Camping Weekend :)

Curried Chickpea Salad sandwiches

3 cups cooked chickpeas

3 stalks thinly sliced celery

1 diced red pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp curry powder

2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp chili powder

3 cloves minced garlic

salt and pepper

juice from 1/2 lemon

*In a large bowl, mash together the chickpeas and mayo.

*Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

*Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Cream Cheese and Bean Spread  for fist-pump vegetable wraps

1 cup of softened cream cheese

1 cup of pinto beans

1/2 head of roasted garlic cloves

salt and pepper

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

*In a food processor, pulse together all ingredients until smooth

*Spread on a wrap and top with veggies (we used spinach, cucumber, red onion, carrots, and red pepper)

Grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  We used these awesome double toasters that I picked up at Canadian Tire to make these AWESOME sandwiches and the vegetable and cheese ones that are pictured next.  Best purchase I have made in a long time!

These black bean burgers are one of our favourite meals so when I had to pick a burger to bring along this was a no brainer.  We paired with a baked potato made in the fire and a green salad for a super easy and delicious camping meal.

What was supposed to be burgers with spicy guacamole...

We are pretending it's spring here.  It's after March 20th, it's warm(ish), the birds are chirping... so let's just ignore the feet upon feet upon feet of snow left on the ground.  That might depress me if I weren't pretending that it's spring!  With spring comes bbq'ing and we love to bbq in this house.  Tonight I was going to try this bean burger with spicy guacamole recipe that I found in the Eating Well magazine that I love so much.  I made the burgers early this afternoon and then right before supper I got out the ingredients to make the spicy guacamole, and they weren't ripe enough!  I was so disappointed!  The burgers were good but they were missing that bite that I love so much.  We had them with bbq'd potatoes and asparagus and now we are off for a walk to get some dairy queen... because it's spring, right??

Pinto Bean Burgers

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup quinoa

olive oil

1/2 a chopped red onion

3 cloves minced garlic

2 1/2 cups cooked pinto beans

1 1/2 tsp paprika

2 tsp cumin

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

3 tbsp cornmeal + more for dipping

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

*Cook quinoa in water according to package instructions.  Cool.

*Saute onion, and garlic in olive oil.  Add mashed pinto beans, paprika, and cumin.  Stir well.

*Place in a large bowl along with quinoa, cilantro, salt, pepper and 3 tbsp cornmeal

*Form into patties and roll in remaining cornmeal.

*Place in fridge for 30 minutes to firm.

*Heat olive oil in frying pan on low/medium and cook burgers for 5-6 minutes per side.

*This is where I placed them back in the fridge for the rest of the afternoon and bbq'd them to warm at dinner time.

First Day of Spring?!

You wouldn't know it by looking out our window but today is the first day of spring!  So even though it is raining and we have mountains of snow, we decided to celebrate by bbq-ing.  A few weeks ago my friend, Heather (my hero remember?), gave me a terrific recipe for baked beans and pointed me in the direction of Vegan Dad's pinto bean sausages.   I couldn't wait to try both recipes and thought today would be the perfect day for it.  I served them with bbq'd corn on the cob and asparagus.  Our favourite neighbourhood friend was visiting for the afternoon and he LOVES to bake so we decided to make a Pear Apple crisp for dessert (with ice cream of course)!

Baked Beans

1 lb dry beans (I used a mix)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 cup ketchup
approx 3 cups hot water
1 med onion
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/8 to 1/6 cup molasses

*Rinse and soak beans overnight well covered in water with a dash of baking soda.
*In the morning cover with new water and bake at 350 for 1 hour.
*Mix remaining ingredients except water into a paste and add to beans

*Add water and cover and bake at 300 for 3 hours or until beans are soft

*Uncover for last 1/2 hour

VeganDad's Sausages

1 cup cooked pinto beans

1 3/4 cups cold vegetable broth

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp soy sauce

4 cloves minced garlic

2 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1/2 tsp crushed fennel seed

1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 serving of your favourite homemade bbq sauce

*Prepare steamer because this goes a lot faster than you'd think

*Get 12 pieces of tin foil ready to wrap sausages in

*Pulse pinto beans several times in food processor (or mash well)

*Mix together with remaining ingredients

*Divide into 12 pieces and place each into the prepared tin foil

*Wrap each pieced like a tootsie roll and place in steamer (I used 2 layers of bamboo steamers)

*Steam for 40 minutes

*Brush with bbq sauce and grill as you like

Pear Apple Crisp

4 good sized pears, peeled and cut

4 good sized apples, peeled and cut

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

juice from one lemon

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

pinch nutmeg

1/2 cup melted butter

*In a large bowl, toss together pears, apples, first helping of flour, first helping of sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon

*Pour into an 8 inch square glass baking dish

*In a small bowl, mix together oats, remaining sugar and flour, and nutmeg

*Drizzle butter over oat mixture and mix well

*Sprinkle over fruit mixture

*Bake at 350 for 1 hour