Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers

I've made a couple variations of burgers such as this in the past.  This time, I had some quinoa on hand, and was looking for something with a little extra protein.  This is a good one....however, most of the flavor comes from the yogurt sauce.  I added avocado to our burgers, cause why not?  Next time I'd add some more adobo peppers for a little more spice and probably some more quinoa too.  I used the suggested amount and didn't really even notice it - or the oats.  (I also used regular flour - not oat flour).  I think these stayed together slightly better than versions I've made in the past...probably because of the flour?  I didn't refrigerate these patties prior to cooking, since I didn't think ahead that far.  That might have helped them stay together better too.

Black Bean & Quinoa Veggie Burgers

Parmesan Chicken

This recipe comes from a weight watchers blog.  It was good, enough flavor, and still nice to know, relatively healthy.  Don't forget to pound them flat prior to putting them in the oven to help decrease the baking time some.  Stupidly, I used garlic salt in the bread/chesse mix, because I didn't have garlic powder.  I thought there was enough other stuff in there to cover up the salt....alas, I was wrong.  Completely my fault though.  It was still good, but I would recommend using the recommended recipe. I really liked this as another way to cook and eat chicken.

Parmesan Chicken

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette

Avocados are such a good food in many forms.  Especially delicious in this dish -- another healthy salad.  I followed the instructions for the salad, including fresh, grilled corn.  I think the fresh corn really made this salad.  The dressing, though good, isn't really even necessary.  This salad had a lot of flavor without it.  And you could just put cilantro directly in the salad.  However, I did add some dressing (using red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar since that's what I had on hand) and it was nice too.  Filling enough for dinner for me.  Oakley added some chicken on the side.

Avocado and Grilled Corn Salad with Cilantro Vinagrette

Baked meatballs

Meatballs are amazing.  I haven't made them too often myself - but these are easy.  Full of good ingredients.  Baked in the oven for 30 minutes.  I put them on top of some pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Incredible Baked Meatballs. 
1lb hamburger
2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan 
1 cup panko or bread crumbs
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup minced fresh basil 

Mix all ingredients with hands. Form into golfball sized meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

These were good - colorful, really pretty.  I liked the ground turkey but I do feel like it lacked a little bit of flavor, even with the taco seasoning.  The cheese, sour cream and avocado helped make up for that!  The peppers didn't stay together too well, but still tasted great.  I probably put a bit too much olive oil on them at the beginning.

Southwestern Stuffed Peppers

LIghtened Up Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich

We try to be good about packing lunches for the week.  One of the easiest ideas we've come up with is to cook 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts on Sunday night.  We'll mix it with peppers and mayo or lettuce and caesar.  Wrap it in a tortilla each morning and you've got lunch for the day.  As Oakley says, not everyone is comfortable eating the same thing for lunch everyday - but if you can do it, it's a good way to save the money of eating lunch out everyday and it's a decently healthy option.

So, when this recipe came around I was intrigued.  We'd made our usual chicken with apples before, but never tried quite so many delicious things in our usual semi-boring chicken salad.  I'll let you know how it holds up through the week - but one might of this while i was making it showed that it'll definitely beat our normal run of the mill chicken salads.

Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich

Kale, Edamame, and Quinoa Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Well, the last semester of grad school is in full swing....and as you can see by my lack of posts I've gone back to my old ways lately.  Nothing we've been eating is worthy of a blog post...until today!  No plans for the Monday of this glorious 3-day weekend led us to do a big grocery trip this morning and a healthy delicious lunch today.

I bring you....kale edamame and quinoa salad with lemon vinaigrette
Full of healthy ingredients, the flavors were a great combination too.  It's a vegan salad - which is unlike me, and very unlike Oakley.  But it was filling enough and he offered up no complaints at the lack of meat.