Terrifying Tuesdays is back! Black bean burgers

I got today's recipe from a Taste of Home Magazine that had been in storage. I had recieved the magazine for several years and collected them - I just hate to throw away things like that. And they were waiting for me in storage. Here I am without cookbooks and not much to do for entertainment - so I scoured the magazines for their healthy recipes and found this gem.

I must say it fell in the catagory of easy to make. I have very limited resources at the moment. So I was able to make them with what I've got. I gotta say, it's not fun cooking with camping gear - I've not got proper lids! I've got a gas stove, so I'm terrified that I'm going to catch my potholder on fire when I grab the plate off of the pot.

Anyway, it tasted fine. I think it would be tastier if I had my arsenol of spices available. The cheese got lost in the bun - could not taste it at all. To me, if you can't taste the cheese then you might as well not have it - wasted calories. I like to taste my cheese. I think some sort of different bun or no bun would have been better.

The boys gave it an immediate thumbs down, but as they ate more (we made them eat more) it went from thumbs down to middle thumbs. And it grew on Gary too.

I had read the opinions online and most of them warned how messy the mix was and to add breadcrumbs for binding. So I had a mini chopper and made breadcrumbs from an end piece of wheat bread and added it to the mix. I added powdered garlic also. I also baked the patties at 350 for 35 minutes as suggested by one reviewer. I hate frying, so it worked for me. As a warning, the mix is pretty wet and sloppy, so you scoop it up in a 1/2 cup measuring cup and mound it on the cookie sheet and flatten it out. I flipped the burgers halfway through cooking.

The recipe calls for an egg and calls for the burger to be topped with cheese and a sour cream/salsa mixture - so ymmv as far as your vegetarian/vegan needs.

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a couple of weeks ago I perused a health food store and found a bag of dried figs and that's what we did for TT. Those dark wrinkly things terrified me, but they taste like fig newtons! Duh! So it wasn't too bad. Days later I went after the bag to eat some as a snack, but I had not refrigerated them and they had a fermented smell and were fuzzy. Oh, well.

the pool

Yesterday I took the boys to the neighborhood swimming pool. There were only a few people there. I overheard a lady telling someone she was doing therapy with kids, and then later, someone commented to her about the little toddler she was working with. He was just a-bawlin'. She said he had sensory overload. And that brought it all back to me. I sat there in the shade and reminisced about Ryan at that age and how far he has come. His first swimming lesson he couldn't even do because he refused to even sit beside the pool, much less put his feet in the water. They gladly refunded me - it was just shy of us being kicked out really. So his first lesson he didn't even get a toe wet. The second lesson (2 years later) he did put his feet in, but he screamed in terror the entire time. He practically got private lessons. That poor instructor. He would carry Ryan around in the water while Ry screamed in his ear. The guy persevered and even offered private lessons!

I have not taken them to swim lessons since then. They did get a lot of swim time at hotel pools and friends' houses and the ocean. No, they can't swim pretty, but they can get by in the water. In fact, Jake and Ryan will race each other. Jake does a rough crawl complete with lots of splashing and not going very far. Ryan does a doggie paddle and goes quite fast! I really need to get them lessons so Jake can refine his style and get somewhere and learn to breathe and Ryan can do a real stroke.

Anyway, I was watching this little boy, shrieking in terror. The therapist was very gentle and calm and I could see her patiently distracting the little boy into calmness. She was fabulous. Some people are just born for their jobs. And then I was looking at Ryan doing cannon balls and trying to dive. wow, he's come a long way.

ps. There's a deer in our back yard!