The Ultimate Veggie Burger

It’s been a while since I have posted; life has been busy.

I am super excited to share with you all an awesome veggie burger that I made for Steve and I last night. I stumbled upon this recipe while playing on my phone trying to wake up Monday morning.

As soon, as I read that the burger used beets, I clicked away. If you have read some of my previous posts you will know that I have been loving beets this year. Once scrolling through the recipe, I was happy to read that I had most of the ingredients and just a short, quick trip to the store was necessary after work.

The Ultimate Veggie Burger is a recipe created by Ana from The Awesome Green. This was my first time visiting her blog and it is absolutely beautiful! I look forward to scrolling through her beautiful pictures and trying other fabulous recipes.

I followed this recipe to a “t” except for a couple tweaks:

– used Naan (Indian flat bread instead of whole wheat bun); I had Naan that needed to get eaten

-Omitted the coconut oil; didn’t have any on hand and my patties were moist

-instead of wholemeal bread crumbs used panko bread crumbs

-Instead of Himalayan salt used kosher salt

– Substituted 3 tbs chunky peanut butter + 1 tbs sesame seed oil instead of tahini.

– didn’t place the sweet potatoes on the burger; tossed the slices in olive oil, salt and pepper and baked at 350F for about 30 minutes or until tender

The burgers were flavorful just by themselves, but the avocado dressing is out of this world. It was creamy, salty, and fatty all at the same time.

The burgers were tender and moist, but held together nicely. I was a little worried when forming the patties that they were going to fall apart, but the baking process really helped hold them together.  The texture was perfect, the softness from the beets and quinoa matched perfectly with the crunch from the flax seed and onion.

Note: Make sure to spray baking pan generously with cooking spray to avoid sticking. I had some sticking on a couple, but the clean up was really easy.

I was really happy that Steve loved the burger and gave me the thumbs up to make it again. 🙂

This recipe is a definite try! I just wish my pictures were half as beautiful as Ana’s.

Enjoy! Let me know if you make it and what you think.

V8 & Cookies

Cheeseburger and fries go together like cereal and milk, but what about V8 and cookies? Yeaaahhhhh… maybe not. Instead, I will tell you about two different, new products that I found while strolling through the grocery store.

Last year, I started drinking V8 Original Tomato Juice as a way to get more vegetables in my diet. It’s not something that I have often, just every now and then. About a month ago, when I was standing in the juice isle looking for some V8, I noticed V8’s new products. See pictures below.

Then, I was flipping through the Sunday paper ad’s, a couple weeks ago and noticed some coupons for more new V8 products. I couldn’t believe it! Whenever I think about V8 I always go straight to tomato juice (even though they have had the fruit fusions for a while now too).  The coupons peaked my interest and I wanted to try them.

However, I didn’t want the big bottles, just in case I didn’t like the products. While at the grocery store on Tuesday, I found small bottles of the new V8 juices, so I was excited and picked them up.

I started with Purple Power. I was excited about this one, but quickly was not a fan. The color was pleasant, for many would probably be a problem. And, when pouring it looked thin, almost watery like. When tasting it, there was no flavor, I thought I was drinking colored water, very thin, and nothing there at all.  I would not buy this product again.

Second, I tried the carrot mango. Again, the product looked thin when pouring and the color was very bright, but not off putting. This product had flavor, unlike the purple power. I tasted the sweetness of the mango followed by the carrot flavor. As, I continued drinking, the carrot aftertaste continued to build and started to get a little bitter, which I didn’t love, but it didn’t stop me from finishing the product. I would give carrot mango another try.

Third, I tried the healthy greens. To be honest, I was nervous about trying this one, but I ended up being ok with it. The product smelled “green” and I could taste the spinach, but it wasn’t offensive. Like, I said about the carrot mango, this flavor would take some getting use to.

And, lastly, golden goodness. This one I did not care for. The sweet potato flavor came through very strongly and the watery texture didn’t help . The product smelled and tasted like baby food.

Overall, I was very disappointed in these products and was hoping to like them a lot more. I feel that V8 could make the juices thicker and optimize the flavors more. I am glad that I found the small bottles, otherwise I would be getting creative on how to use the big bottle of juices.

If I had to choose, two to purchase again, it would be the carrot mango and healthy greens. Both of these would take a little getting use to, but for the health benefits, I think it would be worth it.

Now, on to the cookies. Have you heard of Brownie Brittle? It’s a must try! So good! I will do a blog post about it sometime in the future.

I bring this up because when I saw Cookie Chips, I instantly thought about Brownie Brittle and had to try it. I mean, cookies, chips, what could be wrong?

These cookies reminded me of a gingersnap, only slightly lighter and more tender. The package advertised that they eat like chips, which I wouldn’t completely agree with nor disagree with. They weren’t thick and chewy like a normal cookie. But, not thin and super crunchy like a chip. I was satisfied with the texture. The cookies also had a nice classic cinnamon sugar flavor, that you can’t go wrong with. I would definitely try one of the other 5 flavors that is offered.

Do you have any new products that you are loving right now? If so, leave me a comment, I would love to know.