Day 101 - Recovery plus Cooking with Kristin - Black Bean Burger

May 20, 2012

Day 101 since I came home. Well shoot, I meant to post this on day 100 and missed it by a day. And even then I'm uploading on day 102.

I've been back to work for two weeks now, full time at least. It's going okay. We had a customer complaint a week ago that turned into a week-long customer visit by various quality people. Plus I had to work yesterday (Saturday). Blargh! So yeah, it's been an interesting couple of weeks already.

How about some food? That always makes things a little better. LOL

This week we've got some Black Bean burgers. Good stuff :)

Ingredients:
12 oz. drained black beans
1/2 diced green pepper
3/4 diced medium yellow onion
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cummin
1 egg
2 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray. Mash beans in bowl. Mis in onions, pepper, and spices. Add egg and bread crumbs and mix. Form four patties and bake 10 minutes on each side.

Just a couple comments about this recipe. We all felt that the burgers were a little on the spicy side and that the red pepper and chili powder could be cut in half and there would still be plenty of heat in the burgers. The second thing is that this makes 4 really big burgers. You could easily make 6 burgers out of this recipe and they would still be large enough to be satisfying.

Next week: Hmm... more food but I'm not sure what. And I still have the other rehab to talk about :)

Day 93 - Recovery plus cooking healthy with Kristin

May 12, 2012

I got my first full week back at work under my belt. It was good to see my coworkers again, as I expected it would be. It wasn't a real bad week although we did have a customer complaint on Thursday that had most of us scrambling. Such is the life in the automotive industry.

Lisa, Kristin, and I have joined the Parkview Health and Fitness Center. They've got all the equipment I used at rehab and a whole lot more. I'll talk more about that in a future post along with some pictures of course.

I have discovered something bad for me during this whole recovery process. You end up with a lot of time where you can't do much. Most people would watch TV, which I did. Most people might not watch the stations I watch though. Scifi, Food Network, History, HGTV. It's that last one that got me in trouble. One of my future posts will be about rehab for something other than myself. That should be a fun one to write. And I have lots of pictures :)

I've also come up with at least one more topic I want to blog about. And that is the foods that Kristin has started making for us once a week. She started this a few weeks back and she's made some really good dishes so far. And the great this is that they are all really healthy.

For this first week of "Cooking healthy with Kristin" I decided to showcase her Shepherd's Pie. I don't know how many of you have had shepherd's pie before but I really enjoy it. The combination of meats, veggies, and potatoes is...yum. So Kristin made a shepherd's pie a few weeks ago. The unique thing about hers is that it has no meat.

Here is the recipe.

Super Easy Cheesy Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:
24 oz. bag of frozen Green Giant broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and cheese sauce

1 pouch Betty Crocker Cheddar and Sour Cream mashed potatoes

2 cups frozen ground beef style soy crumbles

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Place Veggies and sauce bag in large microwaveable bowl. Cover and microwave for 8-10 minutes. In medium-large bowl combine potatoes with 2 cups hotwater and stir until thickened. Spray 8x8 pan with non-stick spray. Add soy crumbles. Spoon veggies over soy crumbles. Top with potato mixture. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve to taste with salt and pepper. Makes 6 servings.

Now doesn't that look yummy?

Next "Cooking healthy with Kristin": Black Bean Burgers