Photos: we started with soaked nuts and seeds and ended with a deliciously healthy dinner!

(I wish I could format these pictures nicely, but I haven't figured out the coding for curezone blogs.  I apologize for the blank spaces that appear). 

Chef Felicia made those "burgers" again! This time she made adjustments to the recipe and the dehydration time based on our experiences from the first time she made them. While those first burgers were good, I think the minor changes she made this time around has improved them. And she didn't even crack open the recipe book.

First, she soaked the sunflower seeds, pecans and almonds overnight, and then today added soaked black beans, herbs and spices. She used berbere- an African spice blend I made with our collection of whole spices. (I was so glad she left out the Bragg's this time- it's strong flavoring simply isn't necessary). She shaped the patties differently- more like traditional burgers. She also adjusted the dehydration time so that they were just the right "doneness" on the inside and out- hard enough on the outside to hold the patty shape, but soft enough to make them very palatable, not dry or chewy.

The burgers looked awesome because she didn't try to completely pulverize the nuts and seeds this time. The burger picture on the left shows the patty before dehydration. The one on the right shows it afterwards.


We had the burgers on hemp bread with lettuce, tomato and avocado slices, and had a little salad on the side. I think that as far as nut burgers go, these were rather attractive! Naturally, they had a bit of texture upon biting into them because of the larger-sized nut and seed pieces, and I must say I prefer this over the smoother mixture she made last week. Texture makes a meal much more interesting. The addition of the black beans made the burgers more attractive-looking as well.

I plan to have one burger every day at school this week- something nice to look forward to that will keep me satisfied all day!