Week 3 (Jenni): Veggie Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries

This week's new recipe comes from a book my mom bought for me as a house warming present. Well, and part came from Sandra Lee.

I used my roommates grater for the carrots and zucchini, it was super easy and lots of fun. I'm realizing how much easier a food processor would make things. The recipe indicates that the food processor would have done the job in ~25 seconds. It took me nearly 25 minutes to get everything through my make-shift processor. When I was done though, it looked so yummy. My mixture was a little sticky, I feared stacking the patties on the plate, so I wrapped them each individually. I'm likely going to freeze most of them, to eat later! I cooked up a burger, and topped it with some blue cheese, it was amazing! The sweet potato fries were quick and easy, and very tasty. I used my favorite season-all seasoning to flavor them, and just let them bake for about 30 minutes.

All in all, a totally delicious Sunday evening meal.

Veggie Burgers
4 Tbsp evoo
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 large carrots, grated
2 medium zucchini, grated
1 16-ounce can of garbanzo beans, drained
1 Tbsp crunchy natural peanut butter
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat bread crumbs
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp curry powder*
1 tsp mixed herbs*
1 egg, beaten


Heat 2 Tbsp of oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, and zucchini, and saute about 5 minutes, until softened. Take off heat, and set aside.

Place garbanzo beans, peanut butter, breadcrumbs, parsley, curry powder, mixed herbs, and egg in a food processor.*** Process for about 20 seconds, or until garbanzo beans are broken up and all ingredients combined. Add the onion mixture and process for another 5 seconds - do not overprocess.

Form 8 patties, and place them in the fridge for 30 minutes. To cook, heat 2 Tbsp of evoo in a skillet, and cook about 4 minutes on each side.


*I did not have curry powder, I used some mixture of creole seasoning instead.
**I did not have mixed herbs, persay, so I used a dash each of oregano, dill weed, rosemary, thyme
***I do not have a food processor, so I cycled everything through my immersion blender/chopped apparatus. It was tedious and long. A food processor would have been easier.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

I think that peanut butter and chocolate might be the worlds most perfect combination. I mean, seriously. Name something that works together as well as these two...

Tonight, I created this chocolate peanut butter pie, without a recipe, using only my shear will to devour something delicious. Here's the recipe that resulted:

about half a package of Nilla Wafers, crushed fine
1/4 cup of butter
1/3 cup of peanut butter
16 oz. milk chocolate
1 container of Cool Whip

Melt butter and peanut butter over medium heat. Add to finely crushed Nilla wafers and mix well. Press into bottom and sides of pie plate (I used my springform pan). Cook in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove and cool to room temp.

On top of double boiler melt milk chocolate. Add to thawed Cool Whip and combine well (I didn't let the cool whip thaw completely, and when I added the hot chocolate it all went awry, so then I threw the mixture back into the top of the double boiler and melted it all together!) Spread chocolate into crust and chill, uncovered, at least one hour. (Once chilled you can cover it, but if it's warm when you put it in the fridge don't cover it or it'll rain all over your pie).

All I can say is....YUM-O!

Happy Birthday....America!

While I was out yesterday afternoon watching the Red Sox Yankees game with some friends we devised our 4th of July fireworks viewing plan - to meet at a friend's house at 7:30pm and head over from there for the show starting at 8:30. By the time I got home from the game I had about 2 hours before I had to be ready to leave again, and I still had to go and walk the dog (as an aside, I've been dog-sitting for a week, and this dog likes to hike through the woods, where we see coyotes!!!) I left my house, headed for dogs house, and stopped at the grocery store on the way - I was not going to show up for pre-fireworks party empty handed. She likely doesn't know, but Melanie helped me devise this recipe while I was AT the grocery store. A few quick text messages back and forth and we'd decided on filling those little phyllo pastry cups with chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I decided to top them with strawberries and blueberries, for the full patriotic effect.

I must say, while this is like less homemade and more "semi" than what Sandra Lee would put on her show, they came out looking quite cute and being quite tasty. And, of course, the simple fact that I showed up with something in-hand made me quite pleased.

Happy and safe 4th to everyone!

Cinco de Mayo. . . but not.

Last week, I had a lovely dinner with an old friend at the Border Cafe. I had only been there once before, back in high school, so I was interested in trying it out again. One word: YUM! The only problem with going to the Border Cafe was that it left me craving MORE Mexican food. So the very next night, I decided to make my own.

I've never made quesadillas, but you know, cheese and tortillas. . . not that difficult. Looking to make it more interesting, I made black bean and corn quesadillas, with monterey jack and cheddar cheese. They took all of about five minutes. I made them as I cooked them, right on my electric griddle, with just a little canola oil. I flipped them only once, and as soon as I did, added a little more cheese on top while it was warm. I then covered them lightly with foil just to keep the heat in and melt the cheese on top. I served them with salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips -- all care of Whole Foods.

For an easy side dish, I made Rice a Roni (yes. . .) Spanish Rice. You can either make it with a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes or a 16 ounce jar of salsa. I went with the salsa. Talk about semi-homemade. . .

What's a Mexican meal without a good margarita? Now this whole meal was a little spur-of-the-moment. I was thinking about it while I was at work, and actually bought what I thought I might need on my way home. I thought in my head that I had some frozen limeade concentrate from the last time I made margaritas. I was wrong. What I did have was some Mango Tango. . . for Scott. Luckily, at the time I needed something to mix with my tequila and triple sec, Scott had merely tasted the Mango Tango. He thankfully decided it was giving him a stomach ache. So I had a Mango Tango Margarita. . . and a very good evening.