Date Night Dinners - Veggies All Around

12/19/2014 tringel 0 Comments

"Let's make something meatless," said Brenden

Have my ears deceived me? Am I hearing him correctly?

"You want to make something without meat?" I questioned.

"Yea," he replied.

Have I died and gone to heaven? Okay, maybe I am being a little dramatic. But seriously, Brenden being the one to suggest going meatless this week was quite stunning. And on top of that it only took us one link and three recipes to settle on what we would make. This kind of decision making for us had to be too good to be true. I mean, if we pick out a meal in under an hour we are usually praising ourselves on our good work and quick thinking. This type of decision making is practically unheard of between the two of us.



After deciding to go meatless, we quickly found a recipe for a meatless burger, a sweet potato burger to be exact. Brenden and I have experimented with all kinds of bean burgers, but sweet potato, never. We were quite excited. We decided to make the burger sans burger bun so we wanted to make a little something extra to go with our patty. And again, we astonishingly decided on something right off the bat. Veggie chips. Yumm.

Veggies with more veggies. Tonight was going to be a treat.


Besides some chopping and mixing, all we would have to do is through our dish into the oven or a pan and cook it up. Heck, even if we didn't heat it through the meal would be good to eat - 95% of it was comprised of vegetables.





Sweet Potato Burgers with Guacamole
Recipe adapted from madetocreateblog.blogspot.com, Chipotle Sweet Potato Burgers

Ingredients

• For the Burger:
• 1/3 cup quinoa
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1/2 cup white beans
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (optional)
• For the Guac:

• 2 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled, and diced
• 4 Tbsp pico de gallo
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 2 Tbsp shelled pumpkin seeds

Directions

1. In a small pot bring the water and quinoa to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for 10-15 minutes or until all of the water is absorbed.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, cook the sweet potato dices as desired (we microwaved ours for 8 minutes), until mashable.
3. Once the sweet potato is soft, mix it with the beans and mash until fairly smooth and well combined.
4. Add in all of the spices, mixing well.
5. Fold in the quinoa.
6. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
7. Divide the sweet potato mixture and form into patties.
8. Coat both sides of each sweet potato patty with bread crumbs if desired.
9. Place the sweet potato patties in the warm skilled and cook for about 5 minutes on each side to until the outside is golden brown and the patty is warmed through.
10. While the burgers cook, mix all of the guacamole ingredients together in a medium bowl until well combined (mash the avocados if you like a smoother guacamole).
11. Grab a finished patty, spread some guac on top, and enjoy.

Veggie Chips
Recipe adapted from skinnyms.com, Oven Baked Zucchini Chips

Ingredients

• 1 large zucchini, very thinly sliced
• 1 small sweet potato, very thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp oil
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients, coating the veggie slices evenly and thoroughly.
3. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray.
4. Evenly line the tray with the coated veggies.
5. Place the tray in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden. 
6. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Note the chips will get crispier as they cool.
7. Enjoy!