Tag Archives: tomato

Veggie burgers (black bean/sweet potato/grains)

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

My black bean, sweet potato cravings from this healthy black bean dip carried over to these veggie burgers. I’ve made burgers like this a few times, but tried to mix up the ingredients a little time time around. This recipe makes 6-8 burgers. (I put half in the freezer and half in the refrigerator for later… after eating one, of course.)

Ingredients

3/4 cup TJ’s Harvest Grain Blend

1 medium sweet potato, peeled, cooked and mashed

1/2 can black beans

1 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp chopped yellow onion

1 garlic glove

Olive oil

Any seasonings you desire, i.e. cumin, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper — I opted out of everything except red pepper flakes

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Directions

  1. Prepare all of the ingredients, then throw them in a bowl. Mix well, mashing the ingredients together best you can. You can try putting everything (except the mashed sweet potato) in a blender to chop them up, then stir in with mashed potatoes.
  2. Add a little drizzle of olive oil to the mixture and combine well — this helps everything stick a little better.
  3. Form patties with your hands, you should be able to make 6-8 total.
  4. Your veggie burgers are technically edible at this point, but I like to throw them on a (lightly greased) skillet to brown them on each side. Put the stove on medium heat and cook the burgers for 2 minutes on each side.

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Enjoy these veggie burgers with slice tomato, sliced avocado, some salsa and a dollop of Greek yogurt. Yum yum yum!

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Italian-style, stuffed vegetables

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

I love eating at my moms because I get to do a lot of the cooking, without doing much of the buying. ;)

This past weekend, I made a delicious, light summer dish with all the fresh veggies my mom had acquired from a friend’s garden (and the grocery store). She had zucchini, yellow squash, Japanese eggplant, red bell peppers and juicy, red tomatoes.

Earlier in the summer, my lovely Group Fitness boss invited a few of the gym folk over for a delicious summer meal. As a side dish, she make stuffed zucchini boats–the inspiration for this dish. Of course, you can use any variety of vegetable,

Italian-style, stuffed vegetables (serves 3-4)

3 veggies of your choice, sliced in half the long way

(For this recipe I chose 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash and 1 Japanese eggplant)

1 medium tomato, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed and finely chopped

Fresh basil and thyme, chopped

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs

2 tbsp parmesan cheese

Olive oil

1. Gut the sliced veggies, dice the insides and place in a medium-sized bowl

2. To the bowl, add the tomato, red bell pepper, garlic, spices and egg. Mix well.

3. Next, add the breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese to the bowl and continue mixing. At this point… you’re stuffing is done.

4. Arrange your veggie boats on a baking pan and drizzle them with olive oil. Fill the insides of the veggies with your prepared stuffing, sprinkling them with extra cheese if desired.

5. This weekend, we grilled the veggies on foil for 20-25 minutes, or until the stuffing began to crisp. You can also bake the veggies in the oven at 375 for the same amount of time, checking periodically to make sure that they are not burning. The egg will cook through fairly quickly, so focus on reaching your desired veggie softness and stuffing crispness.

Enjoy this light summer dish on warm summer evening. :) Stay healthy, stay happy.

Egg ‘n oats with fresh salsa

Posted in Food & Diet, Recipes by

By Emily McLaughlin

Today was just lovely. Working from home increases my productivity exponentially.

On days when I commute to Newton, it can take anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours to get to work and getting home takes just as long. That means 2-3 hours of my day is spent in traffic. …In reality, that isn’t horrible. But for some reason, it kills me to waste that much of my day driving.

This morning, I slept a little later, and had enough time to head out for a quick run. I’m currently entertaining the idea of training for a half-marathon. Last time I tried to do this, my shins took a turn for the worse and said, “Hell, no!” Over the weekend, I did a 5 mile workout (walk .5, run 4, walk .5). By the end, my shins were fine, but my knees were hurtin’. This morning I did a 20-minute easy run to get back in the game… SUCCESS!

Goooood morning. :)

After my run, I still had plenty of time to put gas in my car, get coffee and make breakfast–all before I had to log onto my work computer. For breakfast… I, of course, had oatmeal. This morning, I prepared it in one of my favorite ways–with an egg on top. I have shared this recipe with you all countless times, so it might seem normal. However, my family still looks at my bowl of goods with their heads cocked to the side.

Fresh salsa and plain Greek yogurt from Trader Joe’s.

What set today’s breakfast apart from the rest, was the salsa and fresh tomatoes. I am utterly smitten by Trader Joe’s Hot Fresh Salsa. To make things even better, my mom had a bunch of freshly picked tomatoes waiting to be consumed.

Hesitant? PLLLLLEASE try this. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. Oats are the perfect carb to power you through your mornings.

Breakfast of champs.

Egg ‘n oats

1/2 cup oats

1 cup water

1-2 fried eggs/egg whites (I love runny yokes)

1 dollop of fresh salsa

1/4 cup fresh tomato (if you’ve got ‘em)

1 dollop of Greek yogurt

1. Cook the oats according to package instructions — typically, 1/2 cup of oats needs 1 cup of water.

2. Fry eggs to your liking, putting them on top of the oatmeal.

3. Put all that other stuff on.

 

;) Enjoy!