (doesn't vitamin C just remind you of the sun?). The ONE single food I hate is cole slaw. I will never subject you to a cole slaw recipe. Not my cup of tea. Speaking of tea, I love it. Mint tea is my favorite. Actually....I'll be right back. 


Yum. That's better. 


I'm sure I'll be revealing more about myself throughout the life of the blog, but for now, I'll stop boring you with the details of my food obsession. 


To put a face with the name, here I am!

This is my little brother and I last summer in San Diego. He has my heart!

Stick around with us, and we will take you through a journey of magical adventures. No, really. The stuff we do in the kitchen is magic.






- Sarah