Thursday, June 23, 2011

Being healthy this summer!!!

What am I making with the above ingredients you might ask?? It's summertime and really really hot in Florida.. so I to be healthy -- got a popsicle mold to make my own popsicles instead of going out and buying those artificial flavored ones. I am very eager to make some with watermelon and curious to see if I can incorporate alcohol in these (obviously can't put too much or they won't freeze!).

Here are the fruits washed & chopped up: berries were on sale at the store this week as well as peaches & nectarines (I prefer nectarines)
Basically, what I did was puree a handful of frozen mixed berries with a splash of orange juice and roughly stir it into greek yogurt. I wanted them to have a swirl in them, not completely mixed. And then I put the fruit into the popsicle molds and poured the yogurt mixture in. Be sure to tap it so air bubbles can escape.


The finished product!!!! even prettier than I imagined them to turn out!!!

Adding to the healthy diet for summertime, I decided to venture into meatless burgers and I made black bean burgers. These contain a lot of fiber! Now, I've never even tried these before so I have no idea if they taste the way they "should" taste. But I am really happy with how they turned out and how they look.
Into these burgers, I put: one 15 oz. can of black beans mashed with a fork, 1/2 cup day old short grain brown rice, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, 1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes + their oils, 1 ear of corn (kernels cut off the cob), 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1/2 vidalia onion diced, 1 jalapeno diced, zest of 1 lime with seasonings of chile powder, cumin, dried oregano, salt & pepper to taste. Everything but the cilantro & beans were sauteed with the spices in a tiny bit of olive oil before adding all the ingredients together. mixing was the fun part, I guess. Make sure the mixture isn't too wet or else they will not be easy to form into patties. It is a good idea to oil you hands before handling the sticky mixture. I made my patties on the smaller side, so I ended up eating 2 of these sandwiches.. next time I will just make larger patties. I tried to make these really spicy but the beans seemed to cancel that out so I added some chipotle Tabasco onto it when I ate it.
The bread is those 100 calorie "Deli Flats" by Pepperidge Farm in Honey Whole Wheat. I added a small amount of mayonaisse and a handful of spring greens - voila! Black bean burger done. I am really impressed with the taste of these, obviously nothing can replace a hamburger. If I ever became a vegetarian, I'd probably consume a lot of these.
-J

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