Ratatouille Burgers...FINALLY!

I posted a while back, well actually I posted it here, a ratatouille burger I had topped with a heaping serving of kale.

I have finally gotten around to making them so that photographs could be taken (nothing like a little step by step pictorial).

So without further ado my Ratatouille Burger:

1 small eggplant
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 medium sized tomato (I took the pic with cherry tomatoes and then changed my mind as to what I used)
1/2 C bread crumbs (seasoned or not is your call)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp parsley
3-4 fresh leaves of basil
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste (since all veggies no worries about food poisoning)

Slice your eggplant, zucchini, and squash then place in food processor.

Pulse the processor so that you are left with small chunks (you do not want a puree).

Dump these mixture out into a bowl.  Into the food processor next goes your tomato in chunks and your basil leaves. 

This you will process a little more fine as this is the wet that will hold the ingredients together.

Put this in the bowl with your eggplant, zucchini, and squash mixture. 

Add to that your remaining ingredients.

The way I've concocted my recipe the burger turns out soft like a crab cake.  If you want a firmer burger you could add more bread crumbs or include corn or smashed black beans to firm up the consistency.

I patted out my burger and fried it in a little bit of vegetable oil.

Be careful to allow it to brown on each side at least 5 minutes on medium heat.  You don't want to do too much flipping as you could break apart your burger.

In the end I put my burger on a toasted bun and a bed of....what else?  KALE!

I know both pictures are pretty similar but I just couldn't decide on which one to post...so I give you two shots of my delicious burger.

This is truly a versatile item and can be seasoned a hundred different ways.  For some added spice you could include some roasted chile peppers (which I had in the fridge but just wasn't feeling very caliente last night), you could add water chesnuts for some crunch, or some green beans...really just a great way to get in some healthy veggies.

I hope you enjoy this and if you try it let me know how it works out.

Also remember to enter my Rudi's Organic Bakery giveaway that ends tomorrow (Friday October 14th). :)

Happy Thursday to you all!

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WIAW The Kale Edition

It is Wednesday yet again...WOOHOO! Yeah for hump day!

The only sadness for today is that I had to drop my 8 year old off at school at 6am so he could go on a two night camping trip 4 hours away.

He is a wonderful boy and super excited to be heading to Cherokee, NC but mom (that's me) is a little sad to see him go.  There is the obvious reason that I don't want anything to happen to him but also because he is my big helper around the house.  He often helps wrangle the 4 and 2 year old into play activities (even better when they go outside).  These two may look harmless, but trust me they are bursting with energy.

Okay back to the food stuff.

I photographed my eats and realized I consume quite a bit of kale (I think I might have a serious obsession). I showed you all kale soup last week for WIAW and this week I give you a day of kale (except for breakfast...that would just be excessive).

So to start my day

I had a bowl of Jessica's Natural Foods Granola (which I reviewed here) in the Almond Cherry flavor with some almond milk...serious deliciousness.

For lunch I had BBQ chicken by Gardein (not really chicken...I gave up the meat stuff) with a huge topping of kale:

For dinner I had a ratatouille burger

with another huge topping of kale (nothing more delicious then topping your vegetables with more vegetables):

I have been laying off of the sweets lately but I may, or may not, (I will never tell the whole truth) have had a London bar or two

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and I will spending some time perusing the other bloggers who linked up over at Peas and Crayons.

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Kale Soup for Any Soul

Ok I've never read ANY of the Chicken Soup books for any of the various souls it was directed towards...what I have had is kale soup and I promise this will be good for your body and soul.

Back before I started blogging my husband and I developed this recipe.

You see it was developed out of a need to use up some of the vegetables from our CSA (which we had just started to receive).

We had an abundance of kale and neither of knew if we liked it or what to do with it.

We decided the simplest thing to do would be to make soup, so I give you kale soup (and because this was created prior to blogging I do not have step by step pictures).

Your base will be a garlic broth:

6 C vegetable stock (you can substitute water)
3 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch of sage (to your liking)
pinch of thyme (to your liking)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute your garlic in the olive oil in a pot over low-medium heat (do not cook the garlic so much that it turns brown, it should be golden).  While that is working it's magic boil your stock/water.

Once your stock comes to a boil add it to the garlic.

Stir in your paprika, sage, and thyme.

Bring this to a boil and then allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes (the longer it simmers the more intense the flavor will be).  Then salt and pepper.

For the soup:

Garlic broth
4 medium fresh tomatoes (or about 2 cups canned)
1 bunch kale torn
1 onion diced
1 C shiitake mushrooms chopped
2 carrots peeled and diced

Chop your tomatoes (or empty your cans) into the broth pot and add your kale, onions, carrots, and mushrooms.  For the kale we just tore it into bite size pieces by hand but you are free to make the pieces any size you like.

This will need to be brought to a boil and then allowed to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While the soup is simmering boil your pasta according to the package directions (or you could make your own if you are ambitious).

We added Pasta Prima Portabello Mushroom Ravioli.  These suckers were huge (so we only added a couple to each bowl).

This soup is very versatile and would lend itself to the addition of a number of other vegetables if you have them on hand, make it your own :)  PLUS it freezes very well.

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