Friday, January 16, 2015

Meal Plan: Jan 11th-Jan15th- White Bean and Red Lentil Burgers

This week was a pretty easy week to get through in terms of meals. As I mentioned previously, my breakfasts and lunches are always the same (oatmeal and berries, salad and baked potatoes) so there was no guesswork there. Since I have my monthly stash of frozen fruit and Costco bags of oats (I shouldnt run out until end of February), there was no money there. I did have to restock up on bell peppers, potatoes (the bag should carry me through all of next week), and cucumbers. The store was out of carrots and nice looking tomatoes so I bought canned corn instead for when I ran out of tomatoes.

Sunday and Monday nights I had leftover split pea soup that I had made for Shabbat- Sunday night with whole wheat pasta and Monday night with salad. For the rest of the week, the plan was to make White Bean and Red Lentil Burgers from Thug Kitchen. I had most of the ingredients on hand so at the supermarket I just picked up some breadcrumbs and onions. My total for the whole week was about 50 shekels.  Friday is an off day for me in terms of meals. As I don't work and it's erev Shabbat, I don't eat too much. Breakfast this morning was baked potatoes with salsa.

The recipe made nine burgers and so on each night I had some served with either leftover whole wheat pasta or steamed greens. The recipe for burgers isn't my absolute favorite- they were a tad bit dry and crumbled easily, but it was definitely okay. I might have had better results if I had processed the beans in a food processor instead of mashing them by hand. I left the oil with no negative results but I probably shouldn't have been too lazy to grate some lime zest into the mixture. It probably would have helped things. Try them and let me know what you think.

White Bean and Red Lentil Burgers
adapted from the Thug Kitchen

1/3 cup red lentils
2/3 cup water
3 cups cooked white beans, I used two cans of great northerns
1/2 red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 -1 tsp salt
grated zest of half a lime

Burger fixings, if desired

Combine the lentils and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer until all the water is gone and the lentils are soft and mushy.  Drain away the extra water and let the lentils cool while you prepare the rest of the burgers.

Mash the white beans in large bowl (I would use a food processor here) and then add the lentils and the rest of the ingredients. If you find the mixture too wet, and some more breadcrumbs. If it's too dry you can add a bit of water. Shape the mixture into patties and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and chill in the fridge for thirty minutes or up to four hours.

Preheat your oven to 350. Bake them for 30 minutes, flipping half way.

Mine were a bit anemic looking because I didn't use any oil or cooking spray to coat them with. If youre not watching your oil, feel free to add the oil in.

Enjoy these how you typically enjoy your burgers.

To health!


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