1 garlic clove, minced or pressed, or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 cup parsley or cilantro
2 cups quick rolled oats
8 homemade wheat hamburger buns
Fresh veggie toppings and healthy condiments
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Process the first seven ingredients using a food processor.
Remove contents into a large bowl, and stir in oats.
Form into patties, place on sprayed baking sheet.
uncooked
Bake for 8 minutes. Turn oven up to broil and cook for 2 more minutes, until the tops are nicely browned.
cooked
Toast the buns and pile on favorite toppings.
Variation: Saute the burgers on medium heat in a sprayed cast iron or stainless steel skillet for 5 minutes on each side, until both sides are browned.
*Recipe from Vibrant Life magazine.
They are a nice variation from a regular beef burger. Give them a try!
I remember having frozen burritos in the freezer as a kid. We'd pop one in the microwave for a quick snack. Well, things are different now. We don't buy frozen burritos and we don't own a microwave. So, here's a better solution. Make your own!
If you remember, a while back I posted about making homemade tortillas...here
Now I've discovered that instead of cooking the tortillas..
1. roll them out into the usual circle
2. stuff them with some homemade spanish rice, cheese and beans
3. fold them up like a chimichanga
4. freeze!
When you get read to cook them, just pop them out of the freezer and into your oven. Not cooking the tortillas first means you won't have dry, brittle burritos.
Note: To freeze, I lay them in a baking dish and put them in the deep freeze for a few hours. Then, once they're good and cold, remove them, wrap individually in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer bag. done.
Eating natural is something I enjoy. Something I don't enjoy, however, is grocery shopping (plus, some of these things can't be purchased at the super market). So, in case you are interested, here is a list of things we order in bulk from Country Life Natural Foods.
Cornmeal (non GMO) yellow, OG (whole grain w/ germ) 25#
Navy Beans, OG 25#... will last you a long time
Peas, green split 25#
Sunflower seeds (raw) 5#
Peanuts, Spanish, RNS 25#
Raisins, black flame, large 30#
Rumford Baking Powder (Aluminum free) 5#
Coconut oil 50#... lasts us one year
Yeast, SAF- Instant Red (Baking) 1#
Oats, Regular Rolled 25#...lasts us a year and a half
Pineapple dices, low sugar, IMP 5#
I think that’s it. The things in bold are what I would consider “must haves” and would suggest getting them to start with.
We mix peanuts, raisins, (dried pineapple when we order it), and sunflower seeds and eat as a healthy snack. This is something we always have a jar of in the car for road trips.
Beans are a fun topic because they are so versatile and cheap! I like cheap. One thing you’ll learn is I like frugalness just as much as I like natural food. Sure, canned beans are convenient but they cost considerably more than dry beans and they tend to have a lot of sodium. Plus, you don’t get the satisfaction of soaking them yourself.
I like to cook a big pot of beans then use them for various things throughout the week. We like beans and cornbread, of course, (we do live in the south) but I also like to use them in chili, Mexican dishes, etc. So, what you do is, buy a bag of pinto beans (we’ll start with them because they can be used in a wide variety of ways). The best value I have found at our supermarket is a 4lb bag. (I try to support brands other than the “big names” sometimes but that’s a topic for another post!)
1.To start, dump out the desired amount of beans onto your counter. Four cups is a good amount to start with. Now, you want to sort the beans. My husbands grand-mother used to say you need to “look” the beans. This simply means to make sure there aren’t any rocks mixed in with them. Rocks aren’t easily digestible no matter how long you soak them. Once you’ve “looked” your beans, gather them up and put them in a slow cooker (that’s my favorite mode of cooking beans). Run some water over them, swish them around a couple times and drain the water. This gets dust and dirt off them.
2.For four cups of beans, you’ll cover them with 12-16 cups of water. I usually just put a lot in there so each bean will have enough water. I don’t care for measuring if I don’t have to! You want to soak them overnight. This is best because this method makes the beans more easily digestible. So, pour in the water, put the lid on and leave them alone to soak overnight. (Leave the slow cooker off, of course.)
3.When you get up in the morning, drain the soaking water off and fill up with new water. I put enough water to cover the beans by about 2 inches. Since I’m home all day I turn my slow cooker on high around 8:00a.m. and I turn it off around 3p.m. If you’re going to be gone for a longer period of time you might try putting them on low all day instead.
More than just being versatile, pinto beans have many healthy benefits. (Thanks to my C-U-T-E hubby for researching them). Pinto beans in particular are packed with molybdenum (200% daily value in 1 cup of beans). They are also a good source of folate (great for pregnancy), dietary fiber, tryptophan, manganese, protein, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, potassium, copper, and vitamin B1 (thiamin). Fiber is good for lowering cholesterol and prevents sugar levels from rising after your meal and lowers your heart disease risk. Fiber (as well as antioxidants) found in pinto beans can reduce your cancer risk. Besides all that, pinto beans have lots of protein and are a good source of iron!
Note: Don't add salt until AFTER the beans are cooked or they will be tough.
What are you waiting for? Get those beans soaking!
