White Bean Cakes (Garbanzo/Chickpea and Cannellini Beans)

Makes about 12 bean cakes that are 3"-4" in diameter.
Can also be served as bean burgers in a bun! Adapted from https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/garbanzo-bean-burgers/

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 1 Can of Garbanzo Beans (also called Chickpeas)
• 1 Can of Cannellini Beans
• Chili Powder seasoning
• garlic powder seasoning
• All-Purpose Seasoning (Goya)
• a LOT of Bread Crumbs (pre-seasoned is good), like, have at least 3/4 full of a new box/can
• Your choice of chopped carrots or bell peppers (like 2-3 mini sweet peppers OR just 1 big bell pepper)
• 1 large egg
• 1 mixing bowl and tool for mashing (like a heavy wooden spoon), OR a food processor
• Salt
• Lemon Juice
• canola oil OR olive oil
• measuring cups & spoons
• a skillet and either a big cutting board or a few plates to put the bean cakes on before and after frying
• stove
• spatula
• knife for chopping your carrots or bell peppers

Steps

• 1) Drain the garbanzo and cannellini beans. You can get them out of the cans and rinse them in a strainer or you can just kinda carefully tip the opened can over the sink and let the liquid drain out as much as it can. I like to use my can opener and open the can 90% of the way, it gives you an easy lid to lift or close and also you can use the hooked tip of the can opener to lift the lid so there is no risk of cutting your fingers.


• 2) Put all the beans (both kinds) into the mixing bowl (or food processor). It's probably a lot faster and less labor intensive to use a food processor, but I don't have one so I mix and mash my beans by hand. Add half a cup of water, then mash up the beans with a heavy tool like a wooden spoon. A meat pounder would probably also work. Mash 'em up to desired consistency--I like to get it pretty smooth with a few unbroken bean bumps here and there.


• 3) Add a teaspoon of lemon juice and the egg.


• 4) Chop up some carrots or bell peppers--you don't need a lot, but it's up to you how much you want to add to your cakes. They add a nice secondary flavor & texture (and make the cakes more colorful, too).


• 5) Time to season! Add a dash of chili powder, a pinch of salt, and uhh, add garlic powder and all-purpose seasoning to taste. It's pretty hard to over-season but you will probably need to season more if your bread crumbs are not already seasoned.


• 6) Add 1 cup of bread crumbs to the bowl and mix it all up. The egg should make it all stick, and the break crumbs should soak up most of the liquid. When you're done mixing, you should have a moist, thick consistency that you can pick up with your (washed) hands and start forming cakes that don't fall apart.
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• 7) Have your plates or cutting board ready, it's time to form the bean cakes! Reach in the mixing bowl and grab clumps of the bean mix and pat it into a cake that fits into the palm of your hand, around 3" in diameter. You can form all the cakes right now or do them in batches (you won't be able to fry them all at once anyways)


• 8) Turn on the stove to a medium or medium-high setting (7) and add some canola or olive oil--enough to grease the skillet but not too much that it splashes a lot when you put the bean cakes in. You might want to wear long sleeves or gloves to protect your hands and arms in case hot oil sputters out of the pan, but if you just work carefully you should be okay. (If you do get burned by hot oil, run the burn under cold water immediately.)


• 9) Once the skillet is hot on the stove, put in 4-5 bean cakes (as many as you can fit with a bit of space in between them). Press them into the skillet a little with the spatula. Note the time (or set up a timer for 4 minutes).


• 10) In four minutes (or when the bottom looks brown), flip the bean cakes using the spatula. In another 4 minutes, use the spatula to move the hot bean cakes onto a plate where they can cool off. Once all the bean cakes are out of the skillet, rinse the skillet and add a new helping of olive oil to re-grease the pan. (If you don't do this, you're more likely to produce burnt or gunky bean cakes in the next batches.)


• 11) Repeat! Put in another 4-5 bean cakes and fry-and-flip at 4 minutes just like before. Once they cool off, they're ready to eat! Yay!

I hope your bean cakes turn out deliciously! There is a lot of wiggle room in the recipe for personal preference, so have fun experimenting and figuring out how to cook them the way you like! Bean cakes are packed with protein and flavor, and you can play around with the seasoning, moistness, etc. to your liking. Thanks to the cooks of Bon Apetit in Savannah, GA, for introducing me to the wonders of bean cakes!

Pizza Bagels! Yummie! It's like bagel bites but FULL SIZE yeah!

Ya need:

-1 or more bagels, cut in half, I use plain but do whatever you like
-a bag of shredded mozerella cheese
-some powdered parmesan cheese if you wanna be Fancy
-baking sheet
-pasta sauce like prego or ragu
-any desired toppings
-oven
-spoon to spread the sauce
-a plate to eat the finished bagels off of

Okie!

0) preheat the oven to 350 degrees
1) place the bagel halves with the cut/inside side up onto the baking sheet
2) spoon out some pasta sauce on the bagel tops. not too thick but make sure they're evenly covered over the whole surface
3) sprinkle mozerella cheese on top of the sauce!
4) okay now spread a lil parmesan over em if you like
5) add toppings!
6) place the baking sheet w/pizza bagels in the oven after it's fully preheated. bake for 7 minutes, check on it at 5 to make sure it's not burnt or anything since ovens vary
7) when it looks done, take em out, let em cool, and enjoy!

Tip: If you make a mess sprinkling cheese on the bagels and it spills all around the baking tray, it's not a big deal but this cheese WILL get crispy and make the tray harder to clean. So if you're a neat and tidy person, you might want to clean off the cheese bits OR do the cheese sprinkling on a cutting board, then transfer them onto the baking tray when they're reading for cookin'.

Just a simple & sumptuous single-serving bowl of veggies!

You will need:

• a microwave safe bowl
• a bag of frozen peas
• a bag of frozen corn
• cayenne spice
• chili pepper spice
• salt
• goya all-purpose seasoning (optional)
• a microwave
• a fork or spoon (however you prefer to eat it)

you can use non-frozen veggies, too, if you want. fresh peas and corn might need a shorter cook time, and canned peas and corn... well, they are gonna have more moisture and that may affect the cook time as well.

ANYWAY, here are the instructions!

• fill the bowl with as much corn and peas as you like to eat. I like to pour in the peas first so they're on the bottom, because peas cook faster/burn faster than corn does.
• microwave for 1-2 minutes.
• stir the veggies thoroughly. this step is important, else your veggies are gonna be cooked unevenly!
• microwave again for another couple minutes. you may need to repeat the process of checking, stirring, and continuing to heat for another minute or two at a time. don't leave the microwave unattended, especially if this is your first time making this, so that the peas don't burn (they're tiny!)
• when the veggies look cooked (warm and supple), it's time to season them!
• season with cayenne, chili pepper, salt, and goya all-purpose seasoning (my ratios are in that order of most-to-least amount of spice, but I LOVE cayenne, so it's up to you how much to add of each one. I would recommend only adding a small amount of the goya spice since it is a pre-seasoned mix and might be overpowering if you add too much. more cayenne and chili pepper makes the dish hotter of course, so add according to your tolerance and love of spiciness! start small if you're unsure.)
• stir and enjoy! you might need to wait a minute or too if the bowl is too hot (temperature) and needs some time to cool

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

I have succeeded in using this recipe to bake my first sweet potato! But I only cooked one, so, as a note to myself I guess, here's how I did it:

• preheat oven to 425 degrees F
• wash the sweet potato and use a vegetable brush to clean it off gently
• line a baking sheet with aluminum foil (doesn't have to be the entire surface, just enough for your potato to feel comfy in)
• POKE THE POTATO repeatedly with a fork (or maybe a toothpick)
• when the oven is done preheating, put the potato in and set a timer for 30 min.
• at the 30 min. mark, turn it over and just check on it, see how it's doing, ask it how's the weather
• pop it back in and set it for another 30min. after that (when it's been in the oven for roughly an hour total). check on it by sticking a fork in it; if it's soft & yummie it's done! if not, put it in for another 10 min. and repeat as necessary.

(note: I am not seasoning my potato beforehand but if you click on the recipe link, they say how you can season it if you'd like)