Spicy Pepita Chickpea Burger with Tahini Sauce

I adore veggie burgers.  I have about 15 different veggie burger recipes, all of which are delicious, but I do get tired of them.  I mean, there's really only so many ways you can make a veggie burger exciting.  

I had the idea a few months back of creating some sort of a lentil or bean burger that would be more of a cross between falafel and a veggie burger.  I tried it a few times but the spices used in falafel didn't cut it.  It just tasted like, well, falafel.  So yesterday I took the whole thing in a different direction.  And the spicy pepita chickpea burger was born. 

SPICY PEPITA CHICKPEA BURGER

1/4 cup rolled oats (I used gluten free)
1/8 cup pepitas
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed)
1 medium carrot, grated
1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons tamari (I used gluten free)
1 Tablespoon tahini
1 Tablespoon olive or grapeseed oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 lemon

Place oats and pepitas in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.  Add all other ingredients and mix until thick and pasty (you can also just chop everything and mix it by hand for a burger with more chunks).  Using wet hands, shape into round flat patties.  

To cook, either place them in 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes on each side, or heat a skillet to medium heat, and melt some coconut oil before pan frying them about 5-8 minutes on each side.

Serve burger style, wrapped in a big collard green, or crumbled on a salad.  However you choose, be sure to drizzle with lemon tahini sauce first.  It's mandatory.

Lemon Tahini Sauce
small bunch flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup tahini
2-4 large cloves garlic
4-5 Tablespoons lemon juice
2-6 Tablespoons hot water
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Throw it all in a blender.  Store in refrigerator.

What to Feed Your Baybee

I've been meaning to do this post for a long time.  It's been sitting on the back shelf of my brain collecting dust for a while now and I think it's finally time to put it into words (it's kind of just been abstract thoughts up to this point).  FYI: If you don't have a child between the ages of 6 months and 3 years, this post will most likely be boring and kind of pointless.  

As many of you know, I have a baby who's approaching the ripe old age of 18 months.  Every day I have that internal struggle with myself over how I hate babies at this stage and how I love babies at this stage.  OHMIGOSH, they are so much fun but OHMYFREAKINGGOSH, they really suck too.  She's funny though.  She walks like E.T. and consumes crayons at an alarming rate.  Let me give you a visual...

Cute right?  Here's the thing (and I know many of you will be able to relate to me on this), she's tiny.  No, like, TEENY tiny.  She was a preemie, so we expected her to be on the smallish end during the first year of her life.  But I'm always blown away when I see her standing next to her full term counter parts.  She's 17 months old and weighs around 16 pounds.  Seriously, she's microscopic.  Don't ask what compelled me to by her a hat that weighs as much as she does. 

Ima rock dis hat  

I tell you this not just so so that I can justify posting pictures of my baby on the Internet (although come on, that hat is so killer), but to prove to you that I spend MUCH of my time preparing and serving her food in an effort to get her to grow.  So I kind of know what I'm talking about here.  I've become somewhat of a pro as far as toddler eats are concerned.  

It can be a challenge to think of things to feed babies besides Cheerios and apple juice.  Believe me, I know that rut all too well.  The thing is, I think we sometimes develop the habit of deciding what they will or won't like before we even give them a chance.  I read somewhere that a child has to refuse a food 15 times before you can conclude that they don't like it.  15 TIMES!  That's a lot.  But I gotta tell you, I can't think of even one thing that she's refused to eat 15 times consecutively.  For the most part, if I keep at it, she'll eventually eat it.  She definitely has her favorite foods but there's nothing I've ruled out yet (except for meat, dairy, and sugar - although I'd venture to guess that at some point she'll get curious).  Sometimes she'll do the thing where she loved loved loved brown rice yesterday and today she won't even look at it.  But I assume that's normal.  I guess I do it too occasionally.

The point of this post is to encourage you to let your baby try as many different foods as possible.  It takes a little creativity to get them interested but it's well worth the effort.  They'll develop a taste for a wide array of flavors and textures while getting the nutrition they need to grow (eventually).  It's so fun to watch them try something new.  Besides, nothing scares me more than those pre-packaged toddler meals you see in the grocery store.  And that has been sitting on the shelf for how long???

Here's a list of the top 10 meals my baby happily hoovers:

10) Brown rice, avocado chunks, and orange slices (cut small)
9)  Cucumber slices (cut small) and garbanzo beans with ranch dressing
8)  Whole wheat or brown rice tortilla spread w/ sunbutter and bananas (rolled up and sliced) served with an apple (peeled and diced)
7)  Cubed tofu sauteed in coconut oil (a little bit labor intensive) served with red pepper slices and steamed broccoli 
6)  Wheat toast topped with hummus, sprouts, and diced tomatoes
5)  Sweet potato fries (baked), served with applesauce and a bowl of kidney beans (perfect for little fingers)
4)  Grape tomatoes (diced), peas, and white beans drizzled with a little tahini dressing
3)  Oatmeal and diced strawberries (made with rice milk, stevia or applesauce, and a bit of sea salt - sometimes I even throw in some ground flax or chia seed)
2)  Veggie or black bean burger (cut small) served with watermelon
1)  Whole wheat pasta and edemame in marinara sauce served with steamed green beans             -Her favorite meal, hands down

A few more things that have worked for me:

*I keep cooked rice, couscous, and/or quinoa in the fridge all the time so that I'll have them on hand for a quick lunch.  Just dice up a vegetable or two and mix it in.  Messy beyond belief, but that's part of the fun.
*I ALWAYS keep a plastic knife and a baby spoon in my diaper bag for those unpredictable times that I have no choice but to serve her an avocado right out of the peel.  It's better than a Gogurt...  
*I love giving her some of my smoothy in her sippy cup.  It's her fave!  Just remember to take the little rubber part out of the lid.
*For younger babies, try just throwing whatever your eating in the food processor before feeding it to them (works well for minestrone, spaghetti, casseroles, etc).
*My baby is more likely to try something off my spoon if she's holding her own spoon.  Weird I know, but it works.  Lately I've been letting her spoon feed herself.  Wow.  She's terrible at it.

Really, the most important thing to remember is that you're babe-a-roonie will probably want to taste whatever they see you eating.  Feed yourself healthfully so you don't hesitate when they come toddling over looking for a sample.  

Annie♥

BBQ Sauce, How I Love Thee

We've been on vacation for the past 8 days or so.  Since returning I have developed an apparently uncontrollable hankering for BBQ sauce.  I'm always a little horrified at the amount of sugar store bought sauces contain (not to mention the preservatives, chemicals among other fun ingredients), so I did some research and came up with my own recipe.  I have to say it turned out great.  It's the perfect amount of smokey, spicy, and sweet.  Combine it with ranch dressing (recipe below), drizzle it over a bowl full of veggies, and you've got a south western dream meal. 

Or, OR dice up some organic tofu, cook it in BBQ sauce, and roll it up in a big collard green leaf with some sprouts (I added tomatoes, olives, black beans, and a bit of sessame dressing to this before I ate it - of course).

You could also make a killer lentil meatloaf or a BBQ veggie pizza.  There really are so many awesome possibilities when it comes to BBQ sauce.  It compliments so many different foods.  Get creative and try something new.  And then tell us so we can try it too.  Share the love yo!

This is the recipe I came up with but I ended up doubling it.  I would say it makes between 3-4 cups.

BBQ SAUCE
1 Tbs. grapeseed oil
1 small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz. can tomato paste
1/4 - 1/2 cup honey (I used about 1/4 cup and then added several drops of stevia)
3 Tbs. mustard powder
3-4 Tbs. worcestershire sauce (I used gluten free)
2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
pinch of ground cloves
chipotle powder to taste (can omit)
1 cup water (add more if needed)
salt & pepper

Heat oil in pan over medium heat and cook the onion for 2-3 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.  Add the remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat 10-20 minutes or until it reaches desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper if needed.  Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes before transferring to food processor or powerful blender.  Blend until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use.  Will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks.

Play around with the seasonings a little bit.  It would be fun to incorporate some smoked paprika or smoked salt or something along those lines.  You can also omit the worcestershire sauce if you don't like that "smokey" taste.

To make an awesome ranch dressing, just add some dried parsley, dill, basil, salt, and pepper to omars dressing recipe.  Quick suggestion, go heavy on the dill.  Trust me.

Annie♥

Cool Fruits Freezer Pops on Sale!

These are the popsicles I give to my kids as a direct replacement for Otter Pops.   During the summer, my kids' Spanish school has a reward system in which tickets are given to the kids for helping to clean-up or participate in certain activities.  With these tickets, the kids can buy 1) candy 2) Otter pops 3) Ice-cream....Are you kidding me!?!  When I realized what was going on, I asked the teacher if there was a healthy option and she said, "No", and that she wasn't going to offer one.  She told me to come up with a solution and provide it for my kids.  Grrrrr......For the month of June, I couldn't find these popsicles in stores yet, and on Amazon shipping was about $17 for each box, so I was really happy to find them in my local Good Earth Natural Foods store today, on sale!  I bought enough boxes to last the summer, and one for school so my kids can "buy" their healthy popsicles.  My kids are about as happy as I am to have these at school.  They love them :)

My kids also know that when the neighborhood kids go to the "popsicle man" up the street, my kiddos grab one of these from my freezer.  They look just like Otter Pops, so they don't feel left out.  In the past, some of the neighborhood kids have even come to MY house, wanting some popsicles! Lol!

These are usually $4.75 at Good Earth in Sandy, and are on sale right now for abour half-price.  The boxes come room temperature, so I keep them in my pantry until I'm ready to freeze them.

Happy Summer!

Café SuperNatural Review

Café SuperNatural

Trolley Square

600 East Side

SLC, UT 84102

801-363-1000

Excuse my plastered hair -- we had just gone swimming!

My husband and I were delighted to hear about a new restaurant in downtown Salt Lake.  It's called Café SuperNatural, and is totally gluten-free, vegan, and has many raw options.  Also, nothing is over $10.

So off we went to find this gem of a restaurant.  We knew it was right by Trolley Square, so we went to Trolley Square.  Needless to say, after consulting many store maps, we finally found it. I felt bad that the location was so hard to find.  I thought more people would visit the restaurant if it were more visible.

Anyway, by that time, I was really hungry.  I took the suggestion from the server of what to order from the Sun (raw) portion of the menu:  The SuperNatural Wrap, which was a collard green wrap stuffed with paté (made from leftover almond and carrot pulp from juicing and making nut milk), avocado, and artisan sauerkraut. 

My husband ordered from the Fire (cooked) portion of the menu: Machu Picchu, which was mixed quinoa (or steamed potatoes) with a roasted chili cashew cream sauce and steamed seasonal veggies.

I decided since I was so hungry, I'd order a raw chocolate shake also.  The server recommended mixing the cocao and maca shakes, so I did.

Everything was really delicious, but it seemed as though the collard green wraps had only a couple tablespoons of paté in them.  It may have been the nursing mama coming out in me, but I seriously could've eaten at least THREE of the entrees I was served.  I was glad to have the chocolate shake my husband and I were supposed to share.  I happily slurped it down all by myself (ok, I let him have a couple sips).  But even after that, I was only not hungry, if you know what I mean.  Plus, I wanted to savor the chocolate shake as a dessert, and not have to guzzle it along with my collard greens! I guess I just wanted more greens and veggies, and less chocolate shake for dinner :)  Possibly the cost is kept low by serving small portions.  Maybe I'll go there again and order something different to see if rings true for all dishes. Or possibly my view is skewed because I'm nursing and hungry :)

My husband absolutely LOVED the roasted chili cashew cream sauce that was poured over the quinoa. And surprisingly, he said he was "pretty full" after his dish, which also seemed small to me! (I knew I was right when only an hour later he ordered something from The Blue Lemon! lol!)

Aside from the food, the staff was very kind, and the decor was cool/contemporary, and green. In fact, the whole restaurant is committed to having zero waste system "through efforts such as recycling, composting, and wind power energy".

And if you're looking for a deal, Cafe Supernatural participates in a program called Meatless Mondays.  If you eat there on a Monday, you will get 25% off.

So I think I'll go back again, but maybe I'll order two entrees next time!  LOL! If you're contemplating going there, it's definitely worth a try :)

Click here to see their menu



Honey Kissed Granola (gluten-free)

This is a recipe I created for neighbor/friend gifts this last Christmas.  It tastes wonderful, and has lasted the test of time -- we still love it after making it many times.

Honey Kissed Granola

Dry

3 cups gluten-free oats

1 cup unsweetened organic coconut flakes

1 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup ground flax seed

Wet

1/2 cup raw honey

1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Real Salt

1 tsp. vanilla (I use alcohol-free)

Combine Dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.  Place Wet ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Pour Wet ingredients into Dry ingredients and mix until well-coated.  Spread onto large cookie sheet and cook at 300 degrees for 30-35 minutes, stirring at the 15 minute mark.  Remove from oven and spread onto parchment paper to cool.  If you leave it on the cookie sheet for too long, it will stick. 

Store in airtight container in the fridge. 

We eat this by itself or with Coconut Milk Plain yogurt.

Jenny :)