Black Bean Burger

We're running very low on food supplies, so once again I used what I had lying around in the fridge to cook tonight's meal. I sort of kind of followed a recipe, but had to work around the things we didn't and did have.

 

DISH Vegetarian Black Bean Burger

INGREDIENTS

2 cups black beans

1 cut up tomato

1 teaspoon garlic powder

chopped onions

1 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup parsley

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

oregano

salt

mozzarella cheese

vodka sauce

light sour cream

burger buns

any desired burger condiments

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) In a bowl, mix together chopped up carrots, tomato, and onion. Add in beans, garlic powder, parsley, oats, salt and oregano. Mix well. (the original recipe called for a food processor, which we do not have)

3) Form into patties and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle cheese on top, along with some sour cream and vodka sauce.

4) Bake for 10 minutes; serve on buns and top with ketchup, mustard, etc.

DANKNESS FACTOR 6.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Meh, I wasn't the biggest fan of how they turned out. There's just so many things I could have done to make it better: sauteed the onions before putting it the mixture, add less parsley. I felt it lacked that explosive delicious flavor; I did just whip up/experiment with what I had, but something was missing. Or maybe it was the overwhelming taste of the onions I didn't pre-cook. It was still tasteful and was a decent meal, but I wanted something more. Sadly we didn't have burger buns in the house so we toasted some whole wheat bread and put the burgers in them and ate it like a sandwich. All in all, an alright dish.

     Keiko made these out of the remnants of food that she had, so my expectations were slightly lowered, but this dish actually came out pretty good. They were good by themselves with a fork and even better in between bread. They had good texture, moist and soft with carrots and onions for crunch. The sour cream was a nice addition that really helped the taste and you couldn't even tell that there was oats in it! Healthy, tasty.

Simple Smoked Salmon Sandwich

As I stated in a previous post, we always turn to these pressed sandwiches for dinner because they're easy to make and I always have the ingredients for them. I have two main variations of these pressed sandwiches, the first being the previous mushroom and onion sandwich I posted, and the second one being the smoked salmon one:

DISH smoked salmon sandwich

INGREDIENTS

Nova smoked salmon
onions
mushrooms
whole wheat bread
avocado
tomatoes
lettuce
cheese

HOW TO

1) On a slice of bread, layer on cheese (I used mozzarella cheese cause it was the only cheese I had at the time), slices of tomato, slices of avocado, and the smoked salmon.
2) In a pan, saute some chopped onion and mushrooms and sprinkle some salt, pepper, and basil on top.
3) Add the onion and mushrooms onto sandwich and top with some lettuce.
4) Cover top with a slice of bread and put into sandwich presser.

DANKNESS FACTOR 7/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I always have to have smoked salmon in my fridge because I have the occasional fish craving and it also satisfies my occasional salt craving (which I get often). So smoked salmon in my sandwiches are a big plus. When I have smoked gouda in my fridge, my sandwich usually consists of: smoked gouda, tomatoes, smoked salmon, avocado, and lettuce. Simple but the ingredients go so well together. I'm a huge fan of pressed sandwiches, well actually sandwiches in general. They're easy to make and almost always turn out delicious.
     I love these sandwiches; they have a good texture, the onions and lettuce give it a nice crunch, and the smoked salmon has great flavor. It's paired well with a nice slice of gouda, but we had to substitute mozzarella, and it tasted great anyways. A great item to have a few times a week.

A Yummy Sammich

MAIN DISH pressed sandwich filled with sauteed mushrooms and onion sprinkled with basil, a sliver of smoked Gouda cheese, some smoked turkey coldcuts, slices of tomatoes and avocados, and lettuce all on whole wheat bread

SIDE DISHES penne pasta cooked in Emeril's vodka sauce (tried a couple, so far favorite vodka sauce in a can) and a bed of romaine lettuce topped with avocado, grape tomatoes, and chick peas.

DANKNESS FACTOR 7/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I discovered this amazing sandwich by putting in all my favorite things into one sandwich, and of course it turned out great.

     I love these sandwiches. They fill you up and the Gouda is a perfect compliment. Without the Gouda, it's not the great but whatever.  

This bad boy sandwich gets whipped up at least once a week for dinner; it's a fallback dish now when we either 1) don't have much food in the fridge or 2) too lazy to cook a legit meal or 3) if we want a sandwich. Nevertheless, it's always great.

Warm Cornbread and Chili MMMM

DISH warm, crumbly, moist cornbread drizzled with sweet honey and melted butter; with a side of thick, meaty turkey chili

SIDE DISH lightly drizzled Italian dressing on a bed of mixed greens, topped with sweet beefy tomatoes

INGREDIENTS

cornbread mix (contains actual pieces of corn - the real shit)

canned turkey chili from Trader Joe's 

   -try it, it's a great combo

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     I really enjoyed mixing the cornbread and chili in bowl to make a mushy substance. It's sweet and a little spicy. It's a dish that I grew up loving and I still do. The honey was a nice addition to the cornbread.

Though the title of our blog may be misleading (the homemade part, oh no not the dank), we're making homemade dishes every once in a while and on some days with the help of pre-made food but with our own added twist of course.

Oh, and another great combo - dinner and The Office, "The Murder"...classic episode.