Barley & Baked Bean "Meat Loaf"

 Barley & Baked Bean "Meat Loaf"

We pre-freeze portioned amounts of cooked barley, rice and quinoa and always have various canned beans and veggie burgers on hand so this was a relatively quick dish to throw together before baking.

This recipe was adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe that used turkey and barley to make a meat loaf.  You can find the original here http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=142901

Ingredients:

1 can (16 oz.) Baked Beans, drained and rinsed (vegetarian)
1 c. Cooked Pearl Barley
2 Veggie Burgers, chopped (Used Morningstar vegan patties)
1 TBSP Flax mixed with 3 TBSP Hot Water (to substitute for 1 egg)
1/4 c. Ketchup
1/2 small onion, diced and fried in oil until translucent

Method:

In a mixing bowl, mash beans with a potato masher
Add in barley, chopped veggie burger and ketchup, stir to combine
Add flax mixture and stir again

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray
Press mixture into loaf pan with spoon
Top with more ketchup, if desired

Bake at 350 for 30-40 min. (Mine was done at 40 min.)

Let rest and then cut into slices.

Homemade "Tasty Things" Sesame Crackers

My 3 yr. old B. loves these sesame sticks he calls "tasty things" we get at Trader Joe's but we ran out and I can't seem to make my way over there so I improvised and found a recipe online.  Not exactly the same, but pretty close!  Close enough that I can add them to his snack mix and everyone's happy!  :)

I followed the recipe from this site 
http://breadmakingblog.breadexperience.com/2012/04/sesame-einkorn-crackers.html

But, I changed the following:

Used regular whole wheat flour
1 tsp. salt instead of 1/2 tsp.
3 TBSP Sesame Oil with 2 TBSP Olive Oil, mixed
Added a sprinkle of garlic powder and nutritional yeast to the flour
Kneaded all in a KitchenAid and rolled out pretty thin, then sliced with pizza cutter into little sticks

"Cheesy" Mexican Lasagna

2-3 Large Flour Tortillas
1 Can Beans of Choice (Pinto or Black), we used Pinto
1 Veggie Burger, chopped
Nacho "Cheese" Sauce (recipe below)
1 Can Tomato Soup, undiluted

Nacho "Cheese" Sauce

1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 tbsp whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp granulated garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp chili powder

Whisk ingredients together in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often until thick.
Stir in beans and chopped veggie burger

Assemble Mexican Lasagna 

Set oven to 400

In a round glass pie plate layer flour tortilla, bean/burger/cheesy filling and flour tortilla
Top with Tomato Soup

Bake for 15-20 min.

Serve with chips, guacamole, sour cream

Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes!

B.'s been listening to a lot of the Wiggles in movement class in preschool, so I thought it would be fun to make the cookie/cake they have a song about.  It's a rainy day...why not?

Anyway, I did my own twist on them and I don't know how they are *supposed* to look or taste, but they turned out yummy!  With the 2nd batch, I didn't form them into balls and instead just spread the mixture onto a baking sheet to make granola.  Both are great!

CRUNCHY MUNCHY HONEY CAKES

3 cups "muesli" - I used a mixture of oatmeal, chia seeds, quiona flakes, dried cranberries and some cinnamon with oatmeal being the main ingredient
1 cup self-rising flour, sifted
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1/2 cup sugar
9 Tbsp. coconut oil (or you can use butter)
3 Tbsp. soy milk
2 Tbsp. ground flax mixed with 3 Tbsp. water (just because, it's not an egg substitute in this recipe)
2 tsp. honey

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine muesli flakes, sifted flour, coconut, and sugar in a bowl and mix well.

Heat butter, milk, flax and water and honey. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Roll into balls the size of walnuts and place on a greased baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.