Eggplant Matters

Lately I've been reading the book Food Matters by Mark Bittman.  The book is about the tie between your lifestyle, diet, and the environment.  It basically says that by eating more plant foods and less animal foods you can improve your health and the health of the environment.  I totally buy into it and have been trying to increase the amount of fruit and veggies I eat on a daily basis.

The book also includes tons of tasty-looking recipes.  I had picked up some eggplants at the farmer's market and was very excited to get into the kitchen and whip up a nice dinner.  One of the perks about not training for a race is that I actually have time to cook! 

Hooray!

This recipe for eggplant Parmesan is very simple and it uses LOTS of basil.  It's getting to be the end of basil season, so I was excited to do a final harvest from my herb garden.

Green Leafy Goodness.

Eggplant Parmesan is actually one of the least healthy things you can order at a restaurant.  The eggplant is spongy, so it soaks up lots of oil when it is fried.  Then it's smothered in mounds of cheese.  I love it.  But it is definitely not good for you.

This one is different.  You broil the eggplant instead of frying.  Then it's assembled into a casserole.

Some assembly required.

Instead of breading each piece of eggplant, you just do a sprinkling of bread crumbs and cheese on top.  The result is a lower fat/calorie entree with tons of flavor and a wonderful texture.

Me oh my!

And what's an Italian dish without pasta?  I bought some brown rice noodles at Trader Joe's for a change of pace.  They were very tasty!

Dinner is served.

Drew is always a good sport with trying my cooking, but I was a bit nervous about the eggplant.  People always seem skeptical of eggplant.  But he loved it!  Like, he really really liked it.  Proof:

AAAAHHHH... so good!

This is the perfect meal for a chilly night.  Easy to throw together, comes out warm and bubbly, and an easy way to add some variety of veggie to your diet!


Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 eggplants, unpeeled, and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• Salt
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups tomato sauce
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Fresh Basil
• 1 cup bread crumbs

Method:

1. Sprinkle eggplant with salt and set in a colander for at least 15 minutes.  Rinse and pat dry.  Heat your broiler to medium high.
2. Brush the eggplant lightly on both sides with oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Broil until browned on both sides, turning once or twice and brushing with more oil if it looks dry.  5 minutes per side should do it.
3. Lightly oil a 2-quart baking dish, then spoon a layer of tomato sauce onto the bottom.  Top with a layer of eggplant, then a sprinkling of Parmesan, followed by a few basil leaves.  Repeat until all the ingredients are used. 
4. Toss some Parmesan with bread crumbs.  Drizzle 1Tbsp. of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then toss again.  Spread bread crumb mixture evenly on top of dish.
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the dish is bubbling hot.
6. Eat & Enjoy!

Remember, going just 1 day a week without eating meat is not only good for you, but also the environment!  Do yourself and the Earth a favor and make this for dinner! :)

Happy {meatless} Monday!

Vegan Taco Night

Happy Monday ya'll!  I have an amazing taco-filling recipe for you today, as well as lots of tales of kitchen fails.  Cooking (especially vegan cooking) is a learning process... one that I'm obviously still going through.

Last week Jana and DeAnna came over for dinner and I was excited to use one of my vegan cookbooks to put together a fun meal.  I chose a Mexican theme because for some reason I think Mexican food always sounds delicious when it's this hot.  Maybe I just think margaritas sound delicious when it's this hot.

All of my dinner recipes came from Veganomicon, which I could just sit and read for hours.  This is actually the first time I've prepared anything though.  For the taco filling, I prepared their recipe for Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce.  It was a very easy recipe... if you actually followed the recipe.

I skimmed through and only after I'd added an entire chopped onion to my saucepan with all of my black beans and water did I read the line that said "Remove the onion before serving."  What???  How am I supposed to remove an entire chopped onion from a pan of beans??? 

Oh.  I wasn't supposed to chop the onion.  My bad.

So I ended up rushing to Hen House for more black beans and another onion.  One which I would not chop.  The thing is... Hen House has the dumbest set up in the entire world of grocery stores.  I hate going there because it doesn't make sense!!!  I searched all over that GD store and finally found the black beans... and they weren't even the kind I like.  I do not like you Hen House. 

Anyways... despite the set back, I was able to serve up some tasty black bean tacos with a side of Mexican Millet.  Fun fact:  millet is a grain that is often used for bird seed.  But people like it too.

Black Bean Tacos & Meximillet.

Our fiesta dinner also included home-made salsa and white sangria.  Que yum!

Ole!

That's a vegan with a happy plate.

How do you say "nom nom nom" in Spanish?

However successful dinner was, dessert was the opposite.  The authors of Veganomicon also have a sweet little book called Vegan Pie in the Sky which is loaded with yummy looking recipes and encouraging words about how easy vegan baking is. 

The book is a liar.

Vegan pie slop.

I went for the key lime pie because earlier this year I tried out a non-vegan key lime pie on these ladies because I wanted to test it out for class.  I figured I owed them a vegan version. 

Vegan Pie Essentials.

Traditional key lime pie is made using gelatin AKA pig cartilage.  Not very vegan friendly.  Vegan pie subs in agar-agar powder, which is made from seaweed and {supposedly} has similar gelling properties. 

You have to go to an Asian market to purchase it.  Let's all take a minute to visualize how much fun Drew had when I dragged him into the Asian market.
 

Gel-icious.

So, I don't really know where I went wrong, but the pie did not set up.  Like, it was straight key-lime soup.  Jana was super sweet and told me to call it deconstructed key lime pie.  So I will.

Deconstructed pie.  I totally did this on purpose.

The girls were also nice enough to eat the pie soup in bowls with spoons.  D even said that if it had worked it might be the best key lime pie she'd ever had.  The smirk on her face makes me think she's lying.

No really... it's good!  I swear!

Mmm... soup!

Well... besides the pie soup, I'd like to think the night was successful.  It's pretty hard to screw up a night with the three of us and a pitcher of sangria!

If you're looking for a yummy alternative to the stand-by ground beef taco filling, give these black beans a try.  Just make sure you read the whole recipe or you may end up ripping your hair out at Hen House.  FYI: they keep their black beans on the bottom shelf of the Mexican section, away from all the other beans.  Makes perfect sense.

Black Beans in Chipotle Adobo Sauce

Ingredients for the beans:

• 2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cups cold water
• 1 large onion, peeled & halved {DO NOT CHOP}
• Salt & Pepper

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced
• 2 Tablespoons adobo sauce from the chipotles

Method:

1. Combine the beans, onion {DO NOT CHOP}, bay leaf, and water in a large sauce pan.  Bring to a boil for 1 minute. 
2. Lower heat to medium and simmer, uncovered for 40 minutes.
3. Remove the onion and bay leaf before serving.
4. Prepare the sauce while the beans are cooking.  In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil about 10 minutes.  Stir in the chipotles and adobo sauce and cook for 30 seconds.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Empty the sauce into a food processor bowl* and briefly pulse until a chunky sauce forms.
6. Mix sauce into beans and serve with taco shells and all the fixin's.  Enjoy!

Happy {meatless} Monday!

*How did I ever survive without a food processor?!?

Sloppy Jamie

Every Sunday we head to Drew's parents house for family dinner.  Cheryl is an amazing cook (and a milkshake genius, but that's another post) and she is always kind enough to make a meatless version of whatever she's cooking up for dinner.  I'm one lucky lady.

One Sunday night we arrived to hear that Sloppy Joes were on the menu for that night and Cheryl said that she'd made me a Sloppy Jamie.  I was thrilled with the name, obviously.  And the sandwich was pretty stellar too.  Ever since, the name has stuck and I always get my Sloppy Jamie while the rest of the fam enjoy their Joes.

This brings me to our current edition of Meatless Monday. 

Meatless Monday?!?

I know, right?  When's the last time we did this?  Too long ago, for sure.

Since I got busy teaching, Drew got busy learning to cook for himself.  And he's pretty great at it too!  Most of the time he cooks recipes from the P90X cookbook.  Now, you wouldn't expect recipes from a "diet & nutrition" plan to be too tasty, but they are!  There's some good shiz in those books.  And, the P90X2* recipe book is full of vegetarian and vegan delights.  One of our favorites is the Tempeh Sloppy Joes Sloppy Jamies.

Chef Drew

Tempeh is a grain protein that crumbles and has a similar consistency to ground beef.  It pretty much takes on whatever flavor it is cooked with, which is awesome because these Jamies pack some serious flavor components.

Ridiculous attempt at foodie photography.

Plus the recipe makes like a ton, so you can eat Sloppy Jamies all week long.  Trust me, you'll get your fill of Jamie!

Drew's Big Bite.

Sloppy Jamies {AKA Tempeh Sloppy Joes}

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded & diced
• 1 lb. organic tempeh, crumbled
• 3 Tbsp. chili powder
• 2 tsp. diced oregano
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1 15-oz can fire-roasted tomatoes
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp. yellow mustard

Method:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
2. Saute onion, garlic, and bell pepper until soft.
3. Add crumbled tempeh and stir together to mix well.  Cook for 2 minutes.
4. Stir in chili powder, oregano, sea salt, tomatoes, tomato paste, maple syrup, and mustard. 
5. Cook for 10 minutes, covered.
6. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes.
7. Serve on whole wheat buns.  Yum! :)

Happy {meatless} Monday!

*What do you mean you didn't know there was a second one?!?  Get with the program people!

Lentil Walnut Burgers

Happy Monday!  I'm super excited for today's recipe because it is seriously the best veggie burger I've ever made.  Way better than the beet burgers.  And maybe even better than my favorite black bean mushroom burgers.  I realize these are bold statements, but I'm serious.

These seriously delicious Lentil Walnut Burgers are from Oh She Glows , which is where all of my favorite burger recipes come from.  They are a bit crispy on the outside, but hold together nicely.  And as I've said, they taste fantastic. 

Burger-ific.

Vegan Lentil-Walnut Burgers

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
• 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted
• 1 piece bread, toasted OR 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 chia/flax egg (1 tbsp ground chia or flax + 1/4 cup water)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a small bowl make the chia or flax egg and set aside.
• Place lentils in a small pot and add a couple cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 25 minutes. Remove and rinse in colander.
• While the lentils are cooking, toast the walnuts by placing the walnuts on a baking sheet and cooking at 350F for about 12 minutes until golden brown and delicious. Let cool.
• In a food processor, process the garlic, walnuts, toasted bread OR breadcrumbs, garlic, spices & seasonings until combined.
• Add oil and lentils and pulse until coarsely chopped (some lentils should be visible and left chunky).
• Add the flax or chia egg and pulse a bit more until combined.
• Shape 4 patties with hands and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a non-stick mat. Bake at 350F for 20-22 minutes on each side for a total of 40-45 mins. bake time.
• Makes 4 patties.

Happy {meatless} Monday!

Caprese Baked Egg Cups

Monday again?  Well, I have something to smile about.  This recipe for Caprese Baked Egg Cups comes from How Sweet It Is.  I love this blog.  Everything she makes looks amazing.  It isn't exactly healthy, far from it in fact.  But she finds ways to reference Mean Girls and Entourage in the same post, and that to me is just about the edge of brilliance.

These egg cups caught my eye because they contain all of my favorite things: dead baby chicken eggs, tomatoes, cheese, and basil.  Plus they are super simple to make.  Which is always a plus.  AND, I was able to purchase all of the ingredients at my favorite super market ever.  I mean besides the basil... that came straight from my back deck. 

Eggs, cheese, tomatoes.  Yum.

Caprese Baked Egg Cups from How Sweet It Is

Ingredients:

• 4 or 8 eggs (depending on if you want 1 or 2)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 3-4 ounces mozzarella cheese, chopped (Trader Joe's marinated mozzarella is amazing!!)
• 8-10 fresh basil leaves
• 2 teaspoons cream or milk
• salt and pepper
• softened butter (I just sprayed my ramekins with Pam)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Butter (or Pam) each ramekin and fill with a few pieces of tomato, cheese and basil.
• Crack one or two eggs into each and season with salt and pepper, then add 1/2 teaspoon of milk to each egg to prevent them from drying.
• Add a few tomatoes, cheese and basil on top and set on a baking sheet.
• Bake for 5-8 minutes, then turn on the broiler and bake for about 5 minutes more (I had to add another 10 minutes on top of this, but I think that is because my ramekins are kinda big). Watch carefully to determine how runny/firm you want your yolks.
• Serve hot with toasted, crusty bread.

Yummy!

Jess acted as my dinner guest/photo subject since Drew was out of town.  She made yummy noises and rubbed her belly so it must have been good.

Cheese!

Happy {meatless} Monday!

Rice & Beans by Jillian

Happy Monday folks!  I've been meaning to post this recipe for like the past three Mondays, but you know I'm just so scatterbrained busy and important that it never got done. 

I picked up Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism Cookbook at the library (I ♥ the library) and it is fantastic!  There are tons of veg options and everything looks super yummy.  I've had trouble locating a few ingredients that she calls for, but for the most part the recipes are simple enough.

I started out with a recipe for Black Beans & Rice from the side dishes chapter.  It was so fantastic that I've made it several times!  I like to eat it as a main course, with some salad on the side.  Beans & rice is a fantastic meal replacement for meat because the combination makes up a complete protein.

Meal for One.

The dish has lots of flavor with tons of tomatoes and onions.

The perfect bite.

I served it as a side dish as well with some steamed broccoli and grilled tofu. 

Substance.

We're still doing P90X, so Drew is all about eating healthy.  Apparently a lot of people who do P90X follow the Master Your Metabolism eating plan.  We're kind of a hodge podge at our house, but Drew really liked the beans and rice... along side a steak.  I can't win them all.

Mmmm...

This dish is so versatile!  I made a batch for our lake trip this weekend and used it as a filler for my tacos.  Bueno!

Black Beans & Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried black beans, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 cup long-grain brown rice (I used wild rice from Trader Joe's)
• 1 14-oz can low sodium diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 cup parsley leaves, chopped (I forgot this every time)
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I left this out and used a chipotle in adobo instead)

Method:

• In a large saucepan, place the beans and add water to cover by 2 inches.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until almost tender, about 1 hour.  Drain; set aside.
• In the saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat.  Add the onion and garlic and cook until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes.  Turn the heat to medium and stir in the tomato paste; cook for 1 minute.  Stir in the cumin and cook for 1 minute.
• Add the rice and cook, stirring, until well incorporated and toasted, about 2 minutes.  Stir in 2 cups of water, the tomatoes (I added their juice too), beans, chipotle, oregano, bay leaf, and salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice and beans are tender to the bite, about 1 hour (mine took a little longer, maybe an extra 15 minutes).  Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.
• Add the parsley (oops) and the hot sauce, if using, and use a fork to fluff the rice and beans and incorporate the parsley.  Remove the bay leaf.  Serve.

Another fun aspect of the Master Your Metabolism Cookbook is that it tells you the nutritional stats on every dish.  For instance, this recipe makes about 8 servings and each serving has 202 calories, 3 grams of fat, and 8 grams of protein.  Fantastico!

Happy {meatless} Monday!

Orange Sesame Tempeh Stir-fry

Happy Monday!  My meatless meal for the week comes from my ultimate blog-obsession, Mama Pea.  I'm serious, I'm reaching stalker-levels of obsessedness.  I love her.  And her food.  And her kids.  I want to be her best friend.  But for now, I'll settle for making her recipeas for dinner.

Vegan Stir-Fry... not a BFF, but I'll take it.

Brooke and Jack came over for dinner and I was a little worried about feeding them vegan food.  The recipe calls for tempeh.  This was my first time using it, so I didn't know what to expect.  But... worst case scenario; dinner sucks and we all go to Chipotle.

Jack kept asking to see the stir-fry.

Just happy it isn't a beet burger.

Slurp.

Brooke ♥ Meatless Monday.

Jack had his own setup of Easy Mac and apple sauce.  We let him try the stir-fry and he really liked it.  I'm telling you, the kid is a veggie-monster.  He and Mya shared three carrots before dinner.  I even have him on video saying that he likes my stir-fry better than his Easy Mac.  Now, I don't know if he was just saying that to be nice, but I'm going to go ahead and believe him. :)

Veggies?

Mmmm...

Orange Sesame Tempeh Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

• One 8 oz. package tempeh
• 3/4 c. orange juice
• 1 t. dried ginger powder
• 1 T. reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 T. rice vinegar
• 1 t. sesame oil
• 1 t. minced garlic
• 1 T. cornstarch
• sweetener to taste (brown sugar, maple syrup, agave or stevia)
• One 12 oz. package broccoli slaw
• 1 1/2 c. baby carrots, steamed
• 1 1/2 c. snap peas, steamed
• One 5 oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained
• 4 c. cooked brown rice
• 1/4 c. toasted almonds, chopped

Method:

• Place a pan lightly sprayed with oil or cooking spray over medium high heat. Grate or crumble tempeh into pan.
• Cook the tempeh for several minutes, until it is browned and toasty.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine orange juice, ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, cornstarch and sweetener. Whisk to remove any lumps.
• To sautéed tempeh, add broccoli slaw, carrots, snap peas and water chestnuts.
• Stir-fry veggies until the broccoli is tender, then add the sauce.
• Cook for an additional minute or two, until sauce has thickened, and made a delicious sweet glaze over the veggies.
• Serve over brown rice and garnish with almonds.

And the verdict on the tempeh?  Honestly, I couldn't really taste it.  In fact, the whole dish kind of lacked flavor.  I was really surprised.  I kept adding hot sauce to my plate to try to up the flavor.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, and really healthy and filling... and I'll still be stalking Mama Pea... it just felt like it was missing something. 

After dinner there were brownies... which I should probably have Brooke post the recipe for because they were A-MAZING!  Girl knows how to bake.

After the brownies we took a little walk to the park.  Jack banished Ari to his crate, so Mya got to live out her fantasy of being an only dog for the evening.

Cousins.

Sometimes it takes two to walk Mya.

My favorite people.

All of my faves... minus Ari.

The park was a shockingly pleasant experience when we weren't constantly yanked around by Ari or trying to keep him from dominating children.  But still, he was missed.  But not by Mya.

Happy {meatless} Monday!

Mmmm... Lentil Beet Burgers

Yeah, I said beets.  I've never cooked with beets before but I keep seeing people buy them at the farmers' market.  There's gotta be a reason people are going all Dwight Schrute with their veggies, right?  So I joined the crowd and purchased my very first beets.

Bears.  Beets.  Battle Star Galactic.

Now, what to do with these bad boys?  As you know, we had company over for dinner last week.  The weather was hot.  That means we should definitely grill out.  Burgers and fries it is.

I Googled "beet burgers" and scrolled through lots of different recipes... and some reviews that said beet burgers were quite possibly the worst idea ever.  I ended up choosing this recipe because it looked pretty simple, I had all the ingredients, and it called for lentils.  You know how much I love lentils.

The beets were surprisingly easy to work with.  I just roasted them up, chopped them up, and made burgers.  All without getting a smidge of pink on my dress. 

Those are some magenta burgers.  For real.

Are we a bit skeptical?

The recipe calls for you to cook the burgers in a skillet, but I thought they'd hold up on the grill.  Just to be safe, I put down some foil to keep the burgers from sticking to the grill or falling through.  Have you seen those commercials?  You know, where the burgers stick and dinner is ruined and they're all, "This wouldn't have happened if you would have used Reynold's Wrap!"  Yes, I am a marketer's dream come true.  I believe everything I see on TV.

This is going to be just great!

Uhh... this isn't going so well.

Meanwhile, Jana was putting on a fashion show inside.  Look how excited Mya is about the fashion show.

We voted lose the belt.  We are such fashionistas.

And Drew became more and more skeptical about the beet burgers.  If you want my honest opinion, I think he was rooting for the beet burgers to fail from the beginning.

Not excited to be flipping beet burgers.  Mad Face.  Grr.

Drew decided the burgers weren't going to make it on the grill, so we brought them in and finished them up on the stove... much to his delight.  I think he was hoping we'd scratch the beet burgers and go to Chipotle.  You wish, Drew.

To go with the burgers and fries I whipped up some Mmmm Sauce from Peas & Thankyou, my newest blog obsession.  I love this sauce.  I mean, I love sauce in general, but this stuff is super good.  I've eaten the entire batch.  It goes on fries, burgers, salad, pasta, crackers, pita, and anything else you can think of.  I licked the bowl.  I like it.

"Mmmm!"

Jana enjoyed the Mmmm sauce too.  DeAnna didn't think it lived up to the hype.  I'll go ahead and eat hers.


Jana, is that your Mmmm face?

 The burgers turned out pretty good.  Jana and DeAnna agreed.  I don't know if they were just being nice... or if they'd just had enough sangria to make a hot pink burger seem yummy.

Beet burger & Sweet Tater Fries.

Beet burgers can be sexy, right D?

 You know you've had too much sangria when you get Jana to make sexy faces with her beet burger.

She just loves those fries!

And, now let's get an opinion from someone who won't lie to avoid hurting my feelings and isn't suffering from sangria-induced impaired judgement.  To put it mildly, Drew was not a fan.

Oh no.

He took one bite and called it quits.  He talked about going out for food, but never actually did.  It's probably a good thing.  After sitting through us girls going through several pitchers of sangria, I don't know if he would have come back.

So refreshing, yet so wrong.

Here's the recipe, in case you haven't been scared off yet.

Lentil Beet Burgers

Ingredients:

• 2/3 c. quick cooking wheat bulgur (soaked in water for 4-6 hours)
• 3/4 c. dry red lentils (soaked in water for 4-6 hours)
• 2/3 c. raw cashews (blended into a powder)
• 2 cups beets, washed
• 8 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
• 1.5 tsp. sea salt
• 4 Tbsp. olive oil

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Place the beets in a 9 x 13 pan, add a cup or so of water and cover it with foil and bake the beets for about 45-60 minutes or until very tender. 
• Allow beets to cool slightly, then peel off skin and discard the root.
• Dice the beets and set aside.
• In a skillet, heat 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil and saute the mushrooms over medium-high heat until cooked.
• In a food processor, pulse the cashews into a medium fine powder.
• Add the beets, sauteed mushrooms, lentils, bulgur, and sea salt and blend until combined.
• Form mixture into 8 burger patties. Place them on a tray lined with wax paper and refrigerate them for 1-2 hours before cooking.
• When ready to cook the burgers, heat remaining 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a skillet or griddle on medium high heat. Cook burgers for about 5 minutes on each side, but try not flip more than once to avoid burgers falling apart.
• Serve on grilled sourdough bread or buns with your favorite toppings!

Happy {meatless} Monday!