Veggie Burgers

These also came from www.weelicious.com. They turned out SO good, but I have to say they took quite a long time to cook. I doubled the batch and it took me over an hour to fry them all up. However, it made 25 of them- 20 of them which I put in the freezer for future meals- so when you look at it that way, an hour isn't that long.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Bulgar Wheat
1 Cup Water
1 15 Oz Can Pinto Beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 Cup Cheese, grated (we used goat cheese- this can be optional)
1/2 Cup Carrot, grated
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tbsp Oil

Accompaniments: Bread, Lettuce, Tomato, Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise, Pickles

1. Place the Bulgar wheat and water in a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover for 13 minutes.
2. After the Bulgar has cooked, place in a bowl and let cool.
3. Place 1 can of rinsed and drained pinto beans in a food processor and puree.
4. Add the pureed beans, cheese, carrot, salt, garlic and onion powder to cooked Bulgar and mix thoroughly.
5. Form into patties.
6. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium heat and cook the burgers for 3 minutes on each side.
7. Serve with accompaniments.

* Patties can be frozen on a baking sheet for one hour and placed in a large zipper bag or individually wrapped and frozen. Defrost, then cook.

Turkey Pesto Meatballs

**We used organic, ground turkey from New Frontiers. You could easily make this vegetarian or vegan using some faux-meat**

Savanna actually made these. She made homemade pesto too- we've yet to find any pre-made pesto that didn't have some sort of cheese in it. Her homemade pesto is awesome! I'll list both recipes below (The meatball recipe itself comes from a great whole foods site www.weelicious.com)

PESTO:

Ingredients:

2 cups packed fresh basil

3-4 tbs of walnuts

Sea salt to taste

2-3 cloves of garlic

Olive oil (enough to coat the other ingredients- you can add more as you process the ingredients depending on how chunky or smooth you like your pesto)

Blend well in a food processor.

MEATBALLS:

(Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs of ground turkey or vegan meat substitute
1/4 cup pesto (we added a bit more- made them a little greasy and they crisped up nicely in the oven)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp of sea salt

plus

2 cups of Marinara Sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place all the ingredients (except for the marinara sauce) in a bowl and using your hands, combine until everything is incorporated.
3. Using about 1 tablespoon of the mixture per meatball, roll into balls and place on a plate.
4. Pour the marinara sauce into a 9 x 9 inch baking pan and top with the meatballs.
5. Cover the baking pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
6. Serve.

*Roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet and freeze. After 30 minutes place the par-frozen balls in a ziploc bag, label and freeze. When ready, defrost in fridge for 24 hours or put them straight in the oven with sauce increasing cooking time by 5 minutes.

Spinach Dip

Another great summer recipe. I love it when I don't have to turn my oven on. This can be made a variety of ways and garnished and eaten with whatever you like. Here is what I put in this one:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of fresh spinach
• 1 large avocado
• 1/2 Tb of lemon juice
• Sea salt to taste

Blend in a food processor until smooth. Chill and eat! This is simple, but really good. Another great way to sneak in some greens!! (Again, from Alissa Cohen's "Living on Live Food")

Banana, Orange, Flax Crackers

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole golden fax seeds (soaked in 2 cups of water for 4 hours or overnight is fine)
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 large oranges, juiced

Place ingredients in a food processor and blend well. Smooth onto Teflex sheets on top of a mesh dehydrator screen. Spread batter into thin sheets about 1/8 inches thick. Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 10-16 hours (Flip them after about 7-8 hours).

My kids love to eat these crackers plain or smothered in almond butter. We had some leftover crushed strawberries from our jam making and we added them to the crackers this time. They aren't ready yet, but my house smells SO good!

(Also from Alissa Cohen's "Living on Live Food" book)

Trail Mix

Okay, so trail mix is kind of a no brainer. But, this batch turned out SO good that I had to share it.

Ingredients:

• Raw Pecans
• Raw Walnuts
• Raw Almonds
• Raw Sunflower Seeds
• Raw Cashews
• Golden Raisins
• Coconut Shavings
• Vegan Carob Chips
• Dried Cranberries

Toss and eat ! The boys had a bowl of it for breakfast with their yogurt. It may not last very long!!

* I did sprout most of the nuts (for more on sprouting, see my previous post- "More on our Snacking Table (& Why We Sprout)"). Pretty sure the carob chips aren't raw, but everything else is!

Avocado Chutney

This is a great summer recipe. It's fresh and filling, and super healthy.

(This recipe is from Alissa's Cohen's "Living on Live Food"- slightly modified by me)

Ingredients:

• 2 large avocados, diced
• 3 ears of sweet corn (corn cut off the cob- don't use frozen or canned)
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 teas of cumin
• 1-2 teas of oregano
• sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, chill, and serve over lettuce or with crackers or just eat it by itself! This amount fed my family of five and we had 3-4 servings left the next day. It saved surprisingly well overnight in the fridge, but I wouldn't recommend waiting too long to eat the leftovers...you probably won't have much any way!