Veggie Burgers with Avocado Creme {Vegan}

The Dairy-free Challenge has been accomplished, it is done, over…and I must say I am glad.  I really don’t eat much dairy but I went full throttle and made sure anything I was eating completely void of it. I don’t drink milk, so no problem there…I LOVE cheese, problem.  I have tried vegan cheeses and I am sorry they are just not the same.  But while doing this challenge the thing that has surprised me the most is that my body reacted the opposite of what I thought or expected it to react.  I have had more bloating and have been pretty constipated (sorry for that picture) and I really thought that I would have A LOT less bloating.  I think it is really weird.  I don’t think I have changed my diet in any other way, other than cutting the dairy out. Below is my conversation with Leanne, she recommended adding probiotics, and I have actually considered that before so I may actually give them a try. 

http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/

What I do know is that going completely dairy-free is not for me, I once thought it was. This is not to say that I won’t still make vegan meals or try different dairy-free versions of recipes, I enjoy eating vegetarian and vegan and that isn't going to stop.  That may be the inner vegetarian in me trying to get out, I still toy with the idea of going back to that lifestyle, but I have yet to give in to it.  For right now, being gluten-free is enough. 

For the end of my dairy-free week I decided to give this dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan dish a try… 

All the veggies and fillers

Veggie Burgers

1 cup cooked Quinoa

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 large onion, chopped

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium carrot, chopped

1 medium bell pepper, chopped
5-6 cremini mushrooms, chopped

2 flax eggs (1/4 cup warm water plus 2 tbsp. flax meal)
1 chia egg (3 tbsp warm water plus 1 tbsp chia seeds)

1/2 cup GF Oats, processed into a flour

1 tsp. Chipotle Seasoning

Salt and pepper

In the food processor, combine the onion, garlic, carrot, peppers, mushrooms and half the can of beans.  Pulse until, vegetables are fine.  

Add the flax and chia eggs, quinoa and seasoning, pulse until everything is combined. 

Transfer to a large bowl.  Add the rest of the beans to the quinoa mixture, stir to combine. Taste mixture and adjust seasoning to taste, add oat flour stir to combine (add more if it seems too wet).  

Form the mixture into patties.  Heat oil in a large skillet on medium heat, cook patties for about 3-5 minutes on each side until the outside is browned and the patty is heated through.

Serve on a hamburger roll, alone or like me on a lettuce leaf with the Avocado Creme or any and all your favorite burger toppings. (I added some ketchup and fried onions...Yum!)  The outside gets a nice crunch and the inside has a really nice texture.

Avocado Creme

1 ripe avocado*

1 tsp. chipotle seasoning

juice of a 1/2 lime

Salt and pepper

In a food processor, combine all the ingredients and pulse until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

*My avocado wasn't really ready, so since I wanted to use it right away (my mistake for not buying it a few days early) I used the microwave to quickly "ripen" it.  The results, not bad.  But I would let it naturally ripen if you have the time, use the microwave only in a pinch.  

{Obviously, if you weren't dairy-free you could add cheese to the mixture and/or topping.  You could also use a real egg instead of a flax egg, and bread crumbs instead of the processed oats.}

Enjoy!

Starting A Week Dairy-Free and Wholesome Sweeteners Review

One of the blogs I follow, Healthful Pursuit, started a 7-Day Dairy Free Challenge and as you may already know I have been on and off about trying to go dairy free for good for awhile now.  However, I have a cheese weakness; I love it.  It is because of cheese that I have never fully gone dairy free, I don't really drink milk unless I am using it for baking/cooking.  So seeing this challenge I jumped right on it, we will see how it goes.  (I am starting a little late due to the fact I kept putting milk in my coffee out of habit.)

I started this morning, and today has been fairly easy other than I really wanted real butter on my pancakes this morning.  The spread I have just doesn't cut it, but I can easily get a different dairy-free spread.  Today I also hosted a Mom's Meet, we sampled Wholesome Sweeteners Agave Syrups.  And since I can't just sample what they give me, I needed to figure out something to make that (1) was gluten-free, (2) dairy-free and (3) had to use Agave.  I checked out the Wholesome Sweeteners website for some ideas, and a few other sites I tend to linger too long on and decided on the Wholesome Sweeteners Strawberry Sangria and Berry Bliss Bars. {Notice the berry theme}

First, I want to say that the Agave Syrups were REALLY good.  We sampled 6 different flavors, Raw Blue Agave, Blue Agave, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Maple and Strawberry.  Our favorite by far was the Vanilla, if would be really good in teas, oatmeal, smoothies, or by the spoonful. I would recommend checking out their website for a lot more information but Wholesome Sweeteners is Fairtrade Certified and all organic, they agave syrups are also low-glycemic.  The only flavor we didn't really care for was the strawberry, it tasted too artificial.  The other flavor that we probably wouldn't buy, was the maple.  The flavor wasn't bad but we all agreed that we would rather just buy real maple syrup.  I would guess if you needed something low-glycemic then it may be a good substitute but if not then I don't see a reason to switch. We also sampled their Organic Stevia Packets, we didn't really care for them they just tasted like all the other artificial sweeteners out there. (If you use artificial sweeteners, let me know if you can taste a difference.) 

Now, on to the bars...Berry Bliss Oat Bars. I first saw pictures of these bars on the Healthful Pursuits blog, it was a guest post that then gave the link to, Oh How She Glows, which is also one of those blogs I tend to linger too long on too, she writes vegan recipes.  The original recipe uses Maple Syrup, I substituted with the Blue Agave Syrup; I also used gluten-free oats.

To see the original recipe check out; Oh How She Glows, Berry Bliss Oat Bars

Now on to the beverage...Strawberry Sangria. This was from the Wholesome Sweeteners recipe page. I made just a little tweak and used just the Blue Agave Syrup.

This is how I made it...really simple. In a pitcher, add 1 750-ml bottle of Rose` Wine, 1/4 cup of Agave Syrup, 1/3 cup of Raspberry Lemonade, 1-2 cups sliced strawberries and 2 cups ginger ale, stir and refrigerate. 

Enjoy!