Roundups
Labor day is around the corner and in case you haven’t already planned your menu, here are a few grilling recipes I’ve been drooling over. I’m spending the holiday with one last hoorah at the beach for a wedding so I won’t be grilling, but I’m definitely not ready to pack up the grill just yet.
Did you know Labor Day is really to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers? So if you work (and everyone does in some way) this holiday is for you!
Fun Labor Day Grill Recipes
Teriyaki Shrimp Burgers with Grilled Pineapple Salsa
Grilled Corn Pizza with Zucchini Pizza Crust
Grilled Okra
Grilled Romaine
Grilled Peach Salad
And in case you’re looking for a little leisure reading…
Instagram & the Thinspiration Ban
10 Fruit & Veggie Packed Breakfasts {you can make ahead of time}
What Science Really Says About Exercise & Sleep
10 Non-Sandwich Lunch Ideas
Can Having a Baby Give You OCD?
Do Apps Make Kids Smarter?
What are you up to this Labor Day? What’s your favorite thing to grill?!
Recipe
Well, husband-goes-vegan week has come to a close. He made it- stuck it out without cheating.
To celebrate, I made him tots of course. Because, after all, they are vegan.
And just to prove my point, a burger and tots can make a boy happy- meat or not.
Lunches turned out to be the hardest part for the husband, so during the week I made some black bean burgers, knowing they’d be easy to grab for lunch. We ended up not eating them all, so we saved them to go with the glorious tater tot celebration meal.
Black Bean Burgers
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 can black beans
1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal
Spices: cumin, chili powder, coriander, cayenne pepper
Splash siracha or other hot sauce
Sauté the onions over medium heat until just beginning to brown. Add the garlic and bell pepper and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
Mix remaining ingredients together. Add onion and pepper mixture. Stir until comes together- might need to mash it a little.
Divide mixture into four sections. Roll each section into a ball and then flatten into a patty.
Cook over medium heat 3-4 minutes on each side, until starts to brown and is warmed through.
Buckwheat Buns
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
1 T organic sugar
1 T canola oil
1/2 t salt
1 c bread flour (or all purpose) + extra 1/2 cup for kneading
1/2 buckwheat flour
1 T flaxseed + 3 Tbsp water
Sesame seeds
Mix water and flaxseed together. Stir yeast and sugar into warm water. Set both aside.
Stir remaining ingredients together, then add flax and yeast mixtures. Mix dough until forms a ball. Remove dough from bowl and knead a few times until dough becomes slightly elastic. Depending how sticky the dough is, you may need to knead in the extra flour.
Place dough in oiled bowl. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour.
After an hour, punch down dough and form into rolls. This makes about four rolls. Let rise for another 30 minutes.
After the rolls have risen, brush lightly with water, then sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.
Let cool slightly, then slice in half to make burger-ready buns.
Buckwheat buns + black bean burgers + arugula + ketchup + spicy brown mustard = 
And then, if you’re celebrating, serve with tater tots + Old Bay.
See? Just because it’s vegan doesn’t mean it has to be good for you. Or has to taste bad. 
What’s your favorite kind of burger?
Restaurants
What happens when you mash together a sushi restaurant and a burger joint?
The Cowfish!
The Cowfish is a new-ish Charlotte restaurant that combines everything you’d want in a sushi restaurant with a fancy burger menu.
Sunday a bunch of us met for a holiday dinner- the brainchild of Teri.
The owner brought out some appetizer samples, which was a fun way to test out the menu.
Crab dip, tuna nachos, tuna and avocado-tini, and edamame.
There were literally too many choices on the menu. They even had Burguishi- burgers wrapped sushi-style! I loved the idea of the build-your-own sushi (since I can’t stand cucumber, which invades almost every roll of sushi everywhere), but it was just too overwhelming. I went with lettuce wraps. 
Big chunks of zucchini, eggplant, and tofu, in ginger and brown sauces.
While waiting on our meal, we had a little dirty Santa gift exchange.
I’ve never done dirty Santa- I needed the rules explained twice. But beginner’s luck must have been in my favor since I made it home with a Starbucks gift card. Starbucks = heaven. (Sorry Nicole!)
Love this girl!
Loved seeing some of my favorite NC bloggers again- and meeting new ones!
Cross training, Dinner
A somewhat possibly embarrassing fact about me is that I’m obsessed with the Today Show. For real. I can only catch the first few minutes before work, so I record it. All 4 hours. Everyday. (Cough cough loser cough cough.) That’s not to say I actually watch it all. In fact, I delete many of them unwatched. But just the idea of being able to turn it on in the background while I’m making breakfast/dinner/homework/etc is comforting.
I go into work late Mondays so I was actually able to watch some this morning. The husband came down right as Paula Deen came on. I think we were mostly paying attention because she was being a hoot (seriously, more than one part of this segment will more than likely end up on The Soup) but her sons made a pretty good looking burger that the husband really really wanted.
So I made him Paula Deen-inspired burgers for dinner. (Is he spoiled or what?!)
I used the basic idea behind the burger but just used whatever I had on hand instead. And I hate burgers so I decided to make mine using a slice of eggplant.
After put together the husband’s burger, I decided I wanted something more interesting than a slice of eggplant.
I chopped up the eggplant and sauteed it with chopped zucchini and garlic. After it cooled down a little, I zapped it in the food processor to break it up a bit, then stirred in some bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic, cumin, pepper, and a bit of egg substitute. Then I made a patty just like it was a burger and sauteed it.
Inevitably there was a little leftover, so I made some “meatballs” for another night.
I didn’t really measure anything but here were the sauces I used:
Ketchup- ketchup, red wine vinegar, cumin, cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce
Herbed Mayo- olive oil mayo, basil, thyme, rosemary, lime juice
I didn’t have any hamburger rolls, and a good burger needs a good bun. I searched around for some recipes that didn’t take two days to make, but didn’t love any of them. I finally decided to use this Taste of Home recipe and tweak it to my satisfaction. 🙂
Spelt Kaiser Rolls
(The amounts are strange because I did not want anymore leftovers!!!!)
1/2 package active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water
1/2 T sugar
1/2 T Splenda
~1/16 c canola oil
1/2 t salt
1 c bread flour (or all purpose)
1/2 c spelt flour
1/16 c egg substitute
1/2 tsp cold water
Poppy or sesame seeds
Dissolve yeast & sugar in half the warm water. Let sit 5 min. Add in the rest of the water, Splenda, canola oil, salt, flours, and egg substitute. Mix together to form dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth & elastic-y. Place in greased bowl in warm area to rise ~1 hr (I heat the oven up for a minute then turn it off and stick the bowl in there).
After rising, remove from bowl and punch down dough. Form into rolls. Let rise again ~30 min. Top with egg substitute & water mixed together, then sprinkle with seeds. Use scissors to cut “cross” pattern in top of each roll (to get that “kaiser” look).
Bake 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.
Finally all baked:
Finally I put the burgers all together with the buns, mayo, ketchup, patties, some romaine lettuce, and a sautéed red onion.
Check out that gourmet burger.
Of course what goes with burgers but fries?
I almost fully baked a potato in the microwave, then chopped it into wedges. I dredged the wedges in some egg substitute, then coated them with panko bread crumbs, rosemary, basil, and pepper. Tossed them in the oven to get a bit crispy, and done!
Pilates
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it on here or not, but occasionally after a long run, my back is the sorest muscle in my body, not my legs. I’m thinking I either run like crap or my core is really weak and it’s getting tired of holding me upright 🙂
Either way, it’s been awhile since I’ve been to Pilates, so I figured it was time! This is the best class. I love how I can miss it for ages and come back, and it’s still exactly the same. Of course as soon as I thought that to myself tonight, the instructor went and threw something new at us. But it was a great class!
The rolls were awesome. I have to say I was a bit proud. I grabbed another one as soon as I walked in the door from Pilates. Yum! Gotta go watch some DVRed House now!
