Quinoa Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Skins

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I may or may not have developed a slight obsession with Pinterest lately.  I recently stumbled across two recipes in my pinning adventures that I felt would go together very well and it turns out they did.  The original recipes didn't really fit in with my current dietary restrictions, so I did a little bit if an overhaul:

Quinoa Burgers (10 servings/patties)

First, cook the quinoa:
1 c. quinoa, rinsed well (I get it in bulk from Costco.  They carry a good organic brand.)
2 c. water
1/4 t. salt

Bring the water and salt to a boil over high heat, then add in the quinoa and turn the heat to low and cover.  Let the quinoa simmer for 18-20 mins.


Now for the burgers:
Cooked quinoa (above)
1/2 c. fat free organic cottage cheese (blended smooth)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese (optional)
1 large carrot shredded fine (or 1 c. zucchini, lightly salted and drained then squeezed)
1/2 c. egg whites (I am imagine you might be able to use flax a water instead of eggs here)
3 T. whole wheat flour
2 green onions sliced thin
2 cloves of garlic minced fine
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cumin
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
oil with high smoke point

Preheat a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat with oil.  I use grape seed or avocado oil spritzed on with a misto.  Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.  Scoop out 1/2 c. servings of the mixture into the skillet and form them into patties with a spatula.  It is best to treat these kind of like pancakes, you want them to be pretty well set before you try to flip them or you will just have a big mess.  Also, it is a good idea to mist some more oil on the uncooked side before flipping.  Cook until they are golden brown and crispy on each side.

Serve them with any normal burger toppings you like.  I ate mine with sliced tomatoes, avocado, and a little geek yogurt with dill mixed it.  It was super duper good :)

Baked Sweet Potato Skins (4 servings)
It is great to get this started as you are waiting for your quinoa to cook.

4 medium-sized sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
1 t. Italian Seasoning blend
1 T. avocado, grapeseed, or olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat over to 400 degrees, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with oil.  Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and place them cut side down on the baking sheet.  Bake for 30 mins. until tender.  Set potatoes aside to cool.

While potatoes are cooling, set the oven rack so that it is 6 inches from the top of the oven and preheat the broiler.  Combine the Italian seasonings, oil, and salt and pepper in a small bowl.

When potatoes are cool enough, scrape out about half of the flesh from each potato half (keep scooped out flesh for a sweet potato mash at another date).  Cut the sweet potato skins lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips.  Place the strips on the baking sheet.  Brush the skins with the oil/herb mixture and place them in the oven. Broil the potatoes until they are well-browned.

Nutrition Facts: Quinoa Burger                                                             Nutrition Facts: Sweet Potato Skins

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So What If I'm Too Cheap To Run The Heater Vegetable Soup

One of the things that I am known for is being super stingy about running the heater in the winter (and the air conditioner in the summer).  The only three exceptions are if company is coming over, if I am trying to make bread rise (yes, our house gets cold enough to prevent bread from rising), or if I can see my breath in the house.  With that in mind, I try my best to make other things perform double duty to help keep warm.  Things like waiting to do the laundry until the coldest part of the day, or baking more meals, or eating tasty soup :)

Soup is easy, quick, filling, and healthy (as long as it isn't loaded with sodium).  The soup I made for dinner last night was all of those things plus an added bonus of tasting amazing.

Ingredients:

1 T. Olive Oil

2 medium carrots (small dice)

2 stalks of celery (small dice)

1 medium yellow onion (small dice)

3 garlic cloves (minced)

1 t. dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

2 15oz. cans of cannelli beans (rinsed and drained)

1 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes

4 c. low-sodium vegetable stock

1/4 c. fresh parsley (chopped)

grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Heat olive oil a large pot on medium-high heat.  Add in the carrots, celery, and onions.  Cook until onions are translucent.  Add in the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and cook until you can smell the garlic.  Add in the rest of the ingredients (beans, tomatoes, stock, parsley) and bring the soup to a boil then turn to low and simmer until vegetables are tender (20-25 mins). Serve the soup with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top.  Makes four servings at 300 calories each.

Other ingredients that would taste good:

Kale (added in with tomatoes)

Spinach (added in the last couple of minutes of simmering)

Garbanzo beans (in place of cannelli beans)

Zucchini (added in with garlic)

Potatoes (added in with carrots)

The best part is that it takes less than an hour to make :)

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Good and Good For You Banana Bread

My husband has a funny....quirk? I guess you would call it that.  Whenever we go the the store, he insists that we buy bananas.  The reason this is a funny quirk is because he never eats a single one.  He always says that he plans on eating them, but I really think that he just wants them to go overly ripe and force me to make banana bread, which I do.

I was recently discussing this with his sister and my overall plight to eat "clean" and she mentioned a wicked awesome banana bread recipe that she had come across.  She sent it over and I gave it a try, adding in a couple tweaks here and there:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour
1 t. baking powder
2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. bakind soda
1/2 t. table salt
1 T. ground flax
2 T. water
9 T. agave syrup
1/2 c. greek yogurt
1/2 c. canola oil
1 c. mashed ripe bananas (about 2 bananas  you can probably mashed them in your mixer before adding in the other ingredients and save dirtying other utensils with which you would mash bananas)
2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray bottom of 8x 4 inch loaf pan or muffin tin or mini bread loaf pans ( I use them all because I quadruple the recipe since I usually have an entire bunch of bananas to get rid of).

In the bowl of your stand mixer add in the, flax, water, agave syrup, yogurt, oil, banana, and vanilla and mix on med-low until combined.  Add in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and mix until almost combined.  When your mixture is almost combined, add in the chocolate chips.  You don't want to form too much gluten, so make sure you mix it as little as possible to get everything together.  Gluten formation = tough and chewy.  You may want that in a baguette, but not in your banana bread.  So tell that gluten to chill out and wait until your feeling frenchy.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  If you are making muffins or mini bread loaves, fill each one until it is about 2/3 full.

Bake big loaf for 60-70 mins, muffins or mini loaves about 30 mins until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The result is moist, tender, yummy, and not too sweet and only 90 calories per slice if you slice it up super thin :)  For the muffins, it is about 134 calories, mini loaves will depend on the size of pan you use.