‘Sup everyone? School has started, and making lunches is a struggle once more. Fun times! In keeping with this theme, my next few posts will be simple lunch recipes that can easily be made and frozen so that you can defrost them during busy mornings. Today we’re making Black Bean Quinoa Burgers, which are delicious, easy, and freezable; important qualities for our purposes. You can whip up a big batch and have burgers for days while your friends glare at you enviously. Sounds great, right? Well, you have to make them first. Let’s do this.

Black Bean Quinoa Burgers

Makes 5-6 burgers

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
• About 3 cups fresh spinach that has been wilted (not 3 cup of wilted spinach), or 1/4 cup frozen corn, or both, or none
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chile powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne powder (add more or less to taste)
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• Couple cracks o’ pepper;))

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F
2. Pat the black beans dry and dump them into a medium sized bowl. Mash them with a fork (or with your hands) until you can form a bit of a ball with them, but there’s still some whole beans in there.
3. Add all the spices, quinoa, wilted spinach or corn if using and mix with your hands until combined.
4. Scoop 1/3 cup of the mixture at a time and form it into patties; they should look something like this:
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip and bake for about another 25 minutes.
6. Cool completely before eating or freezing. Freeze the burgers laying flat in a sealed freezer bag.

I love eating these between two pieces of sprouted grain bread with some sliced pickles, tomatoes, spinach, and a little bit of pesto, bet heck, they’d be great in a bun or a wrap with veggies and tzatziki. MMMMMMM! Hopefully these burgers help you out in a pinch, or just give you something great to munch on. Stay tuned for more freezable school lunch recipes coming soon!

Yours truly, MyDayIsBooked;))