Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers

So, you guys know how much Matt and Alyssa like vegetarian things, especially if they're not covered in cheese.  But here I was, being so sneaky, I made homemade veggie burgers that were VEGAN.  No jokes.  Now, they weren't a huge hit, but they were eaten.  So, I will take a victory where I can get it.  I will say, that I thought they were pretty good, though a little mushy.  Probably because I didn't wait long enough for them to crisp in the oil, but I was hungry!  Oh well, they were tasty!

Also, I made mine vegetarian by putting some tzatziki on top, but Alyssa and Matt had onion, avocado, and mustard for my vegan friends.  

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burger

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato, cooked and skinned

1 can black beans, drained

1 Tbsp. tahini

1/8 cup flour

1 tsp. lemon pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne

Panko bread crumbs (I'm not sure how much I used, I filled up a plate and used most)

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Toppings: avocado, onion, tzatziki, whatever you want

Preparation:

Mash potato and beans together in a large mixing bowl. 

Add tahini, lemon pepper, cayenne, and flour.  If mixture is loose, add more flour until a consistency you can form into a patty.  Place patty into bread crumbs to coat. 

Heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat.  

Place patties into pan and cook until golden brown on first side.  Flip until golden brown on the other side.  

Serve topped with avocado and onions on a roll.  

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Healthy.Happy.Life.

Green Bean Fries

Today I decided to make Greek burgers with chicken to be a little healthier, and then to kick that healthy life up a notch, I made green bean fries instead of regular fries.  I did however neglect to look the weather up and it was a trillion degrees in our house before I turned the oven to 425.  Yikes.  We were sweating while eating, but they were really good.  Good enough to turn your house into an oven?  Probably not.  Good enough to make again, on a day where the humidity isn't 50 percent?  Definitely.
So, I also used panko bread crumbs instead of regular to make them extra crispy, but the panko wouldn't really stick, so in the future use regular old bread crumbs to yummy fries!
I dipped mine into Tzatziki because I made Greek burgers, which was great!

Green Bean Fries

Just as a note- I had a little over a pound of green beans, so the uncoated beans in my picture I actually just sauteed.  You can totally ignore those.

Green Bean Fries

Ingredients:
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp. ranch dressing mix
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. salt (if you're using pre-packaged rach mix, skip the salt)
1/2 tsp. pepper
cooking spray
2 eggs, beaten
1 lb. green beans, washed and trimmer

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 425.
Combine breadcrumbs, ranch mix, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. After combined, put onto a plate for easier coating.
Spray a cookie sheet with the cooking spray.
Dip the green beans in the egg, letting excess (eggcess, haha) drip back into the bowl.
Dip into breadcrumb mixture to coat.
Place green beans on cookie sheet in a single layer.
Spray green beans lightly with cooking spray.
Bake for 10 minutes.  Flip and bake another 2 minutes.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Dizzy, Busy & Hungry!

Coffee Brownies

Usually I am not one for making desserts, hello, my sister is in pastry school!  However, I was cooking dinner for our friends, and decided to bake some brownies to complete the meal.  Now, normally I would make box brownies, (I know!) but I was feeling extra bakey, so I decided to whip up a batch of these babies.
I liked them, though the coffee I used wasn't ground as fine as it probably should have been, so they were a little grainy.  They were however, moist, chewy, and rich.  Plus, the extra kick from the coffee was a great surprise!

Coffee Brownies

Coffee Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
15 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. finely ground coffee (I used Kona)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 medium eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350.
Spray 13x9 pan with nonstick spray.  Combine sugar, butter, cocoa, coffee, and salt in a large metal bowl.  Place bowl over saucepan of simmering water- creating a double boiler- and whisk until blended (it will be grainy).
Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla.  Fold in flour.
Spread batter in pan.
Bake 24-25 minutes, or until tester inserted into middle of brownies comes out clean.
Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Epicurious