*full of beans.

It's Saturday night at la casa de K, which means two things: I bailed on appropriate 20-something weekend activities because I'm basically a grandma, and I'd snacked all day long. So I knew I wanted something light but satisfying. Preferably something that would distract me from the disintegration of my social life.

That said, I was feeling pretty lazy. So I needed to concoct something with the contents of my kitchen. And that meant Mark Bittman. I love him from his New York Times "101" articles here and here. His recipes in the HtCEV cookbook are uber-flexible, which makes them easily adaptable to whatever specific ingredients you may have on hand. Here's what I had:



The bean burger recipe, for example, calls for canned or dry beans of almost any variety. I had chickpeas (I always have chickpeas) in the lazy Susan. And I wouldn't be my mother's daughter if I didn't have rolled oats always at the ready. One medium onion, an egg, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of chili powder make things flavorful but simple. Falling in step with my new love affair with all things Cuisinart (or, in this case, Black & Decker), everything went in for a chunky chop.



It rests for a moment whilst you ready the buns. I know! Kinky! then gets formed into patties. Which is made easier when you're working with vegetables, because there's no ... erm ... shrinkage. A couple of three minutes on each side in a spritz of olive oil ...



And you have a veggie burger. I'll never go frozen again! The whole thing, start to finish, took probably 16 minutes. Eight of which were spent searching for the can opener.



And yes, those are the evil potatoes of doom you see there on the left. I can't throw away perfectly acceptable wallpaper adhesive masquerading as a side dish. Now, I'm off to sleep. It's way past grandma's bedtime.