Black Bean Burgers

These patties are well liked by my whole family.
I just put the whole mess in the food processor.

** I'll start with the allergy caveat, because, if you are like me, you get to the first few ingredients and say, "well, shoot! that won't work!". I used 1 cup of gluten free oats in place of the bread slices, and Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour. I think the oats made them a little dry, I'll try cooked rice or quinoa next time in place of the bread.

Ingredients:
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 can black beans, well drained
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 slices bread, crumbled
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil for frying
Preparation:
Sautee the onions till soft, about 3-5 minutes.
In a large bowl, mash the beans until almost smooth. Add sauteed onions and the rest of the ingredients, except the oil, adding the flour a few tablespoons at a time to combine well. Mixture will be thick.

Form bean mixture into patties, approximately ½ inch thick and fry patties in a small amount of oil until slightly firm. Make veggie burgers and enjoy!

**these fry up well, but fall apart on the grill.

Basic Friendly Granola...

There are lots of granola recipes on the internet. This one is really nothing special, just a very basic, "add what you will" sort of recipe.

In our home, we use the word "friendly" when speaking about food that certain people can eat. There is "Bekah friendly" with no egg, dairy, peanuts, almonds, or soy; "Lyddie friendly" is gluten free, and "Mom friendly" has not eggs.

Sometimes, it gets hard to find something that is just plain friendly! Fortunately, this granola is adaptable to all sorts of dietary needs.

*6cups rolled oats (gluten free if you need it)
*1/2 cup coconut oil (or other oil of your choice)
*1/2 cup of something sweet-- liquid sweetener works best-- honey, agave syrup, maple syrup-- today, I used brown sugar because I was out of maple syrup and honey. It worked fine, but had to be broken up a bit more when mixing

optional:
*1/2 cup milled flax seed-- I add milled flax seed to a lot of things
*1-2 cups nuts or seeds of your choice--I used sunflower seeds and pumkin seeds, but depending on your dietary needs, you could use walnuts, pecans, coconut flakes, almonds, cashews, peanuts....
*1 cup dried fruit of your choice--I didn't use any. If you do, you'll want to add them AFTER the granola has baked. Fruit will burn quickly and be yucky
*1 cup chocolate chips--again, if you use these, you will want to add them after the granola has cooled.
*a bit of cinnamon (I never add cinnamon because I don't like it)
*just about anything else you might think of that would be good in granola.

Preheat oven to 290. Mix all dry ingredients (except dried fruit) in a large mixing bowl. Put oil and sweetener in a saucepot and heat just until almost simmery. Pour oil/sweetener mix over oat mix, and stir together until everything is well coated. Spread granola on baking sheets and place in oven. Every 10 minutes, pull out pans and stir the granola so that it is well toasted-- about 30-40 minutes total. After granola is cooled, add dried fruit or chocolate chips and store in air tight container.

Cover Us, We're Going In!!

Into the church nursery, that is...



After investigating last week to see how free flowing the gluten-ey cheerios were in the church nursery, speaking with the Wednesday night caretaker, and being satisfied with her response.... Lydia (11 months) will be attending the nursery for the first time tonight.

In our family, new babies are treated as part of Mom for the majority of the first year (another post for another day). As Lyddie nears her first birthday, we've decided to let her go to the nursery on Wednesday evenings-- NOT Sundays yet-- she'll still be with me then.

Now to pack her a snack for her diaper bag... I think we'll go with gluten free animal cookies and rice chex.