Quinoa "I Really Hope This Works" Burgers

So tonight's plan is quinoa burgers. If David heard me say that, he would say, “you mean quin-no way burgers?” Just kidding. He's not as against it as I keep thinking he is (strangely enough). When planning for this week, I guessed that this was a fairly healthy meal. We are using swiss cheese instead of cheddar and I don't know about you but I always feel healthier eating swiss cheese. I have no idea why. As I tried to figure out how to cook quinoa, I was watching a tv show where first time home buyers tried to buy their first home. I wish I could take out a loan for $150,000 and be at the top of my price range. LOL California inflation.

How to Make Quinoa Burgers:

Ingredients according the the recipe (Original recipe can be found HERE.):

2 rounded cups cooked quinoa (see note below for cooking instructions)

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or other variety, if you prefer)

1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

1 medium carrot, finely grated (OR 1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed dry)

3 eggs

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 green onions, including white parts

1 /2 teaspoon Splenda or sugar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Olive oil for frying

MY ingredients:

1 C quinoa (We used red quinoa because it was all we could find and I was tired of shopping, and it was right before the hurricane and seeing all of the empty shelves at the grocery store was freaking me out and I just wanted to get out of there.)

1 1/8 C shredded swiss cheese

¼ C cottage cheese

5 or 6 baby carrots finely chopped

1 ½ eggs (maybe a little more than half, but it's hard to halve an egg)

1 ½ tbsp flour

¼ tsp. Sugar

A bunch of shakes of : black pepper, salt, garlic powder, paprika and chili powder (I don't have cumin or remember what it tastes like but paprika+ chili powder=the right color and some extra flavor so it's probably close enough)

Butter for frying ( I couldn't help myself.)

Directions:

Step 1. make quinoa

Step 1A. Follow directions on box or bag to make 1:C of finished quinoa.

How that went for us: I followed a recipe that said to boil water and add quinoa in a 2:1 ratio. After the allotted time, I tasted it and it didn't seem done. So I added some more water and when I came back 5 minutes later, BURNT. It was completely burnt to the bottom of the pan and instead of the kitchen smelling faintly of potatoes, it smelled like burnt popcorn (as does the rest of the house now. Great.) Apparently quinoa is my kryptonite, maybe because there's no butter in it. After the MAN of the house came in, made a happy baby turtle face at me (I'll find a picture later), gave me a few belly bumps (exactly what it sounds like), and wood peckered my cheek with his nose for about a minute, we decided to jump back on the horse and try again. Since I refused to touch the stuff, David made the quinoa and it turned out brilliantly! Save the day! Get the girl!

Step 2. Combine everything in a bowl and mix until it is spread evenly.

Step 3. Melt a light layer of butter in a frying pan. Use a ¼ C measure to scoop out patties. Make sure the heat is medium and cook for 5-6 minutes on each side. Flip them when it seems like they won't fall apart. If they do, I don't know what to tell you because this is one thing that , surprisingly, I actually didn't screw up.

Step 4. THAT'S IT! We always toast our buns in the oven with butter, salt, pepper, and sometimes garlic powder depending on what we're eating it with. We ate the patties on bread with cold red onions (one of my FAVORITE foods I have recently discovered) and mayo, ketchup and mustard (for David).

Step 5. Bask in my own glory. I was sooo expecting David to fight me tooth and nail on this recipe simply because it had no meat and was something different, and he's not always the greatest with new things-EXCEPT FOOD!!! Which I totally forgot. So David, I'm sorry I doubted you. We didn't skimp on the saesoning (like last night) and everything went quite smoothly. The absolute highlight of my night, and my whole day really, was the following direct quote from David: "I'm scared to say this, but I actually like these a lot." BAM. HANDLED.

Notes: The original recipe says that if you make double the amount that I did, that it makes about 10 burgers. Well, using the ¼ C measure as directed in that recipe, and halving the recipe, I made 7 individual patties. So I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm definitely glad I halved everything.

All in all, this was a GOOD solid recipe that I am proud to add to my stock pile of weekly recipes.At the end of the meal, the hassle from the beginning fully felt like it was worth it (The hassle's worth the tassel, as some would say.)

Welp, Peanut is getting antsy so, that's all for now!

Filled with rabbit food for the night, Charlotte (and sleep-talking, back laying Peanut)