Michael and I found this blog, Thug Kitchen, with great vegetarian recipes but written in a certain "flair" (which is unsuitable for children but we find it hilarious). This recipe for smokey bean and spinach sliders has been a great make-on-sunday-eat-during-the-week meal.
Like usual, I'm just going to cut-and-paste the recipe so please be warned that there are numerous expletives in the following text.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 cup chopped onion
3 cups cooked kidney beans or 2-15 ounce can
1/2 cup cooked brown rice (use leftovers)
4 cloves of garlic, chopped all small and shit
1 tablespoon liquid smoke (like I said, it is near the BBQ sauce at the store I swear. You haven’t even looked yet so stop complaining. It is there)
2 teaspoon soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons oregano
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
black pepper to taste
1/2 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs (any breadcrumbs you have are fine. Got nothing? Just toast up some bread until it is almost burnt looking and real dry then grate them shits or put them in a food processor to get some tiny fucking crumbs. They help soak up all the liquid so don’t leave this shit out)
Warm the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a large baking sheet. You can throw down some foil and then grease it if you are a lazy fuck like me and hate doing dishes.
Add the spinach and onion to a food processor and pulse until they are in tiny-ass pieces. Add the kidney beans, rice, garlic, liquid smoke, soy sauce, and seasonings and pulse until everything is all mixed up. It’s fine if a few larger pieces of the beans hang around but you want this looking like kinda paste-like. Place the bean-spinach mixture into a medium bowl and add in the fucking breadcrumbs. This should be slightly sticky and hold nicely when you form it into a ball. If it is too wet, add more breadcrumbs. Taste it and add more spices and whatever until it tastes good to you. Can’t do that shit with ground beef.
No food processor? It’s all good. Just cut up the spinach and the onion extra tiny and add everything but breadcrumbs to a big bowl. Now pound on that shit until it looks like chunky mash potatoes. Then add the breadcrumbs and do all the other shit I say above.
Divide the mixture into 16 patties if you are making sliders or 8 patties if you are making regular burgers. Whateverthefuck you want to do. Place them on the baking sheet, spray them lightly with oil (slow your roll, I said LIGHTLY) and bake for 15 minutes or until the bottom is a crispy golden brown. Flip the patties and bake for 15 or until both sides look awesome. If you are doing full size burgers you might need to let the sides go 5 extra minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes before serving. Pile them high with red onion, avocado, whatever additional deliciousness you’ve got and chow the fuck down.
Makes 16 sliders or 8 regular patties
And I know you all want more photos of our little bit of sunshine and smiles! Here is our sweet little family photo...
And here he is with grandpap and grandma who came up from North Carolina to babysit a couple weeks ago while I went back to work for a few days.
And I just love this smiley little guy trying out his bumbo chair...
And here he is with our friend at his first dim sum brunch! (He'll like it better when he can start eating the food!)
And our little man LOVES moving his arms to the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes! Here he is playing along with our friend's 3-year-old - just TOO cute!
And lastly, here's our little monkey helping mommy out with the laundry.
