Meatless Monday

Today is Meatless Monday! +Jimmy Ho and I don't eat meat on Monday, and we haven't for over 2 years now. You may think it would be hard, but it really isn't. Sometimes I don't even miss meat and almost think I could be a vegetarian. I don't think there is any meat that I just love so much that I couldn't give it up. But I haven't.. I still eat meat, except on Mondays.

Tonight for dinner we had Freakin' Vegans. That's the name of a taco from Taco Deli (omg yum). The taco has refried black beans, guacamole, and pico. We eat them on wheat tortillas since I gave up white starches. I love Freakin' Vegans so much that I usually get one any time we go to Taco Deli, Meatless Monday or not.

Along with the Meatless Monday theme, I also made some black bean burgers today to have for lunches. I won't taste it until tomorrow, but it looked and smelled really good. I'm pretty excited. Preheat your oven to 375. So you take one can of black beans, rinse, and dry them.  Then you mash them up.

Then you chop up 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 bell pepper, and 1/2 onion. Throw them in with the beans.

 

In another bowl, mix up an egg, 1 TB chili powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp chili sauce. Mix that in with the beans mixture, and add 1/2 c of bread crumbs. 

Not that pretty, huh? Haha.. Okay, so then you divide in 4 and make patties. Bake them at 375 for 10 minutes on each side.  Warning - make sure you really dry your beans and refrigerate the mixture before making the burger patties. These things have a tendency to fall apart, so be careful, especially when flipping. 

So I'll update about how they taste later in the week! Since I've cooking so much more at home and trying to eat unprocessed foods, I find myself shopping in the bulk bins all the time. The plastic bags in my pantry were starting to get out of control. I had to do something about it. I had wine rack that I bought a long time ago from IKEA that I haven't been using. I also had a ton of mason jars. So.. I made this - 

It's useful, and I have my pantry back! Love.

So last week this is what I ended up doing. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I did yoga. Tuesday and Thursday I walked and went to Camp Gladiator. I did not "work out" on Saturday or Sunday, but I went to races both days, was on my feet a ton, and did quite a bit of running around. I was ACTIVE, and that's what it is all about. So.. I'm going to keep that goal for the rest of the month. I can do it!!

Jimmy got 2nd place in the 5K he ran this weekend.. and he is running ANOTHER one this weekend. He is the definition of cray cray. 

Saturday was SUCH a beautiful day here. We had lunch outside.. ran around and then had a latte at Mozart's on Lake Austin. It was a perfect day, and I'm hoping to have more days like that before it gets too hot here. 

I love living in Austin so much. There is always something to do, great people to see, and funny things everywhere. When leaving lunch on Saturday, we saw these pipes painted to look like a dog lifting its leg on something. #KeepAustinWeird

And just because.. here is one of the dogs. They love rides in the car. Hope you guys have a great week!