The Veggie Burger - A Survey

I have a confession to make. I love veggie burgers. A box of veggie burgers does not last very long in our freezer. There is a very long list of veggie burgers that I enjoy, but I have a definite favorite. With four patties to a box, these burgers last for no longer than four days in our fridge. To me, they always sound like a great idea for a meal, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Although honestly, I would rarely last until dinner to have one of these, if they're in the house.

Yes, I eat them for breakfast. Today, I am having one for lunch (yes, its even good after being cooked and sitting in the car for 4 hours.

My most favorite veggie burger ever is:

Amy's TEXAS burger. It is the perfect blend of sweet and savory, made up of all ingredients that I can pronounce, and packs a good punch of protein too (12 g). It is just, delicious.

So with that, I'm wondering...what is your favorite veggie burger? Do you make your own instead? Do you (gasp) not like veggie burgers? Inquiring minds (mine) want to know!!

Have a great day people, I'm off to cook my veggie burger and get to work!

Chocolate Chia in the Morning

Nick and I went for a run this morning. Man, is it getting cold out. My car was completely iced over. Upon coming home, I decided I wanted something warm. I've mainly been having boring cereal for breakfast (Special K Protein Plus, to be specific), but I had a little extra time today, so I made something that took a little more effort.

Chocolate Chia Oat Bran

Honestly, this can only be described as love in a bowl. I have tried oat bran, and I have tried chia pudding, separately. This brought them together, with a nice dollop of chocolate soynut butter, and totally made my day.

For those of you who like recipes:

What You Need:

1/2 cup oat bran

2 cups water

2 tbsp chia seeds

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1-2 Tbsp maple syrup or agave

1 Tbsp chocolate nut butter (you could use regular, but you've already got so much chocolate goodness, why stop?)

pinch of salt

What You'll Do:

On a stovetop, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil and add oat bran and salt. Cook until the bottom becomes dry, then add the rest of the water, the chia, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Mix well. Let sit for 15 minutes. Stir in sweetener, top with nut butter, and enjoy.

Serves 1 Big Bowl of Oats

Nutrition Information: 443.1 Calories; 17.1g Total Fat; 7.8g Saturated Fat; o.omg Cholesterol; 67.0g Carbohydrates; 21.3g Fiber; 19.7g Protein

I know I waffle when it comes to calculating calories, but I really love doing it. Look at all that fiber!! Also, this is a lot of food, and it might be even better with 1/3 cup of oat bran, and some frozen cherries added. Experiment!

I also suggest adding some stevia, for those of you who are not allergic to it, which I think I am. I have been getting fairly bad hives for the past few months, and I couldn't pin down what it was from. I actually went to a doctor, who put me on prednisone, and it got worse. At first I thought it was just the Vitamin Water 10, but I have now also cut it out of my morning tea, and have stopped using my protein powder that has stevia in it, and the hives have practically stopped. There's a chance it may not be the cause, but I would bet on it. This makes me sad, I am a big stevia fan, and I had used it for over a year before I started drinking the Vitamin Water in September, and the allergy started.

Sorry for the lack of postage lately. Work has got me fairly busy, and I have time to blog, but not really time to cook. I doubt you want to see what I had for dinner last night (hint: Soyatoo, Chocolate Soynut Butter, and Rice Crackers. NOT together, I'm not completely crazy). I'll try and get in here as often as possible!

I hope everyone is having a great post-Thanksgiving week! Have you started decorating for Christmas yet?

Oh, and our little bug is growing, he's about 5 lbs now. He is a little monster sometimes and a little angel others. He came to work with me a few days ago, and we dressed him up in angel wings. The pictures are on my phone, I'll try and get them on here. This was him on Saturday though, with Nick.

*Sigh* He is cute. I just wish he'd stop biting my ankles!

Stevia Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the stevia giveaway! The site for the random number generator I usually use is down, so I used this scientific one. Turns out it won't let me copy and paste it with the results into here, but I assure you,

The winner is.....Number 14!!

Which is AutumnTao! Send me an email, at the address in my profile, with your mailing address, and I will get it out to you sometime this week!!

Slow Sweet Potato Chili

Back when I was in grad school, there was a nice natural foods store near my college, and I went there often. More often than I should have, probably! Currently, I have quite a few things lingering in the pantry that I'm just not sure what to do with. Any idea what it is?

Its probably obvious, the plastic container under the Israeli couscous is a rather odd product, and not something I see very often. Its TVP, something most of us have worked with before, and I have even put in granola bars, but I was unsure of what to do with these big chunks.

Tuesdays have become slow-cooker day, because I get home much later than any other day. I had planned on making a sweet potato chili with kidney beans, only to come home on Monday to find that Nick had used the can of kidney beans that had been sitting on the shelf for a month (isn't it always that way?). I decided this would be a good time to test out these TVP chunks.

Slow-cooking is still very experimental for me. Last week's was somewhat of a failure (hence why you aren't hearing about it until now). Surprisingly, this came out really well! Very yummy, and we were both fans of the TVP chunks. They definitely soaked and swelled up for a very "meaty" product.

Sweet Potato Slow-Cooker Chili

What You Need

2 large or 4 small sweet potatoes

1 onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups TVP (you could also use smaller TVP or a can of beans)

1 15oz can diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp Chipotle Taco Seasoning*

2 Tbsp agave nectar

1 can water + 1/3 can water (just fill up the tomato can)

*I used Ortega Taco Seasoning, because it was also lying around in the pantry. You could also make your own by using chipotle chili powder instead of regular chili powder. Keep in mind if you are making your own that you might need to add salt. I don't add any salt to this recipe because between the tomatoes and the taco seasoning, there is enough!

What You Need To Do

Throw everything into the slow cooker in the above order (ie start with sweet potatoes, end with water). Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Nick turned ours off at almost exactly 7 hours, when the potatoes were done.

I forsee the slow-cooker making many more appearances. Its already proved itself quite useful, and since we're big on chili and stews and meals like that, its perfect for that. This particular recipe really hit the spot, being warm comfort food with a hit of spiciness and the slight sweetness of the chipotles paired with agave. Yum.

In other news, the kitties are doing pretty well. I snapped this picture of them yesterday

Zoe still isn't really sure what to make of him. She wants to play, but he keeps barreling over to her and trying to jump on her, and she isn't quite a fan of that. But they're getting better every day!

Don't forget about the stevia giveaway! Nora asked a question about the baking blend. Stevia does have a slight aftertaste normally (although I find NuNaturals has the least), but there really isn't any with the baking blend. Again, I'm not giving away the baking blend, just the pure stevia packets, but wanted to clear that up. Anyway, you have until Friday to enter!

Sugar Free Banana Bread (Giveaway)

A few months ago, I was very lucky to receive a package from NuNaturals, who make my favorite stevia. They sent me a very large variety of products, but I just wasn't ready to review them, as I had not gotten a chance to review what I found to be the most intriguing product, the baking blend.

Then this weekend, as I prepared to go visit my best friend and her new baby girl, I realized I was almost out of sugar. Wanting to bring her some banana bread, but also have some for myself, I was faced with a bit of a conundrum. I was already late, so I could go out and buy sugar and be even more late, or not make any for myself, or try and find a substitute for the sugar. At that point, the NuNaturals Baking Blend rose ceremoniously from the depths of the cabinet and shined its light down upon my kitchen.

Okay, yeah, that's a little dramatic, but I did use it. I completely substituted all the sugar in the recipe (which is the Lower Fat Banana Bread Recipe from V'con) with the baking blend. The loaf I made for my friend used the real sugar and also had chocolate chips.

Baked with stevia

Baked with sugar

The verdict? Well, the regular sugar did bake up to make a slightly prettier loaf. The batter for the stevia loaf was a tad stickier and probably could have used some more liquid. So, the top of it wasn't as smooth. But it tastes fantastic. I really couldn't tell that it wasn't made with sugar, it was very much delicious.

Once cool, it was sliced into perfectly, and was really really yummy. This substituted 1/2 cup of sugar very successfully. The only downside to the Baking Blend is that it is fairly expensive. So if you do a lot of baking and were to use it exclusively, your wallet might feel it. But if you are an occasional baker who likes to keep things as healthy as possible, you can't go wrong!

Now, the lovely people at NuNaturals sent me a lot of stevia, and while I don't have any of the baking blend to give away, I do have a 100-count box of their White Stevia Powder packets for one lucky reader!

To Enter:

1. Just leave a comment on here and you will be entered!

2. If you are really motivated and want another chance, give a mention to the giveaway on your blog.

OR

3. If you don't have a blog and want another chance, get someone else to comment, mentioning that you told them about the giveaway.

4. What the heck, if you want another entry, tweet at me about it!

Entries end this Friday, November 20! Have a great day everyone, hopefully your week is starting out with something yummy like banana bread for breakfast!

And Then There Were Four

We've been living happily in a three member household for the past three years. You've all met my baby, Zoe.

Many a morning for us is spent like this. Me on the computer, her trying to literally be on the computer with me. This was her last day as an only cat. This week we brought home a little monster to join in on the fun.

This is Ivan. He is about 4 months old, and very cute...although I don't think Zoe agrees on that. Each day seems to be getting better, but they're still getting used to each other. He's got a tad too much energy for Zoe right now!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

A Midweek Quickie

Welcome to Wednesday!! I'm more pumped than usual for it to be the weekend because my best friend is having a baby today. Right now, actually.

Anyway, its going to be a busy day for me. I have a "webinar" for my online classes this morning, and we have a jam-packed day at work. Plus, we are bringing home a kitten tonight! We've introduced kittens before, but this is my first time doing it just JUST my baby (Zoe - see sidebar!) and a new kitten. If anyone has advice on introducing kittens, I'm open to whatever I can get!

The point is, most days, I am too busy to cook when I get home. Leftover of my Spinach and Artichoke Stuffed Portobellos was perfect last night when I got home. So today is just a little catch up of things that don't necessarily require their own special post.

First, we went to California Pizza Kitchen this past weekend. Vegan? Uh, no not really. But really, plenty of vegan options. They also changed their menu recently, all their soups are vegetarian, and they have a bunch of new salads on the menu that only need a minor adjustment to become not only vegan, but very delicious.

I had the Miso Salad. I honestly don't think I have ever enjoyed a salad quite this much. With edamame, avocado, daikon, little rice straws, and a wonderful miso dressing, this was so yummy.

I'm still thinking about it, it was that good. Its given me a new love for salads. I ordered it, of course, without the seafood, but also without the wontons strips, just because I don't like big crunchy bits on my salads (I don't like croutons either).

Second, anyone else digging the Clif seasonal flavors? I bought each of the three that were at my store.

This one, the Iced Gingerbread, was alright. Nothing spectacular. And I actually didn't like the Iced Pumpkin Pie at all. However, the Cranberry Orange Nut is completely amazing. By far my favorite Clif bar, ever.

I also had what can only be described as a kitchen fail this weekend ::hangs head in shame::. I tried making the Iraqi Beet Stew with Meatballs I saw posted here. It did not work. I should have just quit when I saw that my store only had teeny little beets.

The meatballs themselves were okay, and I have been eating the leftovers for lunch (hate to waste that seitan), and the beets are yummy, but the 'stew' part, the sauce, didn't work out and the rice, while pretty, was way too heavily spiced for me.

I've been mixing the rice with half plain brown rice to cut back on the spiciness. A disappointment.

Well, that's it for me today!! It'll be another day full of leftovers for me. Time for me to check into my webinar before getting ready for work.