Black Chickpean Burger Cakes.

I'm not staying very committed to my blog here now, am I? I think my problem is that I'm over-thinking it and feeling "tied" to it - totally not my original intent when I started it! I need to let it be fun and non-judgmental again. ;-)

With that having been said (i so love ablative absolutes!), I hereby BREAK my commitment to my blog and engage to only have some fun! :-D

Now, for some fun - well, I kind of had fun doing it! I decided to attempt to be creative in the kitchen tonight. I didn't have anything thawed and I was just preparing a meal for myself, so I didn't want anything that was too much work, either.

Without using any sort of recipe, rather utilizing things I've learned in cooking other things, I decided to try my hand at creating bean/veggie burger things. I'm not exactly sure what these might be called - perhaps black chickpean burgercakes?

I started with 2 cans of beans: 1 can of Black Beans (from Aldi) and 1 can of Chickpeas (on sale at Price Chopper).

I drained them, rinsed them and threw them in the food processor. The draining and rinsing was good, but I don't think I should have put them in the food processor - they ended up looking like this:

Total Mush. (the color was because I used my phone to take the picture - I was charging the batteries for the camera) Next time, I'll probably just lightly smoosh the beans - cos I'm not going for refried bean texture here.

To my mush, I added:

• 2 egg whites & 1 whole egg (I had the whites leftover from another dish)
• a handful of chopped fresh spinach
• 4 white mushrooms, finely chopped
• probably about 1 cup of breadcrumbs, give or take. (I didn't measure)
• 1 whole green onion, finely chopped
• about 1 Tbsp of prepared horseradish
• garlic salt - liberal dose
• ground black pepper
• Italian Seasoning blend

I then formed them into patties and started to grill them with some organic EVOO.

I was kind of afraid of them not being cooked through, so I put a couple on a cookie sheet and threw them in the oven with the Rosemary-Garlic potatoes was I was roasting. 

About ten minutes later, I deemed the potatoes and the cake done and plated them up.

that ugly pinkish stuff in the little bowl is a mixture of horseradish, Smart Balance Omega 3, and ketchup. I slathered it on the patty.

Overall, this was OK. I think had I actually eaten it like a burger, it could've been pretty good. I'm going to freeze the rest of them individually, so I can make quick meals for myself in the future.

P.S. (from the future) I ate one like a burger for dinner Monday night, and the texture was awful. hopefully it was the fault of not having been cooked well. I have a few more to experiment with...

Mindful Menu: week of January 31 - February 6

I'm posting much earlier than I usually do! woo hoo!

Sunday 31st: I don't know yet...I need to go to the store, so that will probably determine what I'll be having for dinner. Black Chickpean Burger Cakes and oven-roasted potatoes

Monday 1st: Chicken Finger Salad. Chicken prepared with Shake and Bake and then tossed into a spinach-based salad.

Tuesday 2nd: Burgers & homemade Spicy sweet potato fries!

Wednesday 3rd: Hubby's parents taking us to dinner for Hubby's 29th birthday!

Thursday 4th: Burritos.

Friday 5th: Salmon Patties.

Saturday 6th: I'm not sure yet...Hubby works, so it'll be something easy for 1.

Mindful Menu: week of January 24 - 30

so, I'm a little late with my post - but I'm still posting! :-) I won't bother posting Sunday or Monday, since it's past mealtime for both days!

Tuesday: Home made Pizza

Wednesday: Salmon Steaks

Thursday: Chicken Stir Fry

Friday: Pork Chops - either Shake'n'Baked or broiled.

Saturday: Potato Soup and sandwiches.

past, present and future

Let's face it - I need to change my posting schedule or start posting in the mornings. After hubby gets up in the afternoon (he works overnights) he's on the computer pretty much the whole time he's awake. If I'm on it, he lurks behind me acting bored and I feel rushed - not a good combo for attempting to post to the blog!

I'll not commit to days - but I'll continue to attempt posting 3x week - and always on Sundays. I have to post my Mindful Menu on Sundays, so I have NO EXCUSE for not posting some valuable content. :-)

Fitness
The going to the gym thing isn't working out so well for me...I obviously haven't tried hard enough to put it into my routine yet. Thursday we actually were going to go, but some things came up and didn't try to schedule it in around. Friday and Saturday and today, yeah, just didn't bother. TOMORROW I'm going. I promise myself that!

I did, however, rip open that Wii Fit Plus - SO. MUCH. FUN! After I finished and came upstairs, hubby asked what I was laughing about - some of the activities just really had me in hysterics b/c of how fun they were or how BAD I was at them! For example, I was REALLY terrible at the birdy-flying-landing-on-the-islands thing - but it was so much fun to pretend to be a bird! :-D

Food
I totally need to start tracking my meals again to keep me accountable!! I have a fabulous tracker, but I just haven't been using it. :-( *slaps hand*

I made a ton of seemingly healthy dishes last week - well, a few, maybe not a ton. I totally deviated from my meal plan, but I did use it to guide me and for grocery shopping!

Monday's Rainbow Pasta Bake turned out absolutely awful! This wasn't a fault of the recipe, rather a fault of using very old, very freezer-burnt veggies. It looked and smelled super-yum, so I'll be trying it again - maybe next week since Bird's Eye Frozen Veggies are on sale this week for 99c bag and pasta is also on sale! I ended up trying to eat it, but gave up and had a Yoplait Pear yogurt instead.

Tuesday & Wednesday we had black bean & corn burritos. Thursday was "ugly vegetable soup" - made from the leftover veg and pasta from Monday. The pasta went to mush, hence the "ugly", but it was actually quite tasty - good thing, cos I've got 2 bowls in the freezer! Friday was 15 bean soup w/ smoked sausage and corn bread - hearty and cheap! Saturday I finally made those Easy Salmon Cakes. Those were definitely a winner!

My goal with the meal planning is to create not only a weekly plan, but to establish a repertoire and to get really good at a few dishes. I also want to start making as much as I can from scratch rather than buying it. So give me your recipes for sauces, soups and whatever other "convenience" foods you make from scratch!

General Bloggy Stuff
I know that my actual blog site needs some help - and I'm starting to work on it, but it's slow going. If you have any tips/tricks/ideas whatever, please let me know! I never was very great at site design, but I've forgotten most of what I did know.

I've had a request to add features to my comments, but I just don't know how to do it. :-( I am limited at the moment to whatever it is that the wonderful people here at blogger have set up for me - but I'm totally open to learning more!

I'm also working on my website for baccantes jewelry design using Microsoft Publisher. I've just started and am playing around with it right now, but I don't really know what I'm doing!

I'm freezing half to death down here in the basement and I have some cookbooks to work through while I have the time to do it - so I'm off. :-)

Mindful Menu 17 January - 23 January

Sunday: Pork Sausage Casserole (we never got around to it last week)
Monday: Shepherd's Pie, salad
Tuesday: Pork Chops, roasted potatoes, salad
Wednesday: Pasta, Salad
Thursday: Pizza, salad
Friday: Veggie Loaded Stir Fry, brown rice
Saturday: Baked Potato, Salad

Wednesday is the new Tuesday

On Monday, I said I'd post 'tomorrow' - we'll it's the tomorrow of 'tomorrow', so that counts for something, right? ;-)

So far NOTHING is going according to plan - but that might be a little more of my not really trying to go according to plan than anything else. Let's face it - I've been in quite a funky rut here lately. I must get out of this funky rut before I can succeed with my goals!

I do think that with my coming out and admitting all of this on the interwebz it's at least a little bit better than me just pretending that all is well and letting myself just slide right back into old horrible routines which have proven to NOT WORK in my best interest. it is, isn't it?

Okay, enough whining - and time to take my OWN advice: Tip #3: Don't make excuses.

Although it's already 22.31, I'm not anywhere near ready to go to sleep since I have put myself in the horrible up-all-night-sleep-all-day cycle. I am going to, once I publish this post, go into the other room and do something active. I'm thinking yoga sounds pretty good, or breaking out the Wii Fit Plus I bought a couple weeks ago but have yet to open.

Tomorrow, I'm totally headed to the gym - and I might even get hubby to accompany me.

the PRAXIS takeover

Why, yes, I did fall off the face of the earth for about a week - thank you for noticing. ;-)

I will fill you in on everything, so, humor me, will you? ;-)

pretend, for a moment, that it is Wednesday 6 January:

My week so far is on track! except for the fact I have to learn about 5000 years of human history and whatnot by Saturday morning! CRAZY! See, I'm taking the PRAXIS exam, and not only is it rather expensive (~$90), if I pass I can apply for certification to teach Social Studies at the Middle School level! Currently I'm certified for German and Latin K-12, but there really aren't *that* many positions available in my area - so this will open up a whole new realm of possibilities for me!

Anyway - Monday, I went to the gym and spent about 20 min on the elliptical. When I came home I made dinner and studied all night long!

Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment at 11.00 - and I forced myself to the gym after. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go, but I took a history book with me and spent about 30 minutes on the treadmill at an incline of 2 and a brisk-ish walking pace. I was driving right by the exit for it on my way home from the Doctor's office, and in an effort to "force" myself to go, I tweeted from the parking lot that I was there - I couldn't back out after that!

Today, I've spent the day studying, feeling a bit of a reprieve as far as the gym goes since I went yesterday! :-) I've spent the day studying!

~~~~~~~~~
Now, let's jump a little into the future - it's Saturday the 9th now:

I didn't make it to the gym yesterday - was in panic freak out study mode. The test this morning was rough - but not horrible. I feel about as confident about it as I did about my German PRAXIS, really. I did get some very valuable info from my studying though. :-)

Stuck to my Menu Plan pretty well, the only changes to be made was Thursday we had leftover meatloaf, soup and Elephant Souffle (which I made Wednesday b/c the eggplant was about to expire), so we had pasta and salad Friday night.

This week has been a crazy one - and I hope that through better planning in the future, I won't have to repeat it! Now, off to my friend, Peige's, "Kegs for Legs" fundraiser!

Seeing as this has become a rather long post, I'll not continue on at the present time - I'll chime in tomorrow. :-) maybe i'll even have some pix to share! :-)