February 19, 2014

black bean + sweet potato burgers

Are you following @eatingwhole on Instagram? Cause you should be. I have been so inspired by Lauren's entire healthy eating habits and posts. She comes up with great ideas that are do-able and look delicious! Plus, she's not just "dieting"... she's living. She is killing it with eating right and exercising. I love looking at her pictures on Instagram. Right now, while I'm pregnant, I'm not focused on losing weight and getting a six pack, but I think it's really helpful to not go overboard while you're pregnant. I've done really well so far and haven't gained very much weight by continuing to exercise and eat healthy (not perfectly, mind you) but I'm working hard. Excess weight that I gain now is just excess weight that I have to lose later!
The other day I made some black bean and sweet potato burgers that Lauren posted on Instagram. She is great at creating things and so I used her idea as inspiration and changed a few things. These are plant-based (vegan) and are full of yummy, healthy things. I served these on a bun for my family but I ate mine on lettuce with tomato and avocado + steamed green beans. Then I took a picture of our alfresco dinner to demonstrate why Arizonans live her in February. It is pretty heavenly. FYI: this made 9-10 patties so I froze the rest and will use them during the week for a quick lunch with brown rice, avocado and steamed broccoli! So easy!
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cans black beans (drained)
1 large sweet potato
1 tablespoon flax seeds
2 tablespoon sunflower seeds
3 green onions, sliced

Poke holes all over the sweet potato with a fork and place on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for about 10 minutes (I used the "baked potato" setting on my microwave). Once fork tender, remove carefully and set aside to cool, then cut into large chunks.

Heat the coconut oil in a medium saute pan over medium high heat. Saute onion, bell pepper, carrot, celery and garlic until veggies are softened. Pour into a food processor and pulse until the veggies are small. Add all the spices, beans, potato chunks, flax seeds and sunflower seeds. Pulse until combined (you may need to scrape the sides to fully incorporate) and then add green onions and pulse a couple more times.

Place some wax paper on a cookie sheet and then scoop large spoonfuls onto the sheet and press into patties. Repeat until you've used all the mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to use (or you could use these right away). Cook on a skillet sprayed with oil (I used coconut oil) for about 5 minutes per side and serve!

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