Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunshine Burgers, part 1

You are probably thinking, "She makes her own burgers, so why would she review frozen veggie burgers??" Well, I have 4 kids, and we get busy, and sometimes even I need a break from cooking. But I try not to compromise nutrition for convenience and taste.

I've tried most of the packaged vegan burgers out there. I don't mind soy products if it's soy flour or whole soybeans, or tempeh, or miso...but I try to avoid buying too many things made with soy protein isolates. Sunshine Burgers are soy free, gluten free & vegan. The ingredients are surprisingly simple, made with only organic whole foods. And they taste terrific. An all-around win. They even taste fine if prepared in the microwave.

Check out our friday night addition to preschool's opening night buffet of appetizers:
These Sunshine Burger
canapes were made with
Barbecue and Garden
Herb varieties. Both were
sandwiched in between
toasted wheat english
muffin rounds spread with
Veganaise and homemade
guacamole. The Garden
Herb burger appetizers
also contained thinly sliced
mini red & yellow tomatoes,
arugula, & red onion. The
Barbecue style had melted
Daiya cheddar, red onion &
a tiny bit of organic ketchup.

There was lots of leftover
food when the evening was over...but no Sunshine Burgers!

This morning we were getting ready for homevisits from both Nate's and Maia's preschool teachers. They begin school tomorrow, and the teachers always visit each student at home before the beginning of the year. I needed a quick lunch to make for Ryan and AJ, and I already had the oven preheated from baking breakfast muffins. But the store was out of healthy burger buns this week, so I rummaged around and found some not-so-nutritious crescent rolls that I could warp into an entree.Ryan & AJ's lunches: burger rolls; green grapes; steamed broccoli; baby carrots.

First I pinched together
the refrigerated crescent
roll dough, scored it with
a rotary cutter (like a
pizza cutter), and nuked
a Garden Herb Sunshine
Burger for 30 seconds.
I cut the burger in half,
then into eighths, added
a few drops of ketchup &
cheddar Daiya, then rolled
them up.

I baked them in a 375
degree oven for 11 minutes,
and while they cooled I
prepped the rest of the
lunch food.

I cut one in half and ran
it by AJ to try...he is
quite picky, not so much
about taste, but about
texture. He is the only one
in the family who doesn't
adore veggie burgers.

But he said it was fine, so
I made his lunch the same
as Ryan's and crossed my
fingers. His lunchbox came
home mostly empty; he
ate half of the burger rolls,
so for him, I consider that
successful.

Stay tuned for more Sunshine Burger lunches this week!

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