Q.E.D.: Grilled Black Bean Burgers

I saw this recipe over at The Pioneer Woman not long ago. I knew I wanted to try it, but I decided to wait until the weekend. I usually don't do new recipes during the week because I want to give myself extra time in case they're more complicated than I expect.

Well, these were so quick and easy they took me no time at all. A Q.E.D. black bean burger? Say hello to your next weeknight meal!

Notes: The original recipe has these shallow-fried, but I decided I wanted the grill marks. I think it came out well. The important thing is just to get a nice crust on the outside and heat the beans all the way through.

The hot sauce is optional here, but it really wakes up the flavor of the beans. You could replace it with some lime juice or extra Worcestershire sauce.

This recipe makes 4 patties. Use your favorite burger toppings! I love mashed avocado on mine, so I included that.

Ingredients (adapted from this recipe):
2 15 oz. cans black beans
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 egg
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt
Hamburger buns
Tomatoes
Spinach or Lettuce
Avocado
Slices of cheese (I used pepper jack)

Directions:

Drain the beans in a strainer (do not rinse). Transfer to a bowl. Using a fork or potato masher, smash the beans until they form a thick, chunky paste (you want to leave some beans whole).

Add in the egg, bread crumbs, spices, salt, sugar, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Mix everything together with your hands. If the mixture seems too soft, sprinkle in a few more bread crumbs until it feels sticky. Let stand 5 minutes.

While you're waiting, slice the tomatoes and mash up the avocado. Heat the grill pan on high.

When the grill pan is hot, add the burgers. Cook 5-6 minutes per side. When they're done, top the burgers with spinach, tomatoes, mashed avocado and serve.

Enjoy Q.E.D. grilling any night of the week!

Eat Food, Save Money: Freezer Friendly Spicy Vegetable Soup

On this edition of "eat food, save money," we're goin' cold. Ice cold.

Homemade soups freeze very well. They are also heartier and more flavorful than the kind of pour out of a can. And when you make homemade soup, you get A LOT more soup for your money than you do when you use the canned version.

Frozen meals make for an easy weeknight dinner. After a rough day when you're tempted to just eat out, if you have a ready-made dinner waiting at home, it's much harder to justify a run through the drive-thru. So, the next time you have a lazy weekend afternoon, consider helping your future weeknight self by making some soup and then freezing it.

Notes: The easiest way to freeze meals (if you ask me) is to freeze individual serving sizes in small plastic freezable containers. Then you can just pull 1 or 2 containers out of the freezer depending on how many people are eating.

Let a frozen meal thaw in the fridge for at least 24 hours. If dinner time rolls around and your meal isn't completely thawed, you can always just heat it up in a pot on the stove.

I start this soup the same way I start my gumbo. It gives the soup a nice deep color and flavor. And since the soup is made with cajun seasoning it makes sense to treat it like gumbo.

You can use hot sauce or fresh chopped hot peppers in place of cajun seasoning.

Feel free to mix up the veggies and use your favorite. You can even use a selection of your favorite frozen vegetables to make the soup more pantry-friendly.

Need some protein? Add some canned beans when you add the frozen corn.

If you want to make this even easier, just skip the butter and flour and throw it all the slow cooker for 8 hours on low.

Ingredients:
1 quart chicken or veggie stock (or water)
4 tablespoons tomato paste
5-6 carrots
1 bunch celery
1/2 pound fresh green beans (or 1 cup frozen chopped)
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 onion
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1 small bunch fresh rosemary
5-6 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour

Directions: Dice the carrots, celery, and onion. Chop the green beans into small bite-sized pieces. Mince the garlic and rosemary.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When the butter melts, add the flour and whisk to create a roux. Whisk until the roux is the color of milk chocolate. Remove the pot from heat and dump in chopped veggies, garlic, and rosemary. Stir until the sizzling stops.

Add in tomato paste and cajun seasoning and stir. Return to heat and stir in stock. Add corn kernels. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for between 1-2 hours.

When the time is up, remove the soup from heat and allow it to cool. Divide it in to single servings in freezable containers. You can defrost the number of servings you need for 24 hours in the fridge and then heat the soup in the microwave before you serve it. You can also just put the frozen soup straight into a pot and heat it on the stove.

Enjoy your frozen and frugal meal!

Apple Pie Scones

It's fall break for us! Scott and I are off on a second honeymoon and I could not be more excited. But before we go, we're doing our best to use up the food we have in the house. I had about a cup of yogurt left and a rather sad looking apple. As luck would have it, I saw a recipe for apple scones from Runner's World. Even if we don't finish them before our trip, we can just pack them in a bag and have a snack for the plane.

Notes: Scones that you buy at the store or the coffee shop are hit-or-miss if you ask me. Most of them are really dry and crumbly or dense. These are light and fluffy and fresh. The key to fluffy scones is to not overwork the dough. Don't mix it too much before you transfer it to the cake pan.

Speaking of the cake pan, this is a great trick! I usually cut my scones like biscuits and make them round, but this recipe gives you the triangle shape.

The dough it really sticky, so when you pat it into the cake pan, run your hands under some lukewarm water first.

We're charging the camera battery for the trip, so I don't have a photo for you. Trust me--they are beautiful!

Ingredients (adapted from this recipe):
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 apple

Directions: Heat oven to 350. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan.

Peel and dice the apple. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and baking powder.

Dice the butter and cut it into the flour mixture using either a pastry blender or your fingers. The butter should end up the size of small peas.

Add the yogurt and vanilla to the butter-flour mixture. Stir with your hands until just combined into a soft dough ball.

Move the dough into the cake pan and gently pat it evenly into the pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cut into triangles (yields 8 triangles).

Serve and enjoy the flavors of fall!

Q.E.D.: One-Pot Mexican Veggie Rice

School has finally started again. I will miss my quiet summer days, but I am excited to be back in the swing of things.

Since school has started, we definitely need another Q.E.D. meal.

Notes: We like things spicy in this house, so I used spicy ketchup and hot sauce. If you're not a fan of spice, leave one of them out.

You could sprinkle some cheese on top of this if you like, but we skipped it.

Feel free to change up any of the ingredients! Use whatever veggies you like.

Ingredients:
1 can black beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons spicy ketchup (I used Heinz Tabasco)
10-12 dashes of hot sauce
1 large or 2 small zucchini
1 shallot
4-5 garlic cloves
1 cup of frozen corn
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 cups minute rice
1/2 cup water
1 bunch fresh cilantro
Salt
Pepper
Butter or olive oil for sauteeing

Directions:

Mince the garlic and dice the shallot and zucchini. Add butter or oil to a large skillet with a lid. When the butter melts or the oil is hot, add shallot, garlic, and zucchini cook for about five minutes.

While that's cooking, rinse and drain the beans. Add beans and corn to the pan. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder. Stir everything together. Add tomatoes, ketchup, water, and hot sauce.

Bring everything to a boil. Add the rice and stir. Cover and turn the heat back to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes. While the rice is cooking, chop the cilantro and stir it in when the time is up.

Serve and enjoy!

Gumbo Risotto

A combination of two of my favorite dishes? Yes, please!

Notes: Gumbo risotto will probably take a little longer than regular risotto. The addition of the vegetables and sausage will make it a little harder for the rice to absorb the liquid. No worries: patience is virtue.

If the stock starts to run out, but the rice isn't done yet, just add water to the sauce pan. Just make sure the water get warmed up in the pan before you add it.

If you like your gumbo not-so-spicy, you can try 1 tablespoon of cajun seasoning rather than 2.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
4 cups chicken stock or water
1 pound kielbasa
4-5 carrots
4-5 celery stalks
1 small onion (I used a shallot)
4-5 garlic cloves
1 stick butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cajun seasoning (I use Tony's)
1 bunch fresh parsley

Directions:

Heat the stock or water in a sauce pan on medium-low. Peel and chop the carrots, chop the celery, mince the garlic, and dice the onion. Slice the kielbasa. Chop the parsley.

In a large pot on medium-high, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour into the butter and allow it to cook until you have a roux that's the color of milk chocolate. Add in the carrot, onion, and celery. Remove from heat and stir until the veggies stop sizzling. Return to heat, add in garlic and sausage. Stir in the rice. Add in the cajun seasoning and stir.

Add 4 ladles of stock and stir. When the mixture looks dry and most of the liquid has been absorbed, add two more ladles of stock. Repeat this step until the rice is tender. This should take about 45-50 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Yellow Layer Birthday Cake

It's Scott's birthday today! I love making birthday cakes for him, so I try to do something special every year. He wanted a yellow cake with white icing this year, so I was happy to oblige.

Notes: Baking layer cakes from scratch takes time, but it's mostly prep and waiting. The actual work isn't much greater than making a cake from a box.

If you're using Greek yogurt, you'll need to thin it out with milk. Instead of using a full cup, use 2/3 of a cup and mix it with 1/3 cup of milk.

I'm not into leveling and all that. It's a homemade cake! It's going to look a little rustic. but I do want to get creative with the decorations. I used an outline of a fleur-de-lis that I printed out. I laid it on top of the cake after I frosted it. Then I shook sprinkles all over the cake and CAREFULLY peeled off the paper. It's like a reverse stencil! I thought it came out well.

You can easily make the layers of the cake a day or two in advance. Just let them cool, wrap them in plastic, and pop them in the fridge until you're ready to frost and decorate.

Ingredients (adapted from this recipe):
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup regular sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups plain yogurt
Double batch of white chocolate butter cream

Directions: Heat oven to 350

Make sure the eggs, yogurt, and butter are at room temperature. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in the large bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Lower the speed and add the eggs one at a time. Add in the vanilla and yogurt. The mixture will look lumpy and curdled, but that's normal.

Add the flour in batches and mix until just combined. Divide the batter into two cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in the in the pan for about 15 minutes. Remove and cool completely on cooling racks.

When the cakes are completely cool, frost with the white chocolate butter cream. Decorate to your liking!

Serve to your favorite birthday person and enjoy!

Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas

I used to think that my favorite food was pasta. I do love it and always will, but Mexican food has emerged as my #2 favorite. We've eaten so many tacos this summer. But you can't have tacos all the time. Sometimes you've got to throw some enchiladas in the mix---you know, for variety!

Notes: There are very few meals I could make twice in a row, but this is definitely one of them. I could eat another pan of these no problem.

Minute rice normally only takes 5 minutes, but it absorbs the tomato sauce more slowly than water, so it will likely take more time. If you have cooked rice left in the fridge, you can easily just stir it into the tomato sauce and heat it up.

If you're tortillas are not so pliable, cover them with a damp paper towel and zap them for a few seconds in the microwave.

Feel free to adjust the heat levels to your liking.

Ingredients:
8 large flour tortillas
1 pint button or cremini mushrooms
10-12 oz. of baby spinach (1 large bag or 2 smaller bags)
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
3-4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups uncooked minute rice
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
2 tablespoons ketchup
10-12 dashes hot sauce
1 small bunch of cilantro
6 oz. of colby jack cheese
8 oz. of our favorite enchilada sauce
Salt
Pepper

Directions:

Heat the oven to 375. If your tortillas have been in the fridge, take them out and let them come to room temperature.

Clean and slice mushrooms.and mince the garlic. Chop cilantro.

Add butter to a large skillet with a lid and turn on medium-high. When the butter melts add mushrooms. Let them cook about 2-3 minutes before adding the garlic (you don't want it to burn). Cook 2-3 more minutes. Add in the baby spinach. Using tongs, turn the spinach in the skillet until it wilts. Season with salt, pepper. Add in cumin, chili powder, and ketchup. Stir.

Pour in tomato sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir in rice. Turn the heat back to low and cover. Let stand for 8-10 minutes until rice is tender.

Grate cheese. Pour a small amount of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Spoon 3-4 tablespoons of filling on to a tortilla. Roll up, folding in the sides so that the filling is secure. Place seam-side down in the baking dish. Repeat for all 8 tortillas.

Pour enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Top with grated cheese. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!