Tag Archives: food

Pinto Bean Burger with Avocado Salsa

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Beans, Vegetables

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Pinto Bean Burger with Avocado Salsa

I am not  a huge fan of black beans but I wanted to try making a bean burger. I decided to use Pinto Beans instead and it was simple and delicious!

Here is what you need:

For Avocado Salsa:
1 Avocado
1-2 Tablespoons of Salsa (you decide)

Avocado salsa

Once you spoon out the avocado, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of salsa and mix.

For Bean Burger:
1 15 oz can of Pinto Beans (drained and rinsed)
2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 Teaspoon of Cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 Cup of Corn
1/4 Cup of Breadcrumbs
1/3 of a Medium Onion (minced)
Fresh Parsley or Cilantro (use what you have)
1/2 Cup White Cheddar Cheese (shredded)

Smash the beans with a fork and then add the remaining ingredients. Stir well but not too much. You want your burgers to be chunky and irregularly shaped.

I cooked them two ways:

If you want your bean burger to be on the dry side, bake them on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. If you want them slightly moist, pan fry them for 3-4 minutes on each side.

Pinto Bean Burger with Avocado Salsa

Top with a generous amount of cheese on each burger and add your Avocado Salsa. Enjoy!

Baby Food: I baked a burger for my 1 year old daughter. Once it was done, I mashed it in a tablespoon of rice and added a tablespoon of avocado and 1 tablespoon of pureed carrot. She LOVED it!

Joy

Frosted Violets

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Desserts

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My parent’s garden in France was beautiful and full of springtime flowers this weekend. There were loads of violets and so I thought I would try making frosted violets. I had no idea how to make them and so asked my mum. She said that she thought they were made with egg whites and sugar. So there I went picking the purplest violets I could find. I have to say they all thought I was a little mad but were quite impressed with the end result.

So what you will need is one egg white, sugar and violets. I slightly beat the egg white and then made sure to cover each violet in egg. I then sprinkled the flower with sugar making sure that they were completely covered in sugar. Now you need to do each violet at a time, that is cover it in egg white and then sugar, have a plate ready to put the flowers on and leave them to dry.

My grandmother came over for lunch the next day and brought dessert (a cake and mini meringues) so we decorated the cake with the violets, a nice touch. It’s a fantastic home-made way of making pretty dessert decorations and gives it that little extra touch.

Mel

Morel Omelette

05 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Salads, Simple meals

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Morel mushrooms

Three days in the French countryside and I come back with at least 4 blog’s worth of material!

So I think I’ll start from the very beginning and that would be my father’s excitement at finding about 10 morels (crazy looking mushrooms) under one of his trees. It is the season for this kind of mushroom in France at the moment. Ok, they aren’t truffles but they are still quite a sort after kind. ‘Mushroom pickers’ go off to their secret spots in search of them and in no circumstance do they share their locations. Well that’s how it is in my village.

Mushrooms are a fantastic ingredient to adding flavour to the simplest of things, from sauces to omelettes. My parent’s neighbours have chickens and so we went and bought 12 eggs to make an omelette, to which we added the mushrooms. Now these eggs are nothing like supermarket eggs! The yolk is bright orange and so full of flavour; you really see the difference between a chicken running about the countryside and one that’s cooped up in a cage.

How to make an omelette

When making an omelette I’d say you need about 2/3 eggs per person, butter and anything you fancy adding to it. You also need a very good, non-stick pan. If it’s not non-stick your omelette will end up looking like scrambled eggs.

 So, in a bowl crack your eggs and whisk (do not add any milk). Butter your pan, put on heat and add your ingredients (in this case mushrooms),once they are cooked add your eggs.

 Now, there are two cooking techniques that I know of for the perfect omelette; the French way and the Spanish way. Your omelettes will look quite different depending on which technique you use but they will both give you a perfect omelette.

The French way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan starts to cook fold the omelette in half (so it becomes a half circle) and let it continue to cook for a while. The heat of the folded omelette will cook the inside.

The Spanish way: Once the side of the omelette on the pan is cooked take a plate, put it onto the pan and tip the pan so that the omelette is on the plate. Then slide the omelette from the plate back onto the pan so that the uncooked side is face down.

Serve with a side salad, and there you have it, a healthy and cheap meal.

Caution
Please do not go picking any mushrooms unless you are absolutely sure that they are edible.

Mel

A French Picnic…

01 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by in Salads

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Melanie is off to France for a long weekend…aahhhh!
Cherries

Home picked cherries

I miss France so much right now that if I were allowed to fly, I would tag along!
 

A sunny day in France

Mel’s trip makes me think of a picnic we had in France when we were there, in the countryside, last May.
We had a delicious spread of wine, salad, pates, cheese and cherries – that were picked from her grandmother’s tree. It seems when most people think of food in France desserts, baguettes and champagne come to mind. But I think of the lettuce. The leaves are large but they have a soft texture and taste sweet. Boston/Bibb lettuce is the only kind of lettuce I can find in Chicago that reminds me of the lettuce in France.

Whenever Mel and I make a meal together, I know that we will have a salad with her famous mustard vinaigrette. The French always eat a salad with their meal because it helps digestion. Before meeting Mel, I had never heard of this but eat the same way now. When I make salad dressing I like to measure it all out, but not Melanie. The salad below is what I make to take me back to that lovely picnic. It has a tangy cheese, a tart fruit, buttery walnuts and the famous pungent mustard vinaigrette!

What you need:
Butter/Bibb lettuce

1 green apple (cored and cut)
1/2 cup of toasted walnuts
3 ounces of Roquefort cheese

Vinaigrette
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of olive oil
Sea Salt & Black Pepper

Welcome to our lunch club!

23 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by in Welcome to The Lunch Club

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A lunch club across two continents, linking two friends together through their love of food and good company. We will be sharing recipes and tips on how to make good food whilst saving money and making friends at work. Through MELANDJOYTHELUNCHCLUB you will get snippets of our lives, Joy works for a consultancy agency in Chicago and Mel works for a charity in London. Our lives are very different but food is one of our common links. We COOK and we LOVE IT.

We try and meet twice a year in different places around the world. During our trip to Amsterdam in October we started talking about food (surprise!) and realised that we both have lunch clubs at work and they had so many things in common. We take proper breaks from our desks at lunch, save money as we don’t buy a sandwich every day, only bring food in every other day and become the talk of the kitchen with our yummy lunches. It’s great fun and it can’t be bad if it’s healthy (well, not always) and saves you money!

Mel and Joy