Meatless Meals: Lentil Burgers and an intro

I'm vegetarian which means if you know any vegetarians can mean anything.  I started off being a traditional vegetarian which means no red meat, poultry or seafood but I realised I wasn't getting  a lot of protein as I don't tend to eat things like beans, nuts, seeds, legumes etc in large enough quantities to have a regular stream of protein in my diet.  Now I love tofu but there are only so many ways and so many meals I can have it in back to back before I'm tired of it.  Then I introduced seafood into my diet simply as a way of having more protein-type options, plus, what's an island girl without seafood in her diet.  So technically I'm an ovo (eggs) lacto (dairy) pescetarian (seafood) vegetarian.

I'm all for trying some new vegetarian dishes and some have gone over a LOT better than others and this is one of those that I just had to try.

Giada de Laurentis had a Meatless Monday episode a few weeks ago which showed several meals that one could make however this one caught my eye.  She called this one Lentil Burgers with Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise.  I won't type out the recipe, if you'd like it, please check out the link, I will say that I made a few changes after having read others reviews.

I couldn't find tinned (canned) lentils, so I bought some dried and cooked it instead.  Since the original recipe said it makes eleven 3/4-inch thick slider patties (from 1/3 cup scoops) and it is only me one eating it, I figured I'd just cut down the recipe down by half.

Some people mentioned that it tasted bland so before I added the corn meal I tasted it and added salt, pepper etc and seasoned it to my preference.

Others mentioned that the burger didn't stay together, so after the initial 6 patties (none of my patties made 3/4-inch patties with 1/3 cup scoops) I added more corn meal to the mixture before refrigerating.

I also didn't make the Lemon-Basil Mayonnaise as I don't particularly care for mayonnaise (although I did substitute regular mayo for the vegenaise).

These followed the recipe with respect to the corn meal

These had the extra corn meal added in.

Being fried up.

One other note about this recipe, since mine didn't make 3/4-inch thick patties it didn't need to be cooked 4 mins a side.

Pros:

• Suitable for anyone who is a strict vegetarian or even vegan and for those who have a gluten intolerance.
• Not terribly difficult to make as long as you can find the ingredients/substitutes.

Cons:

• Original recipe does make a bland burger if you just plan on eating it plain.  I'd suggest taste testing before adding the cornmeal
• If you have an issue with texture and crunchiness, the amount of crunchiness the cornmeal adds my put you off.
• For a single person it's a lot of patties. (I wonder how well they'd freeze)

Overall I will say that it is definitely worth trying, I'm glad I made it and will probably add it to my list of veggie recipes to recommend.

InCoWriMo and other pen related news

This month is the first annual InCoWriMo or International Correspondence Writing Month and it kicked off 4 days ago. If you've heard of NaNoWriMo and notice the similarity just know that it is the inspiration. Check out the website to learn more about this.

But why do I mention it, because I've decided to indulge in the madness!  While I should have enough stamps, at least for the domestic letters, I had to go out and purchase some envelopes today.  My goal is to handwrite a letter to everyone, but I picked up some blank notecards just incase.

So far so good, several other participants on the FPG board have admitted to writing ahead (but will mail them on the correct dates), so I may do that knowing that certain days I'm a lot busier than others.

I finally managed to use my chop (Chinese seal) although I still have a long way to go in terms of not making it look like a royal mess.

Since the last time I updated I've been brainstorming ideas about the growing number of ink samples I have and how to store them.  I think I finally have something that I'm happy with.  Photos to follow on another post.

Recent Acquisitions:
Tomoe River Paper (cream and white) - I haven't used it yet.

Around the web:
Fragrances Influenced by the Scent of Ink  by ejjelley
Tomoe River Paper review by Gourmet Pens
Edison Beaumont Pneumatic giveaway by FPGeeks


Currently Inked:
Pilot Prera with Noodlers Turquoise Eel
Levenger True Writer with Sheaffer Skrip Brown
Retro 51 with Akkerman Treves Turquoise
Pilot Petit1 with stock Orange
Lamy Safari with Pelikan Edelstein Topaz
Pilot 78G with Noodlers Ottoman Azure
Sheaffer F Italic with Akkerman Treves Turquoise  *
Sheaffer F Calligraphy with Akkerman Parkpop Purper  *
Noodles Ahab with Akkerman Parkpop Purper  *

* Only because I'm playing/practising writing with these pensCurrently Reading:
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck