Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Happy Wednesday!

I went to bed at 9:30pm Monday and 9:00pm Tuesday 

so I am feeling a little more refreshed today!  

I may have the sleeping schedule of a third grader,
but...
It is scary how much I love sleep.  

10 hours?  

That is my happy place.

Tuesday I got out of bed at 6 and met the girls for our 6:30 run

 in Deep River by Chelsea's house.  

It is still pretty dark at 6am so Olive and I rocked our reflective vests.
Safety First!

We did a 3 mile loop downtown and by the water.  

Deep River has this cute little waterfront spot called the Deep River Landing.  

Every time I run by here I think
"What a lovely spot to sit with a glass bottle of wine".  

I am going to have to do that one of these days. 

Soak up the last bits of New England sunshine. 

The 3 mile run felt pretty good and included a hill work out.  

I had not run since Thursday - meaning four days off-  

so I was glad to find the time to run.  

My race, my fourth half marathon, is this Saturday so the four days off felt pretty nice. 

And lets me honest, they aren't real days off. 

They consisted of horseshowing and scuba diving- great workouts. 

I will do another 5k Thursday morning and then 13.1 Saturday.  

Undertrained, but it is a flat course and I am excited.  

Better than being overtrained and injured I like to say! 

Well, I promised you another recipe from my Monday night food prep 

so here it is.

Sunday night we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings after diving 

for a quick dinner before heading home.  

This is not my number one dining choice, 

and I wanted something healthy(ish)

I went with the black bean burger and I was pleasantly surprised.  

If BWW can make a decent Black Bean Burger, 

Then so can I.

So I did!  

I followed a food network recipe and added a few extra twists. 

Black Bean Veggie Burgers.
by Sandra Lee taken from Food Network 

Ingredients

1/2 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro leaves

2 teaspoons freshly chopped parsley leaves

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

4 hamburger rolls

Optional Toppings:

1 tomato, sliced

4 small Romaine lettuce leaves, or any other type you have on hand

1/4 cup ketchup

Directions

Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-low heat.

In a food processor, pulse onion and garlic until finely chopped. Add 1 can black beans, cilantro, parsley, egg, and red pepper flakes and pulse to combine.

Transfer mixture to a large mixing bowl, add the remaining can of black beans and the bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and mix until well combined.

Reserve 1/3 of the black bean mixture for Round 2 Recipe. Divide remaining mixture into 4 portions and form into patties. Place on hot oiled grill over medium-low heat and cook about 6 minutes a side or until heated through. Toast hamburger buns on a grill. Place a burger on the bottom of each bun. Top with lettuce, tomato and ketchup. Cover the burgers with the top of the bun and serve.

Full Recipe Here

I added red pepper, extra garlic, and extra seasoning to my patties.  What is great is you can add in what ever dead or dying veggies you have to this.  Why not?

My only complaint is that my patties were a little wet and didn't stay together as I had hoped.  Next time I use this recipe I am going to make sure to dry out the beans a little better. 

Maybe some extra breadcrumbs?

I decided I was going to eat my veggie burgers for lunch at work.  

I do not have a microwave at work so I had the GENIUS (or weird) idea 

to bring my panini press to work. 

I used that to heat up/grill my patty and my burger.  

On the side I brought motz, lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, and lite honey dijon dressing.  

For the bun I used the 90 calorie fiber one bread.  

Delicious warm hearty and healthy meal at work. 

 Now that it is fall I am sick of salads and craving warm food.  

Enjoy and let me know how your "burger" comes out!