What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?

Black Bean Fiesta Veggie Burgers and Peanut Butter Oreo Icebox Cake

Lately, I've been trying to get in to cooking and baking more.  I'm really good at spending countless hours and minutes browsing recipes and drooling over pictures, but have a hard time deciding on what to make.  Overall, I'm a healthy eater, love spicy dishes, and am not a big meat eater, so figured this Black Bean Fiesta Veggie Burger with Spicy Slaw would be perfect for my first home-cooked vegetarian meal.

Black Bean Fiesta Burgers

makes 6 burgers

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups black beans, drained/canned (unsalted)
3 Tbsp fine bread crumbs
3/4 cup baked/mashed sweet potato
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro - including stems
1/3 cup diced white onion
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chopped garlic
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 jalapeno, diced/de-seeded
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast - or use more bread crumbs
a few dashes of chipotle powder or cayenne for extra heat

1 bag Broccoli Slaw

Special Spicy Sauce:
1/2 cup mayo
2 tsp garlic hot sauce

6 whole wheat burger buns
6 round onion slices and 6 round tomato slices
optional: lime-juice spritzed avocado slices (not shown in burger photos - but recommended!)

Directions
1. Mix together slaw, mayo, and hot sauce and refrigerate.

2. Next up, prepare the burgers. Pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. You can also mash well by hand - but a fp is a tad faster. Next, hand-form burger patties with the mixture and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet. I like to roll my burgers in a touch of bread crumbs so that they have nice crisp edges.  (I mashed mine by hand)

3. Bake your burgers at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before assembling burgers. The last 5 minutes of cooking - add your burger buns to the oven to warm/toast them. (Toasted bunz-Very important)

4. Assemble those burgers! Warm bun, spread of special sauce, tomato, onion, optional avocado, burger, fiesta slaw and finally another slather of the special spicy sauce on the top bun.

{assemble}

{serve and enjoy. NOMZ}

Peanut Butter Oreo Icebox Cake

Now, now...like I said, I typically eat healthy, but I'm a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate.  I had been dying to try this recipe for weeks and got around to it.  Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as the pictures, but whatever.

Peanut Butter Oreo Icebox Cake

Ingredients
16 oz fat free Cool Whip  (I accidentally bought the 8 oz size)
1 cup crunchy peanut butter (Since I had half the amount of Cool Whip, I altered to half a cup on PB)
16-20 reduced fat Oreos

Directions
1.  Line the bottom of a standard loaf pan with 8 Oreos.  (I broke some of mine apart to fit better)

2.  In a large bowl, whisk together the peanut butter and Cool Whip.  Pour half the mixture over the Oreos.

3.  Line another 8 Oreos on top of the Cool Whip layer.  Pour remaining peanut butter and Cool Whip mixture on top.

4.  Top with crumbled Oreos, drizzle melted peanut butter, chocolate, and/or all three. (optional) 

5.  Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight.  Freeze it for easier cutting and a more ice-cream like texture.

{Clearly I did not do the freezing method.  Presentation?  Not there.  Taste?  Phenomenal}

It SHOULD have looked like this:

See the full recipes here:
Black Bean Fiesta Veggie Burgers
Peanut Butter Oreo Icebox Cake