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.

Tofu Mushroom Alfredo Pasta

So today we decided to kind of whip up whatever I had in my fridge. I had some tofu I hadn't used, so I looked up how to cook tofu, and I never knew you just really need olive oil and a pan to cook it. And here's the turnout:

The yellow parts aren't oil; it's melted mozzarella cheese!

DISH tofu mushroom alfredo pasta

INGREDIENTS

tofu
olive oil
mushrooms
mozzarella cheese
salt and pepper
oregano leaves
garlic powder
whole wheat penne
onion
light sour cream
lettuce

HOW TO

1) Cut up tofu in cubes and mushrooms into slices and place onto olive oiled pan. Let that cook under medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning every once in a while. Sprinkle garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano, and mozzarella cheese; Mix.
2) In another pan, saute some chopped onions in olive oil and then add in some light sour cream.
3) Boil some pasta until tender, drain, and then put back into pot.
4) Put alfredo sauce into the pot with pasta and add some oregano and salt onto penne.
5) Place pasta on top of some lettuce leaves. Top pasta with tofu and mushroom mixture along with the sour creamed onions.

DANKNESS FACTOR 7/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     It turned out pretty good. The tofu, cheese, and mushroom was very flavorful on top of the alfredo penne. The onion and sour cream mixture turned out just the way I wanted it; sweet with a nice sour creamy touch to it. I just love the oregano spice, so it really complimented this dish well. I'm thinking of cooking the tofu in bread crumbs next time to add a nice crunchy texture to it, but I love tofu in any form, even plain.
     I am not the biggest tofu fan; I just don't like the mushy consistency and the blandness of it but having it with alfredo pasta and caramelized onions was a great way to mask them, and who doesn't love alfredo...ahh it's the best. But you end up paying up for it in calories, but who cares. The onions were not completely caramelized so they still had a little crunch to them which made them a little easier to eat. I think that we put caramelized onions on everything now and for a good reason...they are delicious!    

Asparagus and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Dinner with Sour Cream Banana Bread Dessert

So today we decided to pick another homemade recipe from Pillsbury: The Best Of Classic Cookbooks, and we picked out a delicious sounding dinner: herb cheese-stuffed chicken breasts. But we didn't have all the ingredients, which called for a trip to the grocery store. While in the vegetable aisle of Albertson's, Brian spotted some asparagus, something we both love but have never made ourselves, so we decided to buy some and try to take that on. I mean, we really had no idea how to prepare it, so after a quick call to Kirk Plummer (Brian's chef brother who cooks the dankest food), we got tips and an idea on how to best cook the asparagus. After paying for our goods, we left the grocery store with our bags...and the grocery cart. Hey, we're college kids with no cars, and there's no way we're walking home holding many heavy bags without some help; so we took the cart home with us. Not saying that I wasn't against this idea to begin with (happy Brian?)

We got some stares along the way home, but I guess we fit in with SLO's homeless 

community who drag along carts with them all the time.

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DISH lightly seasoned asparagus

INGREDIENTS

fresh asparagus

olive oil

salt and pepper

chili powder

HOW TO
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2) Cut off bottoms of fresh asparagus
3) Lay asparagus on baking sheet. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of chili powder.
4) Cook until soft or semi-hard, however you prefer.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8/10
 

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Such an easy dish, but it comes out as such an amazingly delicious and flavorful side dish, all while using minimal ingredients. And you don't feel bad overeating these, which you will, because it's healthy and light. The texture was so good; slightly soft, slightly crunchy near the ends. Definitely will be making these again. Most props to Brian for making these and a big thanks to Kirk for telling us how to prepare this.
     The aspar-gas came out great, with a big thanks to my brother. When I made them, I used way too much olive oil and had to drain some out in the middle of the cooking process because you could hear it sizzling. Regardless, they were absolutely full of flavor and tender. Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables and I had the urge to buy them and make them. My brother recommended that I use chili flakes, but we didn't have any so I used chili powder instead.

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DISH herb cheese-stuffed chicken breasts

INGREDIENTS

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 a cup)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained (we actually just used 2 medium tomatoes and diced them up and added some salt, pepper, and herbs)
1/4 cup sliced ripe olives (we used mushrooms instead)
4 teaspoons corn starch

HOW TO

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Using a sharp knife, cut a 3-inch slit in meaty side of each chicken breast to form pocket.
3) In medium bowl, combine feta cheese, parsley, oregano, and oil; mix well.
4) Gently spoon half of filling into each pocket. Place chicken in ungreased 13x9 baking dish.
5) In another medium bowl, combine tomatoes, olives (mushrooms in our case), and cornstarch; mix well. Pour over chicken.
6) Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until chicken in fork-tender and juices run clear.

DANKNESS FACTOR 7.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS
     The idea of stuffing chicken was what made this recipe so initially appealing, and it turned out to be much easier than I thought it'd be. My one regret about this dish was not seasoning the chicken before placing the tomato/mushroom mixture on top: what was I thinking? But the feta cheese was delicious (my first time trying feta cheese by the way) along with the fresh parsley. The highlight was definitely the stuffing. It's a fairly easy dish to make and opens up ideas for making our own stuffing next time. It's also a pretty satisfying, healthy dish.
     It was aight; I think that it got better overnight. I love chicken, I love cheese, and I love tomatoes, but for some reason it was just mediocre to me. A little season or marinade on the chicken would have changed things. On the positive side, I do like the idea of stuffing chicken and baking it; usually I just saute or grill my chicken, so it was a nice change. 

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We kind of forked the hell out of our bread everytime we went to check if it was done...whoops.

DISH banana sour cream bread

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cups white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 of 16 oz. container sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

HOW TO

1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 7x3 inch loaf pans.
2) In a small bow, stir together 1 tablespoon white sugar and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Dust pan lightly with cinnamon and sugar mixture.
3) In a large bowl, cream butter and 3/4 cups white sugar. Mix in egg, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla extract, and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in nuts. (at this point, I also added a good amount of cinnamon to the mixture)
4) Pour mixture into pan, bake for an hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

DANKNESS FACTOR 8.5/10

COMMENTS/TIPS

     Very easy to make and it turned out to be one of the best banana breads I've had (and I've had plenty in my life). The sour cream gives it an interesting kick; definitely makes it more dense and thicker. After a while searching for the perfect banana bread recipe on allrecipes.com, I found this one, which seemed to get great ratings. Of course people recommended changing the portions of ingredients around, which I did. We ended up baking it for more than an hour. The taste was perfect; the addition of ground cinnamon into the mixture went perfectly with the portion of bananas called for. The texture was just the best; a bit mushy, dense, and thick.
     The banana bread came out so dank; I could eat that every day of my life. It had nice bits of banana and the texture was just perfect. I liked it warm out of the oven and cold out of the fridge equally. Great recipe. Can't wait to make it again.