I love to cook. I always have. But when it comes to making lunch just for me on my days at home, I often bypass the whole mess and just snack, or heat up some leftovers. There’s really nothing wrong with that, I guess, but today I felt like making myself a real meal. Maybe that’s because it’s rainy outside. We need the rain badly, though, so instead of sunshine outside, I thought I’d incorporate a few rays into my lunch.
Sadly, I’m down to my last Southwestern Sunshine Burger. 
I found a single box in an out-of-the-way health food store, which I have a feeling I’ll be revisiting soon.
Sometimes, I put my Sunshine Burger on a bun. But the beef I have with buns is that they often seem like nothing more than a vehicle for the real star of the meal, and they contain a lot of empty carbs for something I don’t really enjoy. Don’t get me wrong…I like a good hunk of bread as much as the next guy, but a burger bun just doesn’t excite me too much.
But who needs a bun when you’ve got a fat sweet potato?!
So I rubbed the taters with a mere touch of coconut oil and salt, and set them a bakin’ in the oven (along with a few extras for baby’s dinner later): about 20 minutes at 350º, then another 15 or so at 400º, turning throughout for even browning. I baked the Sunshine Burger along with them until it was nice and crispy.
Hmmm….what jives with the burger’s Southwestern flair? Salsa!
But I don’t have any salsa. 
What I do have, and need to use up, is this array of goodies, which I ran through the food processor to create a little somethin’ somethin’ that sort of resembled a salsa.
- 1/2 cup black beans
- 1/8 cup fresh onion
- 1 clove of garlic from our garden
- 4 yellow pear tomatoes from our garden
- 1 pinch cumin
- 1 pinch chili powder
- several sprigs of cilantro Oops. Cilantro was just a little too far past its prime and is now in the compost.
Directions: Hit “pulse” a few times instead of “on” so as not to scare the baby.
Once my burger and tater bun were baked to perfection, I simply stacked them up!
- sweet potato
- 1/2 Sunshine Burger
- veg “salsa”
- 1/2 Sunshine Burger
- more “salsa”
- the last of my cheddar cheese curds (insert teary-eyed emoticon here!)
- another hot round of sweet potato to top it off
It still could have benefited from a touch of real tomatoey salsa, but all in all this was a pretty fantastic lunch. I’m not sure why I don’t treat myself to a real lunch more often, especially considering this was made entirely of ingredients I had in the house, and it only took a few minutes to put together. From now on, I think making my own healthy lunch a priority is a new goal.
Because I’m worth it!
And now that I’m feeling all inspired and self-esteemy, I’d like to take Chocolate-Covered Katie up on her challenge to post a no-makeup pic on my blog! OK, so this one is not a full face no-makeup pic, but it’s not exactly flattering. And there’s NO makeup, plus I think it was taken on a no-wash hair day, so it fits the bill.
I took it to document (just for my own use) the crazy hair loss that started about 3 1/2 months after I gave birth. Did you know that some lucky women’s hormones cause them to lose clump after clump of hair after childbirth? I knew this going in, because it happened when I lost my first pregnancy, but I didn’t expect to lose so much. This is during the period of regrowth, and trust me when I tell you this pic doesn’t do it justice! I have full-on bangs now that I never intended, and a full head of short hair underneath my long hair!
Here it is….with no self-disparaging comment, although I’m tempted. I look at my weird hair as just another reminder of how lucky I am to be a healthy mommy to my healthy boy!
…and for the sake of comparison, the mascara and eyeliner version.
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Do you eat your burger on a bun? If so, do you really want the bun, or do you just eat it because it’s there?
