Yummy "What's in the cupboard meals"

Ever have one of those days where you want something yummy, but you're in desperate need of groceries?
(I have those days all the time!!  haha)

Some of of my best creations have come from just throwing things in a pot and hoping for the best (and adding lots of garlic... everything is better with garlic)

Here's a tasty burger that's super easy to make

Ingredients:
Onion
Red pepper
Garlic
Chickpeas
Tofu
Sunflower seeds
Flax seeds
Hemp seed oil

I don't have measurements because I'm more of a "throw in what looks good" kind of gal (unless I'm following someone elses recipe that I've never made before - then I'm the measurement queen!)

Anyway, here's what I did.
Ground up a large hand full of flax seeds until they were a power (then dumped it in the blender)
Chopped up the red pepper, onion and garlic (about 2/3 of the red pepper, half an onion and about 2 cloves of garlic) and set it aside for a moment.

Next I drained the chickpeas, and added them to the blender with the sunflower seeds, pepper, onion & garlic and about 1/3 of the tofu. I also added a little bit of the hemp seed oil (somewhere between a tsp & tbsp I guess)

Then I blended - my cats were afraid of the blender for a very long time, but they've finally worked up the courage to stay in the kitchen while I'm blending - I'm kind of hoping that they won't grow accustomed to it, because it's pretty much the only thing that keeps them off the counter while I'm cooking!! hehe

Once I was finished blending, I threw some salt & pepper on those suckers, then I spooned it out and made it paddy shaped (as opposed to Patti shaped, which would have been more difficult)
Here's what they looked like before I cooked em.

I threw them in the frying pan with a teeny tiny bit of oil and cooked them till they looked done.
I was careful when flipping them, because I was afraid they'd break, but they weren't as crumbly as I thought they'd be.

Here's the final product.

Taa-dum!!
They turned out really well, we used iceberg lettuce (because that's what was in the fridge- but I usually prefer spinach) tomato & pickles.

Usually when we get store bought veggie burgers, Wayne eats at least two before he feels full. But with this, he was super full after just one.

I realize that these "instructions" involve a lot of throwing, but that's how I cook (you should see the kitchen by the time I'm done with it... yikes!! Soooo glad husband and I have the "whoever cooks doesn't have to clean" rule LOL) The photo's aren't the best either - but hey, I'm no pro!! lol

Anyway, yummy food that cruelty free makes me happy! Try it - it will make you happier too :)

Banana Ice Cream - YES!

What a glorious weekend!!
The weather was beautiful, I slept in both mornings and did a whole lot of NOTHING; if you don't count cleaning, cooking, watching movies and reading... which I don't.

I use the term "cooking" lightly, mostly, husband & I prepared food but didn't actually cook much.

Yesterday we had leftover couscous and salad from the night before and husband grilled up some asparagus... delish! Today we had veggie sushi, I'll do a whole other post on that at some point.
No photo's right now, sorry!

I also whipped up (literally) some banana ice cream.
A friend of mine mentioned a few weeks ago that she had made banana "ice cream" and it intrigued me, because we are totally addicted to rice dream ice cream, and so delicious ice cream and it's soooo expensive!

So I figured I would try making it and if it turned out ok, then we'd have a MUCH cheaper alternative to the ice cream we usually buy. I made it, we loved it, now I want to eat it all the time! lol

Here's some photo's from my first attempt.

You know there's a camp song that we used to sing that this reminds me of...

"Peel bananas, peel, peel bananas..."

"Slice bananas, slice, slice bananas..."

The rest of the song goes like this...

"smoosh bananas, smoosh, smoosh bananas..."

"GO BANANAS, GO, GO BANANAS!"

And you jump around like an idiot

But that's not what I did... I froze the bananas then I blended them

Here's a shot inside the blender... starting to look ice creamy...



I decided to add a little honey

 Yum...

And some cashews for good measure



Blended just a little bit more and dumped it in a bowl to freeze for a while longer

But I couldn't wait so I didn't leave it in there very long,

it was more like soft serve than anything.. but soooo delicious!

I took a few pictures... husband was like "umm... can you please stop taking pictures, so that I can actually eat this stuff?"

hahaha

There was still lots left, so I put it in the freezer and it got nice and hard (just like ice cream!) there was enough for a few more servings! Alas, I didn't get a picture of it (camera died) but it looked the same, just darker.

Next time I'm going to try adding some peanut butter! Yum!!