VEGGIE BURGER

I don't know what I am doing lately. I have been trying to shop mostly at the farmers markets and supplementing a few items from Whole Foods. The problem is, I am completely in a fog and have no idea what I am doing. When I get home, there's a random assortment of vegetables in my bags and a piece of chicken or something. I have been pulling recipes from my you know where. Yesterday I came up with this veggie burger with leftovers that were in the fridge. Since there was nothing in the fridge except some quinoa and black rice, this is a pretty minimal burger.


Veggie Burger
1/2 ish cup of quinoa, cooked
1/2 ish cup of black rice, cooked
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3/4 cup flour (any kind-I used quinoa and rice flour)
1 or 2 eggs
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Sauté the onion and garlic until translucent. While it's cooking, mix the quinoa and black rice in a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, including the onion and garlic and form into patties. You may need to add a little more flour as necessary to hold it all together.

Heat a medium frying pan and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Cook patty until golden, then flip and cook the other side. When both sides are nicely browned, transfer to the oven to finish cooking.

I mixed the cooked quinoa, black rice an egg, some flour, chopped onion and chopped chives. I promise you this is all the food that I had.

Options- You could add shredded carrot, chopped spinach or any other cooked vegetable. You could use substitute any rice or grain for the quinoa and rice in this recipe.

QUINOA-TWO WAYS

Well, really I am only going to show you one way and tell you about the other. I ate too fast to have any evidence of the first quinoa dish. Quinoa (it's pronounced KEEN WA, mom) falls into that category we hear people talking about called "whole grains," although technically, it's a seed. It is a really great source of protein, which is why you should be eating it.

In general, none of us is probably deficient in protein. We are deficient in quite a few vitamins and minerals due to the fact that we don't eat enough fruits or vegetables-that and we eat too much of the stuff that we shouldn't like sugar, refined flour, caffeine etc...So why, if we don't need to worry about protein am I suggesting quinoa? Because it is cheap, versatile and doesn't have the saturated fats that are found in many other protein sources. It cooks like rice does, in a ratio of about 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa and it cooks in about 20 minutes.

This morning, I made a big pot of quinoa. I put half of it in a bowl in the fridge for later. The rest, I left in the pot, added some almond milk, a spoonful of almond butter and a spoonful of vanilla whey powder, topped with fresh berries - quinoa porridge. Yum. Prepare it according to package directions, then treat it as you would oatmeal. I added the whey powder because I have been experimenting with other sources of protein, but you can easily omit it, add some honey, nut milk (or organic cow's milk), nuts, berries or whatever else you normally put on your oatmeal. I added a little almond butter because fat phobes, fat doesn't make you fat, but it does help fill you up so you aren't hungry as soon as you put the bowl down.

I used the remaining quinoa to create this Mediterranean inspired dish. In this house, garlic and red pepper flakes are almost always found when olive oil is present.

1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions*
1/4 cup olive oil, give or take
2 cloves sliced garlic
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
leftover steamed vegetables (asparagus & broccoli)
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon capers, drained
1/4 cup feta

Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium low heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, cook for a minute or two, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add the capers and the vegetables and cook for another couple of minutes. Because the vegetables are already cooked, you just want to reheat them and coat them with the oil, red pepper and garlic. When everything is coasted in the oil and reheated, pour on top of the quinoa, added a little crumbled feta and more olive oil as needed.

Just in case the package doesn't say it, you should rinse the quinoa before cooking or you will notice a slightly bitter taste.

FOOD REVOLUTION

Please tell me you have been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Being married to a Brit, I have been a fan of Jamie Oliver for nearly a decade. For Christmas and my birthday, the in-laws get me either Jamie's latest or Gordon Ramsay's latest book. I have acquired quite a collection. Jamie has always been my favorite because my style is so similar to his-simple clean food. All of his recipes are accessible and can be made pretty quickly.

Jamie started his food revolution in England a couple of years ago and has been really successful. He's got balls for trying it over here. Whether he succeeds or not (I happen to think he will), he has already won so many small victories, like revealing to the American public that french fries are considered a vegetable, that many kids cannot even identify vegetables in their natural state. He has given many of us the wake up call we need to see that the way we are eating is having long lasting effects. Did you see that teenage girl who was told by her doctor that unless she loses weight she will be dead in 5-7 years? When you are 16, you really shouldn't have to think about your own mortality as a result of your diet.

Do all of you cook at home? What about those of you with kids? My mom used to cook our dinners and she routinely made things we didn't like. God, it seemed like she made spinach for every damn dinner and I know we had fish at least once a week despite my protests. She only made one meal, if we didn't like it, we had to sit and consume a portion that she deemed reasonable before we were excused from the table without dessert. She never made us a box of macaroni and cheese because we didn't like her dinner. She never let us have ice cream or a bag of chips instead. At the time, I wasn't amused, but looking back, I am glad that she stood firm and made us eat the things that we didn't like.

I don't want to ramble on about my food philosophy, but I do want to make an important point about health and weight loss-they are not the same thing. Many of my peers suggest to their clients lowfat or nonfat foods in an effort to reduce calories for weight loss. I do not agree with that. Many of those diet foods are full of additives, preservatives and gross ingredients that have nothing to do with health. I really believe in eating whole, real foods. If you are trying to lose weight, you can eat this way, you might have to balance it with reduced portions and exercise, but please avoid the faddy diet foods.

Let's get back to the Food Revolution for a second. If anyone wants to make any changes to their current diet and don't know where to start, I am happy to give some advice and tips, drop me a line or write a comment below. A good place to start would be the first meal of the day-breakfast. It is really as important as you have always been told. Instead of sugary cereals, maybe have plain oatmeal with a bit of honey and fruit, or scrambled eggs and spinach. I love quinoa porridge for breakfast, it's quick, cheap and a good source of protein. It doesn't really matter where you choose to make your changes, it's just important that you do something! Oh, and it would be nice if you told the rest of us about it so we can congratulate you.