Melissa's Cooking!

Now these veggie burgers, I have made quite a few times because they are good and good for you, filled with protein, fiber and nutrients. Each time we have them, we love them, however, a few times, they’ve been bland. So to try to make them tastier, I decided to try a few things different. It used to have celery, which I didn’t use this time…and I added a lot more seasoning/spices than I did previously.

Along with the burgers, I made the quick-boiled spinach which you can find under the Yummy Veggie Wrap here, as well as some roasted some sweet potatoes (described below).

Lentil Veggie Burger ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)

• 1 cup canned lentil beans
• 1 cup carrots, shredded or finely diced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
  
• small zucchini, finely diced
• 2 cups quick oats
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup tomato paste (1 6 oz. can)
• 1 TBS Italian seasoning
• 1 TBS Basil
• 1 TBS Oregano
  
• 2 tsp to 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• Ketchup (optional)
• Guacamole (optional)
• Cheese of your liking (optional)
• Sliced tomatoes (optional)
• Sliced whole wheat bread (optional)
  

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your vegetables. (For the dicing of the vegetables, I used a food processor. This totally saves a lot of preparation time.) I mixed all the ingredients together and formed into patties. Place the patties on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes on each side until a golden brown.

Place your burger on your bread and serve with ketchup, guacamole, cheese and/or sliced tomatoes. This will make about 8-10 patties.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)

• 1 very large or 2 large sweet potatoes
• Extra Virgin Olive oil
• Rosemary
• Pepper

Cut up the potatoes into about 1 inch cubes. Mix together the potatoes with the olive oil, rosemary and pepper. Spread out on an oiled baking sheet. Pretty much the amount of time the burgers are baking at 350 degrees, the potatoes can take just as long to roast. I like my potatoes a bit crispy, but definitely take yours out sooner when you see that they are done to your liking.

Serve with the burger and spinach and ENJOY!

Monday, September 7, with that Labor Day off, I decided to try to make a recipe for lunch from the The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook called Collard Green and Hummus Roll-Ups. It takes a little bit of time to cut the veggies for this, but once you have the veggies ready, it’s quite quick to the end result, which is very yummy! This is considered a snack, but I ate it for lunch…they can be taken to work, school or on a hike/picnic.

Collard Green and Hummus Roll-Ups ingredients include:
• 4 raw collard greens (the recipe says any tender young greens can be substituted, such as broccoli leaves or young black kale leaves)
• hummus (probably any flavor would be fine, I used roasted red pepper hummus)
• grated carrots
• chopped cucumber
• avocado slices

1. Rinse and pat dry the collard greens. Slice in half, lengthwise, removing the tough stems.
2. Spread a thin layer of your hummus over the collard green half. At one end, place a thin row of carrot, cucumber and avocado
3. Begin rolling from the filling end, keeping it very tight. Once it is rolled, insert a toothpick in the center to keep it together. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 2 days.

*I would like to note on this recipe: If you use a mandolin cutter to cut up your veggies, like I did on this one, BE SURE to use the hand guard AT ALL TIMES. Just buying this new ‘toy’ on Sunday, I didn’t realize the importance of it until I sliced off a corner of my pinky OUCH!!!! Lesson learned for me! THANKS DAVE, for helping me finish up this recipe! Oy…

(Note: I tend to refer to my World’s Healthiest Foods book in order to cook my foods. It tells you how to prepare and cook the foods so that you can do so without losing much, if any, of the nutrients that the oh-so-good food provides. It’s an amazing book. Pick it up or just visit their web site: whfoods.org But it’s an excellent resource for your kitchen!)

On Sunday, August 30, for lunch, I created a delicious wrap. I was craving healthy healthy ingredients, so I chose the following ingredients:

• flat-leaf spinach (tossed with the Mediterranean Dressing – see below)
• diced tomatoes
• zucchini (tossed with the Mediterranean Dressing – see below)
• black bean hummus
• whole wheat wrap

• Mediterranean Dressing tends to include: 3 TBS extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice,  a clove or 2 of garlic, sea salt and pepper to taste…but depends on the vegetable and your preference to determine exactly how much to include. I typically wing it.

First, I quick-boiled my flat-leaf spinach. (Why? because “quick-boiled” reduces the acids found in Spinach, brings out its mild, sweet, distinctive flavor, retains its bright color and maximizes its nutritional profile.) While the water was boiling, I prepared my spinach, by cutting the stems and rinsing well. Once the water was boiling, I boiled the spinach for EXACTLY ONE MINUTE (Don’t overcook!) You want to boil UNCOVERED as well, as doing this helps the acids escape into the air. Once a minute is up, take the spinach out of the water and press out the excess liquid with a fork. I tossed the Mediterranean Dressing ingredients together with the spinach.

To prepare the zucchini, I cut into cubes and “healthy-sautéed” them for  minutes. By “healthy-sautéed,” you heat up 3 TBS of vegetable (or chicken) broth. Once the broth steams, you add the zucchini for 3 minutes. (Don’t over cook this either! If it becomes translucent, then they’re overcooked.) Once that is done, I tossed the zucchini with the Mediterranean Dressing. (The book tells you how much of each, but I pretty much just wing the amount of those ingredients.) Seriously, with those ingredients tossed with your veggies, that creates the most yummy taste to go along with vegetables…and SO GOOD for you!

With my spinach and zucchini prepared, I put together my wrap. First adding the black bean hummus, then the spinach, then the zucchini and diced tomatoes…but obviously, you can choose the order

I apologize for having no image of my final wrap all ready to eat, but I’m sure you can imagine what it looked like and believe me, it was SO YUMMY and good for you!