Black Bean and Rice Burgers

Call me crazy but I think I like bean burgers better than regular burgers. I do have a few burger joints that I love like Culver's (home of the butter burger) and Fuddruckers (with their awesome fries and cheese sauce yumm). Going out to eat with friends they always kinda give me a little 'huh' kinda look when I order a bean burger of all things on the menus. Chili's has a black bean burger that is so a frozen patty that has nothing on my homemade burger!

Ingredients
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup salsa divided
1/4 cup sour cream













In a large bowl mash beans (I use a potato masher), add rice, onion, egg and 2 tablespoons of salsa and mix well. Drop by 1/2 cupfuls onto a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray. Flatten to 1/2 in. thickness. Cook over medium heat until each side is firm and browned.

For the sauce combine 1/4 cup salsa and 1/4 cup sour cream and mix well.














I serve mine on wheat hamburger buns with lettuce and cheese. I've actually made this into a casserole for a few of my coworkers and they all enjoyed it as part of our 'healthy dinner'. Both of my kids enjoy this bean and rice burger as well.

If you want my opinion on frozen ones I love Morning Stars' Spicy Black Bean Burger as I usually eat it by itself with a little salsa and sour cream on top!

Tostadas

Tired of tacos? Make tostadas instead!

I feel like I make the same dishes over and over all the time. So instead of just another night of tacos I've been trying to jazz em up a bit. Tostadas are basically tacos but presented in a more oh fashionable approach! I'm really missing the mall can you tell?

Ingredients:
2lb. hamburger
1 packet of taco seasoning(my favorite is Old El Paso)
Tostada shells
1 can of refried beans
Topping such as lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream...

Brown your meat, drain, add water and taco seasoning as you would normally make tacos. Add refried beans to mixture and cook till its all mixed and warmed up. Place tostada shells on baking sheet and heat up for a few minutes in the oven.
Top the shells with meat and bean mixture and then top with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, salsa or whatever your fancy!

PB 2

So while I was at the salon getting (all the latest gossip) my hair done Sat. we got onto the subject of powdered peanut butter. My hair dresser (who chopped my hair nice and shorter, yes I keep going shorter and shorter, and gave life back to my still red and blond do) said its good and tastes and looks like regular peanut butter. I told her I'm so a Jif girl and to be totally brutally honest because hello we are talking about (my ears being more visible with this shorter do) Peanut Butter here for Pete's sake! She swears that's all they eat and so being my hairdresser, the one girl in town I can go to for the low down on all the latest and greatest, I took my Jif girl self to the store and bought a jar of PB 2.












So which is which? One is my beloved Jif and the other PB 2. I'm sorry I don't have a fancy shmansy camera to give the best detail and texture in picture for you but just take a guess!

So you just add water and you have peanut butter! You really do! I now know the reason my hips are so wide. Have you ever measured out the suggested serving size of 2 tbsp.? Ya, I gotta tell ya I eat waaaaaayyyyyy more than that on any given day. It's like a big wake up call for me cause I'll fix whatever I'm fixing and then load up the knife and lick it clean. Yikes!

But lets be real here and compare labels











Just so there is no confusion the Jif is on the left and the PB 2 is on the right(I so didn't want to throw you off with the blue lid like Jif's crunchy PB). And that also goes for the guessing game above! Huge difference here when you put the two labels side by side! Huge!

So for my powdered peanut butter review:Yumm! A tad more work than just scooping it out of the jar and shoveling it down my throat but the whole measuring my PB will totally keep me from over indulging like crazy! It tastes and looks like regular PB. Nice nutty flavor, healthy and tasty alternate, way less calories, fat, and on my way to smaller hips I'm hoping! So now that you have my 2 thumbs up go out and get you some! And browse around that health food dept for a minute...all kinds of goodies just screaming wanna lose those hips Mama! That's what they yell at me...they may be kinder to you!

Sunflower Seed Cookies

Its ok to have cookies in the house! Really it is!

Roaming the aisles of the health food dept. of grocery stores is my 'thang'. Ok, maybe not really my 'thang' but I'm really into reading labels and trying new 'healthy' foods. I probably spend more time in that little corner of the store than I do shopping throughout the rest of the store but I've got to know what alternatives there are out there to the normal 'junk' I buy.

I'm slowly trying to wean myself and my family off all the 'junk' that's bad for us. We eat pretty well to begin with. I never fry anything. And we rarely ever have hamburgers and that at home(or anywhere come to think of it). I'de rather make sweets at home than buy already made ones. I never even buy french fries and try to avoid potato chips all together. On occasion I have been known to buy a bag of baked Ruffles and spicy bean dip! Yummy! But those times are pretty far and few between.

I've replaced 2% milk with skim, white bread to wheat(loving Sara Lee's Delightful Wheat), regular OJ for Simply Orange(we go through this like crazy with Felisha), sugar with Splenda(the only Truvia I can find is in packets for coffee....yuck), vegetable oil with natural canola(still trying to find a better replacement), white rice with brown (favorite being Uncle Ben's).....

Next up is the brown sugar(Splenda makes a brown sugar now), and a good wheat flour. I'm open for suggestions! And I'll be giving my two cents on our 'healthier' alternatives.


Back to the cookies! I believe these are local so I don't know where all you can find them. No ones really heard of them as they are found in the healthy side of the store! But they are de-lish! Even my kiddos love em!


















My main grocery store has been Hyvee for some time now. I never go to Walmart! Haven't step foot in one in about 8 months! For real! But I hit Sams Club all the time for milk and bread and fruit and that. I know! Really, I'm a Target girl at heart. But Hyvee is where I have been purchasing these yummies. Hyvee sometimes has little samples out that you can try and one bite of these and my shopping cart had cookies!

Apple Crisp

While making Apple Crisp (yes the box kind) today I saw that you can use 2 1/2 tbl. nonfat vanilla yogurt instead of butter to make your dessert fat free! So I gave it a go and you can not tell the difference!













Just had to share!














Hungry now? Go ahead! Its fat free, has apples and really isn't that bad for you at all! I may be making this more often now that I don't have to add butter!

Ya, I'm kinda anti-butter weird. I try to avoid excess butter and salt. Gotta keep my girlish figure ya know!!

Easy Pleasing Meatloaf

Remember 'Meatloaf I hate meatloaf double beat loaf'...or something like that anyway on the movie 'A Christmas Story'. Who doesn't just love that movie? Anyway we are having....meatloaf tonight. I found this recipe in a Kraft magazine called Food and Family. Its chocked full of recipes and is completely and absolutely FREE! Go on over to Kraft.com and sign up for this FREE magazine full of super easy recipes. Love it when they show up in my mailbox!

Ingredients:
2 lbs. lean ground beef
2 eggs beaten
1 pkg. (6 oz.) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken
1 cup water
1/2 cup BBQ sauce divided















Mix all ingredients in a bowl with the exception of 1/4 cup BBQ sauce. Shape meat mixture into an oval loaf in a 13x9 inch baking dish. This will make it easier to drain the fat when its done cooking. Pour remaining 1/4 cup BBQ sauce on top of shaped mixture and bake at 375 for about an hour or until center reaches 160 degrees.














Can meatloaf be any easier? This meatloaf has been made upon request quite often. Not a problem considering as easy as it is!

Enjoy,
Di

P.S. My 'finished' picture does not do it any justice as it is way more appetizing than its looking there!

Potato Soup

Being laid off has it's perks! I'm taking a liking to really trying to teach myself how to 'really' cook. I've always been the 'box' and 'can' kind of cook. If you can really call that cooking;) But I'm venturing into the homemade, slaved over, all day in the kitchen kind of cooking. Ok, we all know that may not be the case! Either way I'm trying...and my family is still alive! Points for me:)

I've never slaved over homemade potato soup. The lovely folks over at Campbell's always do that for me! Love em! I have these gigantic potatoes I bought at Sam's club and need to use them up before they start growing things. I've never understood how they can continually grow things when they are out of the ground. I mean once they are out of the ground they should be done right? I mean strawberries don't keep growing once they are picked. Neither does celery or carrots. Stubborn crazy potatoes, what are they thinking? It kinda freaks me out. Ok...sorry for the ditz moment there...but I'm just saying........crazy potatoes.

I came up with this concoction searching for potato soup recipes that were very very simple. Cause that's the way I cook! I happened to have all the ingredients (very few) so I gave it a go.

Ingredients:
8 med. to large potatoes
4 tsp. salt (give or take depending on taste)
1 cup sour cream
1 stick of butter
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp. pepper (depending on taste...just season till it gives you the taste you desire)
shredded cheddar cheese to top
8 slices of cooked bacon crumbled up (give or take...we love bacon)
4 scallions (I didn't have any on hand but would have made a nice touch)

Rinse, peel and slice potatoes into bite size cubes. Place in a large pot and cover with water. Add 2 tsp. of salt and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let simmer till potatoes are very soft (about 40 minutes). Drain potatoes, discard water, return half the potatoes to pot. Mash other half of potatoes in a bowl with a potato masher. Return mashed potatoes to pot. Add butter and sour cream to potatoes stirring until melted. Add milk, pepper, and remaining salt and bring back to simmer. If you prefer it really cheesy you can add some cheese now and have it melt in. Otherwise its ready to serve with cheese, bacon, and scallions if you so desire.