Black bean burger

I had a little bit of black beans left from yesterday's quinoa with beans so I decided to make a burger for today. I didn't have a recipe, I just went through the kitchen and mashed up whatever I thought might be good together. I think I ended up with approximately: 1/4 c black beans, 1/4 cup firm tofu, crumbled, 1 T ground flax seed, 1 T wheat germ, 1/2 t Tabasco sauce, 1 t oregano, 1 T frozen defrosted peas, 1/3 slice of crumbled toast. After I mashed it all together with a fork I shaped the mixture into a patty and cooked it in a nonstick pan for a couple minutes on each side. Surprisingly it stayed together. From start to finish, it took less than 10 minutes to make a healthy burger completely from scratch. It ended up being a little bland so I might end up adding some more spices if I try this again.

For lunch, I have the burger on whole grain bread with pre-packed organic spring greens. I just left the top slice of bread off for the picture. Also pictured are some more grapes and baby yellow peppers.

Do an extra snow dance for me tonight so I can have the day off tomorrow.

Quinoa with black beans

What's a girl to do when the cupboards are bare? Make quinoa! I've been in a bit of a rut lately with my lunches (and with cooking in general) so I decided to be a little more interesting today with the meager fixings I found around the kitchen. I sauteed a carrot, some garlic, and bell pepper with some salt and pepper, then added most of a can of black beans, 1/3 cup of quinoa, and 2/3 cup of water. Put a cover on the post and let it simmer for 15 minutes and a meal is ready. This made about twice the amount that you see here in the lunch box.

While the quinoa cooked, I made a potato with black pepper in the microwave and grabbed a carrot raisin muffin. I was a little disappointed with these muffins. They are edible, but I probably won't make them again. I had to cook them about 15 minutes more than the recipe stated and they still didn't all completely cook. I'm not sure what was going on, the recipe was from Vegan with a Vengeance so I was really surprised that it didn't work.

Some fruit on the side, an orange, some grapes, and a not-in-season, not local, not very tasty apple. That'll teach me not to eat grocery store apples.

I'm thinking about finally purchasing a Laptop Lunch Box. They're cute and more convenient than the container I currently use because the sections don't leak into each other. Anyway, if shmoo uses one, I want one, too! According to an email I got today, the new laptop lunch box is improved and will be going up in price soon. I guess I should get on it if I'm really going to order one of these.