My Favorite Black Bean Burger Salad

So, you know those black bean burgers I love?

Put those babies on a salad!

Over these last few weeks, I have been addicted to my burgers atop a beautiful plate of greens. I think it's spring fever. However, as I look out the window this morning and see the snow falling, I'm sure, completely, that it's SPRING FEVER.

Hello? Sunshine? Where are you??

But, you know, it's Ohio. We go straight from winter to summer. Always. ALWAYS. I think Ohio has a thing against spring time. I think it's the chirping birds at 6 a.m. Or maybe that's just me.

But, my point. And I do have one.

These beauty burgers are even more beautiful in a salad and drizzled with a white balsamic vinegar. Right now, I'm all about this peach version I found at the Market District. So good.

The slightly warmed burger with a sprinkle of feta is enough to get anyone to eat this salad. Trust me.

Black Bean Burger Salad

Serves 1

1 black bean burger, cooked (follow the link for the recipe)
2 cups spring mix greens
1 large tomato, sliced
1 cup English cucumber, chopped
1/8 c crumbled feta cheese
1 half of an avocado, chopped
White Peach Balsamic Vinegar, for drizzle (about 1 T)

Place greens on a pretty plate. Layer on tomato, cucumber, feta, and avocado. Top with a heated black bean burger, and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Who knew these beauty burgers could get any better?


Nutritional Information:
409 calories, 17 fat, 53 carbs, 20 protein, 15 fiber, 14 sugar

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Lately

1. The Vera Bradley Outlet Sale 2015 came and went. I was there. I bought all the things. My list for next year has already begun. Y'all, the joy I have for this annual trip with my best girlfriend.... I.CAN'T.EVEN.

I'm planning an entire post on this, but this year's haul has been my favorite yet. I am obsessed with ADORE my new purses and bags! I was so happy to see many patterns were still available during the weekend sessions. And since we went back on Sunday, it was exciting to discover different patterns had been brought out that weren't available on Saturday. ANNNNDDD, VB finally makes phone cases for Samsung! And the heavens opened. The angels sang. If you love Vera and have never been, I promise you, this is something you should not miss. Mark your calendars.

Next year it's April 6th-10th, 2016

You know, just so you know.

2. Five years ago tomorrow,  Mr. B and I signed some pretty serious paperwork.

FIVE YEARS!!! Oh my stars, where did the years go??! This is a big one. We might have to do something special. Although, we booked a mini vacation to Hocking Hills for next month as a sort of belated anniversary celebration....and if you refer back to the above, I spent a tiny bit of money this weekend...but, it's FIVE YEARS, right? We must celebrate. We must go crazy.

3. And speaking of cabins in the woods, vacations, and summer, I should probably start my Yogalosophy program again. Dig deeper into clean eating. It's boat and bikini season again. Yikes. Wasn't I just devouring cookie platters??!

4. It's National Library Week!!!! Woot. Woot. To celebrate, enjoy these.

5. I'm a mess. I have all of these plans to organize, organize, ORGANIZE! But instead I find myself on the couch watching Netflix. Me <--- in desperate need of motivation.

6. And one more. Because I can.

Happy FIVE years, Mr. B, you stud.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Re-Visited: Cooking Club #14

[Original post date Dec. 2011. --Updated 4/7/15: original separate content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in more posts to come) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#14 August: Special Diet

The Menu:
       Appetizers
Green Stuffed Appetizer Shells (Vegetarian)
Barbecued Baguettes (Vegetarian)
Party Stuffed Pinwheels (Vegetarian)
       Main Course
Italian Zucchini Pie (Vegetarian)
       Side
Coleslaw (Sugar Free)
       Dessert
Vegan Cupcakes

Jessica had the theme for this month. Lately, we had been talking about trying more vegan and gluten-free recipes because some of our family members have special diets. However, the ingredients for "special diets" can be quite on the expensive side. And when you're on a tight budget, it's not the easiest to do. Hence the reason most of us chose to go vegetarian for this month's menu. [Isn't it amazing what a few years can do? These ingredients are nowhere near as expensive now. Awesome.]

I was excited to skim through my vegetarian recipes, hungry to try something new. After much consideration, I chose the Italian Zucchini Pie, out of The 1,000 Best Recipes.

My husband and I have been on a huge zucchini kick lately. I've used it shredded, fried, baked, in patty form and, Mr. B's personal favorite, Zucchini Chips (<--- find this recipe here).

Zucchini and cheese in a pie, yes please. It sounded delicious. It looked delicious. It smelled delicious. The filling was delicious...the crust...was a little hard.

I'd make this again in a heart beat, but with a different crust recipe.

Italian Zucchini Pie
*adapted from The 1,000 Best Recipes

Serves 6

2 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp
1/3 c olive oil
1 egg, beaten + 3 eggs & 1 egg, lightly beaten for glaze
3-4 Tbsp iced water
1 1/4 lb zucchini, grated
5 oz provolone cheese, grated
4 oz cottage cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp finely chopped basil
pinch of nutmeg

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt and make a well. Combine oil and beaten egg, and almost all of the water and add to flour. Mix until mixture comes together in beads, adding more water if needed. Gather into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill 30 minutes.

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Heat a baking sheet. Grease a 7" pie dish. Toss zucchini with 1/4 tsp salt and place in colander for 30 minutes to drain. Squeeze out any excess liquid with your hands. Place in a large bowl and add cheeses, 3 eggs, garlic, basil and nutmeg. Season well and mix thoroughly.

Roll out 2/3 of the pastry until large enough to line base and side of pie dish. Spoon zucchini filling into pastry shell and level surface. Brush exposed rim of dough with lightly beaten egg. Roll out remaining dough to make a lid. Cover filling with it, pressing edges together firmly. Trim edges. Crimp rim. Prick top all over with a skewer and brush with egg.

Bake on hot sheet for 50 minutes or until golden.

My other favorite this month was Jenny's Coleslaw. I usually like my coleslaw a little thicker and not as sweet, but I found it to be quite tasty.

[Oh, and if you couldn't tell by now, I forgot my camera. I don't have any of the other tasty dishes. Fail.]

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. I've finally caught up! I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have any questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9-12
Cooking Club #13

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Happy Easter!

He Is Risen!

He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 

---Matthew 28:6 (KJV)

"He lived and died to buy my pardon
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!"

There are no truer words than those.

There is no greater love than that.

Nothing is more beautiful.

Google Images

Start off your blessed Easter morning with this beautiful worship song, "Because He Lives," performed by Matt Maher.

"I'm alive, I'm ALIVE because HE LIVES!
AMEN!"

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through HIM. ---John 3:17 (NASB)

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Lately

1. It's National Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day. Three cheers for that, I say! It's always fun at my job, and today my kiddos are making bunny masks for preschool story time. We're reading books, playing with puppets, practicing rabbit yoga poses, shaking eggs, and jumping and counting. All before noon, I might add. It's FUN. Yes, the library is a RIOT.

2. These past few days my afternoon treat has been a mason jar of iced coffee instead of an iced La Croix. Not sure why the switch; I guess my morning coffee isn't enough. I suspect it may have to do with my busy afternoons and coffee seems more filling than water when I can't grab a snack.

3. Who is ready for Spring Break? Hands waving over here!! I have dreams of sipping an iced beverage on my deck. Maybe weeding the garden. Praying for sunshine. Starting some spring cleaning. Possibly a day trip to who knows where. Ahhh, Spring Break. We get one of those in the adult world, right?

Wait. What?

4. Keith Urban and Eric Church. Love 'em. I'm hoping they perform their new song on the 19th at the ACM Awards. "Raise 'Em Up" is just perfectly wonderful. A beautiful song. The radio needs to play the heck out of this. ASAP.

5. I was super excited to see Brooke Boon featured in May's Yoga Journal. Actually, I squealed. Finally! I was so happy to see YJ highlighting various yoga practices that are available to yogis, like Holy Yoga. This practice is a combination of yoga and scripture, meditating on God's Word. And it's the way I've always practiced even before I was introduced to Holy Yoga last year. I get on my mat to relieve stress, to stay fit, to stretch my body, but mainly it's where I seek my Father. It's where I listen for that still, small voice. It's where I find peace and comfort. It's where I converse, relating my gratitude and fears.

"We practice with our minds set on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Phil 4:8), not with our minds emptied. We meditate on the wisdom of God's Word (Psalm 119:9-16, 26-27), not on man's wisdom. We seek the transcendence and glory of God, not our own." (holyyoga.net)

6. Mr. B and I are in desperate need of a date night. And by date night I mean dinner and a movie. By movie I mean an actual theater and not Netflix. I need this because there are so many movies I want to see right now and I don't want to wait. Like Do You Believe? and Insurgent and Furious 7 and Cinderella and do I need to remind you it's almost AVENGERS time?!?!

Has anyone seen any of these?

7. And BASEBALL. Mr. B's Sports Illustrated arrived in the mail predicting the Cleveland Indians will win the World Series this year. Am I dreaming?! You better not have just jinxed our season, SI!

I will hunt you down.

I know people.


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

My Beautiful Month

In case you aren't on Instagram, or don't follow me, here's a peek at my Insta-Life lately.
[*All photos are taken from my Instagram account.]

Received my first Creative Scripture Card in the mail this month. I love the idea of swapping scripture with women all over the country. Such a fantastic idea! It's a great way to bring the word of God to others and to meet Jesus-loving ladies :) #cscswap

Making Mr. Darcy his birthday puppy ice cream. (aka ---> frozen bananas with peanut butter and plain Greek yogurt)

We have chickens!! SIX of them. And, yes, I named them all. However, I'm sure Mr. B will never remember. I'll share details in another post. Eeekkkk!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Currently

I'm currently....

Watching.... The Wizard of Oz. And multiple times, too. My program is next Wednesday. Eight working days until go time...err show time.

Eating.... well, actually, I'm drinking a Matcha Green Tea Frappe from my be-loved Starbucks, and can we say holy crow, this is SWEET. Yikes. My teeth hurt and I was only able to drink a third of it before I stuck it in the freezer to finish later. But I like it. Next time, I'm definitely getting it unsweetened and no whip. It is dessert in a cup for sure.

Planning.... Easter dishes. I know I'm taking a dessert to Grandma's, but as for a side I'm still contemplating. What are y'all Easter plans? Trying anything new or bringing crowd favorites?

Reading.... I just started reading Killing Patton after months and months of being on my library's holds list. I liked his other three, and this is definitely the person/area I know the least about.

Inspired by.... what my church is doing this year. Yesterday, during Sunday service, my pastor announced what our vision is for the year and upcoming plans. Here are SEVEN things Faith Family is up to:
1) a new book
2) getting back on radio and TV
3) online service streaming in prisons
4) debt reduction
5) starting daycare and preschool
6) Tony Dungy is speaking during the NFL Hall of Fame Weekend festivities <--- which means I must move his book to the top of my TBR list.
7) opening new church campuses

To say I'm stoked and excited and blessed to belong to such an amazing church is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Ahhhhhh, so, so ready to see all God has in store! Go. Grow. Give.

Excited about.... SPRING. I'm ready to get elbows deep in my garden. I'm ready to compost. I'm ready to be outside. More walks through the park. More playtime. More activity. Bring.It.On.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Yes, I'm a Children's Librarian

Top o' the morning to ya.

I'm not quite sure why I greeted you in that manner. All I can say is the coffee is working.

Sooooo, here's what I did yesterday (Wednesday) in LIBRARY WORLD.

8:30-10:00 a.m. I had to get super organized right away. I'm in the midst of planning a huge Wizard of Oz interactive movie program (see glimpses of my Polar Express one here) and in great danger of losing my desk under all of the tissue paper, green poster boards, tin cans, and wigs. If I didn't act fast, I'd be one container of scissors and glue sticks short of a MESS. And that is not me. I am always organized. If not, I go crazy. If not, I will make you crazy.

Oh, and disclaimer. MAMA, yes I am doing this program. We don't have to talk about it. Feel free to continue reading. There are no visuals of the witch or of the flying monkeys.

Anyhoo, a crate quickly helped me dump my program materials into one bin which I can carry from desk to desk as needed. Phew.

10:00-12:15 p.m. While one of my co-workers was enjoying herself at the Ohio Library Northeast Conference, learning all kinds of new things she will rush back and share with the rest of us, I was called upon to cover her Time for Tots program. It's similar to my Toddler Tales, except where my age range is 19-35 months, hers is 2-3 1/2 years. Being I already had my week's toddler program planned, it was easy to adjust the layout and grab my stuff as I headed about 10 minutes down the road to her branch.

Her program starts at 11 a.m., and by 10:30 I had everything ready to go. She was kind enough to set up the room and I just added my stuff to the table. I did a mixture of her story time and a mixture of mine. The theme was dinosaurs, and I was happy to share a little longer book with a crowd that holds a tad longer attention span. I threw in some rhymes, finger plays, music time, and a puppet. Voila! Happy campers. They were even more thrilled when I brought out the parachute!!!! It was wonderful to see the pure joy of the faces of those kids because for some it was their first experience. My toddlers are spoiled and know I bring out the parachute every week. My co-worker does not. (Since I entertain a slightly younger crowd every Thursday, I like to keep them moving.)

Her [newer] branch has a tree in the children's department. It's awesome. It's okay; be jealous. I'm jealous.

I want that in my house.

12:15-12:45 p.m. I took my lunch break. However, on my way back to my branch I ran into Starbucks to pick up a treat for my supervisor and co-office-habitor, Amanda. It's a long story. Well, actually it's not. You know how Starbucks is featuring special Monday deals throughout March for their cardholder members? This past Monday was buy a beverage get a free pastry. Since I intended (I choose this word because I faltered a few times) on fasting sugar for Lent, I was giving my free treat to her. Problem #1: Amanda was off on Monday, so it sat in the fridge until her arrival on Tuesday. Problem #2: Due to a few other sweet treats on our back table courtesy of a wonderful patron, Amanda chose not to eat her cherry oat bar. She'd eat it on Wednesday when she got to work. Problem #3: She left work at 5 p.m. on Tuesday; I was there until 8 p.m. and I did not bring enough food to keep me satisfied. Problem #4: When I opened the fridge later on yesterday evening, I noticed her treat seemed smooshed in its bag. I am a great co-worker. I am an even better friend. I did not want her to eat anything less than perfect. I had also never had a cherry oat bar.

It was delicious.

After eating it, I texted her so. She cried. She laughed. Her emojis confirmed this. (Side note, I don't like the word emoji. It sounds like a disease. I was told recently my own name sounds like a disease. Interesting. Some people should really have filters.)

Anyhoo. I felt guilty.

That's why Wednesday found me back at Starbucks ordering two cherry oat bars.

12:45-5:00 p.m. The rest of the day had me busy with a number of things. I'd start one task and before I knew it I had three different things going on. It was a slow day at the library, and I took advantage of the quiet and planned my next few preschool story times, worked on craft ideas for next month's Crafty Kids (I'm keeping it spring themed), and figured out the purchases I need to make for my Wizard of Oz program. Oh, and skimmed a few new books, withdrew a few outdated non-fiction titles, and enjoyed a 20-minute break reading more of Mindy Kaling's memoir. It's this month's book club read.

Cheers!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi