Portobello-Black Bean Burgers

Hey everyone! I know I only recently put up a post but I'm doing another one today to make up for my slow posting in general. We finally got our long-anticipated grill (delivered by Puralator since we're in the midst of a postal strike in Canada) and so we've been pretty much grilling everything we can. I wanted to find a vegetarian meal that we could grill and that would be a good replacement for red meat since I'm trying to reduce my red meat intake. I have made the classic portobello burger in the past but wasn't too keen on a mushroom cap acting as the replacement for the burger meat itself and wanted to find something that incorporated mushrooms but was more like a patty. I came across a recipe for portobello-black bean burgers in SELF magazine, where the portobellos and black beans are ground up (and with other ingredients) formed into patties. I love this recipe because it's so healthy and it's a great way to get your daily servings of vegetables into a meal. Be warned though, these "burgers" are a practical replacement for a red meat burger but they really do not taste anything like meat, though they are very delicious.

Ingredients:

(for the burgers)

-1 tbsp. olive oil

-10 oz of portabellos mushrooms, stems cut, coarsely chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced

-1 jalapeno pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped

-salt and pepper

-1 19 oz can of black beans

-1/4 tsp. chili powder

-1/4 tsp. paprika

-1/4 tsp. cumin

-1/4 tsp. garlic powder

-1/4 tsp. dried basil

-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

-1/4 cup bread crumbs

-1/2 cup panko

-1 egg

-5 whole grain flat breads

-1 avocado, sliced

(for corn relish)

-1 small can of corn

-2 tomatoes, diced

-1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

-2 tsp. fresh lime juice

-1 tsp. paprika

Directions:

1.  In a frying pan, heat olive oil on medium-high. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Towards the end, after about 8 minutes, add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Set pan aside to cool.

2.  Meanwhile, rinse the black beans in a collander. Place them into a food processor and blend for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and onion when they are cool. Blend until mixture is smooth. Transfer into a bowl. Mix in the spices (you can really use how much or how little you want, it depends on your palate), salt and pepper to taste, egg, panko, and breadcrumbs. The mixture should not be runny and should be easily made into patties, if your mixture can not do this continue to add breadcrumbs and panko until the mixture is thick. Shape the mixture into 5 patties and put aside or wrap in plastic wrap and you can freeze them or store them until later.

3. Add all the relish ingredients into a bowl, keep aside.

4. Heat your grill to high or sear (or heat a pan with some vegetable oil in it to medium-high). Add patties and cook for 5-10 minutes per side, until a crust develops on the outside and they are firm. Serve in a flatbread topped with the avocado slices and the corn relish.

Note: When calculating the nutritional information, I corrected for the fact that there was A LOT of relish left over, and among the 5 "burgers", we only consumed about half of the recipe. But we did eat it on the side as well too. The nutritional information then only includes half of the relish recipe.

Another option for this recipe would be to add goat cheese on top of the cooked "burgers" as well.

Nutritional information:

(per 1 serving, should yield 5 servings): 496 calories, 11.5 grams of fat, 400 mg of sodium, 37.2 mg of cholesterol, 76.8 grams of carbohydrates, 12.5 grams of fiber, 3.37 grams of sugar, 19.6 grams of protein

Enjoy!

Eggplant Cannelloni

Hi everyone! I'm slowly starting to adopt the DASH diet at the recommendation of my mother-in-law. It's a diet aimed specifically at helping to lower blood pressure through increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables, moderating the amount of grains intake, and eating more lean meats and meat less dinners. For more information if you're interested, you can go to the following link: http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3862329/k.4F4/Healthy_living__The_DASH_Diet_to_lower_blood_pressure.htm


Now one of my problems that I've noticed is that I rely too much on grains to make me feel full after I eat a meal. I can be pretty uncreative when it comes to finding ways to feel full without having having both protein and grains be a part of a meal, which is why I have trouble eating just a salad for lunch or dinner. I stumbled across this fabulous recipe which is for cannelloni but replaces the pasta with roasted eggplant slices. It's a great little meal because it takes the grains away and boosts your vegetable intake, but keeps you full due to eggplant's higher fiber content. When you're dieting it is very, VERY important to be increasing your fiber intake because it will help you feel fuller longer but it also helps you lose weight and prevent cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
This recipe does take a bit of time, so it may be best to give it a shot during the weekend.

(original recipe with some adjustments courtesy of epicurious at: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Eggplant-Cannelloni-240811)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 large shallots, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 jars (12 ounces each) roasted red peppers, drained
• Juice of 1 orange (about 1/2 cup)
• 2 medium eggplants, cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch slices
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 2 ounces goat cheese
• 2 ounces low-fat ricotta
• 1/8 of a cup of finely chopped walnuts
• 1/8 of a cup chopped basil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1.       Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook shallots and garlic until soft, about 1 minute. Reduce heat. Cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Add peppers and juice; bring to a boil. Lower heat; simmer until peppers are soft, about 5 minutes. Cool. Puree in a blender. Pour into a 9" x 13" baking dish.

2.      Coat eggplants with cooking spray and broil on a baking sheet until golden on both sides, about 15 minutes. Heat oven to 400°F. Mash cheeses, walnuts, basil, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley in a bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of filling at the end of each eggplant slice; roll up and pin together with a toothpick if you need to. Lay seam side down in dish. Bake 10 to 15 minutes. Top with remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.

I have two notes about this recipe:

Firstly, the original recipe calls for olives and capers. You are more than welcome to add these instead of the walnuts. I am not a huge fan of olives or capers so to give the filling a little more texture I thought I would add some chopped walnuts.

Secondly, when it comes to the nutritional information, the numbers may be slightly inflated because in the end we didn't end up using all of the filling or the sauce and actually ended up freezing the left overs. We have no idea how much is actually left over so we can't correct for this. The sodium amount will especially be lower in reality since most of the sodium comes from the canned roasted red peppers in the sauce. Enjoy!

Nutritional Information:

(per serving, meal should yield 3 servings)=386 calories, 13 grams of fat, 6 mg of cholesterol,753 mg of sodium, 42 grams of carbohydrates, 10.4 grams of fiber, 14 grams of sugar, 10.9 grams of protein

Quinoa, Black-bean, Vegetable Salad with Lime Dressing

Hey everyone! Sorry for the slow posting, I am currently taking summer courses and their condensed nature seems to be occupying a lot of my time! Because I have been so busy lately, I've been focusing more and more on quick, easy meals and this week I decided to make a fabulous quinoa salad that is chock full of tasty things. I've only recently discovered quinoa and am enjoying how cheap and versatile it is. I am also very impressed by how good it is for you: 1 cup of uncooked quinoa has 41% of your daily intake of thiamine, 41% of your daily intake of vitamin B6, 78% of your daily intake of folate, 5061 mg of Omega-6 fatty acids, 84% of your daily intake of magnesium, and 43% of your daily intake of iron. I find that it reminds me of couscous in the way that you can pretty much add anything to it and it stretches your meals but I find the texture to be more interesting and enjoyable than couscous. I personally think that quinoa should be part of anyone's diet.

(with some adjustments, courtesy of serious eats: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/09/black-bean-tomato-quinoa-healthy-delicious-recipe.html )
Ingredients:

-2 teaspoons grated lime zest

-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

-1 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

-1 tablespoon vegetable oil

-1 teaspoon sugar

-1/2 teaspon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1 cup quinoa

-1 vegetable stock cube

-1 (14- to 15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

-2 medium tomatoes, diced

-2 avocadoes, diced

-4 scallions, chopped

Directions:

1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients in a bowl, set aside.

2. In a pot, bring 2 cups of water to a bowl. Add quinoa and vegetable stock cube and bring back to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Cook for 12 minutes and remove from heat. Fluff quinoa with a fork and let stand for 15 minutes, or until cool.

3.Transfer quinoa to a bowl and add dressing, stirring until well combined. Add the rest of the ingredients and serve.

Should yield at least 5-6 servings.

Nutritional information (per 1 serving, if there is 5 servings in total): 454.1 calories, 18.6 grams of fat, 3.2 grams of saturated fats, 661.2 mg of sodium, 6 mg of cholesterol, 57.7 grams of carbohydrates, 17.12 grams of fiber, 2.4 grams of sugar, 16.52 grams of protein

-1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro