Day 38: The Burger Mix Experiment

I am so very full right now. It’s more of a bloated feeling, and it’s recently acquired, fresh, if you will, from dinner. I’m pretty sure it’s a direct result of the burger I tested tonight. From Fantastic World Foods (whose falafel mix I truly adore), I chose to try the Vegetarian Nature’s Burger: A Veggie and Whole Grain Mix. A little odd to reconstitute your burger in water and wait for it to form a malleable dough, but I suffered through. After about 20 minutes of required soaking, the mix formed into patties and I was ready to go. The cover photo on the box, I learned belatedly, shows a form of crispness that one can only acquire from frying in at least an inch of oil, which I failed to do. On the box it says, I quote, “butter or vegetable oil optional.” Yes, it is optional, but it also makes for a squishy, mealy burger. I like to cover the taste of things I’m not looking forward to with stronger things, like onions. So I sautéed half an onion in 2 T of oil while I waited for the mixture to firm up. When the onions had soaked most of the oil up, I added three of the six patties (the three friends were frozen for later, much, much later). They didn’t stick or anything, but only the top and bottom were crisp. As a result, the entire thing squeezed out of my toast frame in mealy bits. I’m also getting ahead of myself, before I could actually enjoy the un-burger-like nature of the mix, I had to add twice as much ketchup and the avocado with salt to make the thing palatable. I got used to it halfway through, but I think a good crisping in tons of oil really would have made the difference. Next time, I’ll stick with the falafel mix. (Please note that George did not try this, nor will he.)

Now that I finally got the burger eaten, I am feeling the unease that comes with something unfamiliar and possibly too weirdly packed with dried ingredients. They are all reconstituting with the vats of water that I drink on a daily basis and taking over my midsection. It’s really no fun at all.

More bad planning on my part today resulted in the inhalation of a Starbucks classic coffee cake chunk. I left for work in a hurry and neglected to bring my snack, which I still ate when I arrived home at 2 p.m. Anyway, my choices at Starbucks are not great, but I ignored the absolutely free chocolate ganache cupcakes and instead purchased the coffee cake, probably one of the more filling items as it has pecans. What’s a girl to do.

What I ate today. . .
Tea and a banana; two slices wheat toast spread with mashed avocado, salt & pepper; three sips of a short chai before it got cold; an iced double tall white mocha with a slice of classic coffee cake (forgot to bring my work snack); iced triple grande 3p rasp 3p white mocha for the road, lasted for two hours; a hard-boiled egg, handful of carrots and 2 c. red grapes; 1 nature burger on a slice of wheat toast with 1/4 avocado, a few slices sautéed onion, ketchup and a teaspoon of mayo, 5 roasted carrot halves; mint tea.