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.