Black Bean Burgers & Eggplant Chips

I skyped with my parents the other night! It was nice to talk to both of them. I love the phone conversations of gchats I have with them individually but I love them more when they're together. My dad cracks his jokes and uses the animations on skype with me while my mom is actually filling me in on life. My dad brings over props to show what she's talking about and my mom waves the puppies paws at me. It felt really nice to get that time with them. What was even cuter was Josh was sad that I did it without him :)

The whole time I was talking with them though I was chopping up veggies to make these stupendous things:

Black Bean Burgers:

2 cans black beans; drained and rinsed
1 jalapeno; minced
1/2 red onion; finely chopped
2 cloves garlic; minced
1 red bell pepper; finely chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
S&P

toppings:
sweet corn salsa
avocado
tomato
lettuce
cibatta bread

1   mix 1 can beans in with chopped veggies and mash them all together
2   stir in the spices and the other beans
3   mash them into patties- makes 4-6
4   put a little oil in the skillet and cook for 4 minutes on each side of the patties and serve

NOW mine fell apart because I don't have a food processor to chop/mash the beans up properly so they cooked and stayed together but fell apart when we ate them. So I could either put them in a plastic bag and mash them up that way next time OR you can just stick them in the microwave or stovetop to heat it up and then shove the deliciousness into a pita or just eat it with bread. We did this with the leftovers for lunch
IT IS DEVINE!! MAKE IT!!!



Baked eggplant chips:

these are super delicious! Joshua and I were skeptical but I had some slices left over from making ratatoulille so it was either find a way to use the eggplant or it would go bad. Now I bought an eggplant just to make more of these!

break crumbs or cracker crumbs
1/8-1/4" slices of eggplant

brush both sides of the eggplant slices with a little bit of oil
salt and pepper one side
sprinkle on bread crumbs

bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes and then serve!
the bread crumbs help make the chips have a more crunchy texture

Overall I'm super happy with this dinner- great burger & fries healthy option!