Mamahood Styled



3/25/2012

Quinoa Burgers

It's no lie when I say that I'm slightly obsessed with quinoa. It is such an amazing teeny tiny little seed that is sooo easy to cook and packs an enormous amount of protein and happy healthiness! I just love it! A couple of weeks ago, we were looking for a place to eat by the hotel we were staying at in San Diego. We randomly discovered this little fast-food burger joint called "Burger Lounge." It is this amazing restaurant that prides itself in providing fast yet healthy burgers from products that are produced in a sustainable environment. Their cows are grass-fed (yup, that means no chemicals, grain, corn, etc...just green grass)! We were so happy to see that they offered a vegetarian burger: the quinoa burger! I was so excited to try it as my obsession with all things quinoa is in full effect! Let me tell you, it was great! Even our meat-eating homies thought it was great (FYI they absolutely loved their juicy burgers, too, and said there was a noticeable difference in their meat experience). We highly recommend you guys trying out the Burger Lounge!

Needless to say, I have been inspired to recreate it. Yesterday, we were all hanging out and drooling over our two week old memories of these burgers that today I couldn't get it outta my mind. So I came up with my own quinoa burger inspired by Burger Lounge's. And...it's pretty amazing!


Ingredients

(these are rough estimates as I don't really measure when I cook):

-1.5 cups of cooked quinoa
-1.5 cups of garbanzos
-1/2 cup panko crumbs
-1/2 cup of defrosted spinach
-2 carrots
-1 clove of garlic
-dash of salt and pepper
-1 tsp. cayenne pepper
(next time I will definitely add an egg to keep the mixture together)
*this makes 4-5 patties, of course depending on thickness and width.


Directions
1. Ideally, your food processor won't stop working when you have everything packed into it :(
And you will be able to simply add all ingredients to it, pulse and voila! If this unfortunate event doe happen to you or you don't happen to have a food processor, don't worry! You'll just have to mash! I was planning on leaving aside 1/2 cup of quinoa and 1/2 cup of garbanzos aside anyway to make it more textured, but alas, 'twas not necessary.


2. Spray your pan with EVOO. You can either form your patties by hand or use an ice cream scooper and flatten with a spatula. Once your patties are on your pan, resist temptation to move and flip. Wait until browned and flip!


3. Optional: I made a Greek yogurt dressing for our burgers and I looooved it. (About half a cup of Greek yogurt, juice of 1 lime, a bit of chopped cilantro, minced garlic, and some green onions). We used this to top the burgers (in lieu of mayo on the bread, too). Top your burger anyway you'd like: we did romaine, tomato and cucumbers and lots of that yummy Greek yogurt sauce!

3/20/2012

Like a raisin in the sun.

Change is good. Change comes in all kinds of shapes and forms. It enables us to grow and build upon our character; to find our core and foundation; to push outside of comfort zones into areas of hopeful enlightenment and potential improvements in various aspects of our lives.

We hear that you have to change up your workouts in order to see physical improvements; muscle confusion! You need to change your learnings to exercise your mind. Change is good...

But what about when you're ready for change but the cards are not lined up as you wish? That's when patience becomes a virtue. Just.stop.planning.stop.worrying...

Change is common, it happens everyday. Caterpillars become butterflies, babies become children, we grow, we change...But what about when others are changing before your eyes and you don't want them to? Relationships change, distance happens. Distance does change relationships. Sometimes for the better, sometimes unfortunately for the worse...but perhaps, better in the long run? Mental and emotional distance is a different type of change.

When we notice these changes, what do we do? Communicate, right? It's the foundation to any effective relationship. Fear often holds us back from doing this. Fear of hearing that the change is on purpose. Fear that the change is for the better. Fear that the distance has, in fact, happened. In the meantime, are we simply overthinking and overanalyzing? Or is this sensed indifference and avoidance really true?

Overall, the ultimate change has to come from oneself. A change for limited analyzing that refutes to be useless because in the end it is unnoticed. Relearn behaviors to not care as much, to not overanalyze, to not worry so much, to just.let.go.

Ultimately, everything and everyone will fall into place as change is appreciated. Right?

If it doesn't, does it remain a dream deferred?
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