Burger It 33: Black Bean Burger

January 2020 and continuing with my series of different burgers and working my up to the goal of 40, so getting close!

I'm always a little suspicious of a non-meat burger. I like vegetables and beans well enough but when I eat a burger I want meat. We've had success in the past making black bean burgers so I'm going to give this recipe a fair chance.

We're using Jamie Oliver's recipe if you want to make it yourself.

The thing we usually dislike about veggie burgers are they're too soft. I prefer a soft bread bun and a firm burger to bite.

These black bean burgers were pretty firm actually. They cooked fine and held together well in the pan. They were a bit on the dry side which can be remedied by adding some mayo and the taste was a little bland. But overall I enjoyed them. It's nice to eat a burger that's a bit healthier and not going to have a grisly bit of meat in it. I liked the addition of melted mozzarella on the top too.

Ratings: JD- 2, Emma - 3 and Val - 4 (Erin wouldn't toch it with a barge pole!)

We Love Second Hand Stuff

A lot of the furniture in our house is second hand and we're really pleased about it. Buying second-hand isn't to everyones liking but we get a lot out of it. For example, buying second hand saves us a lot of money to spend elsewhere such as trips out. It makes us feel good about helping the planet, reusing something instead of buying new saves resources and cuts down on waste.

We always try to find something we need/want second hand before we go to a store. JD is particularly good at this. He's like the guy in prison that can get you anything. We often mention to him we want something like a computer chair or bookcase and he scours sites like Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and Ebay Local until he's found what we're looking for. It's very satisfying to find a bargain and then go collect it to bring home.

Here are a few of the bargains we've found over the last year:

Val wanted more storage for their room so JD found this wardrobe on eBay local for £10.50.

JD found this brown leather chair in a dustbin area along the street from us. It had a big coffee stain on the seat so he brought it home and cleaned it up.

When our old sofa finally bit the dust JD kept a lookout on Facebook Marketplace for a replacement. He found this DFS sofa for £60 and we brought it home strapped to the top of the car.

I was wanting a way to exercise at home everyday to make it more convenient and decided on an exercise bike. I'd checked out Amazon and found that a decent bike with my weight threshold would cost around £1,000. I mentioned it to JD and after a week or so he'd found one for £150. I go on it every day now and it's great!

The back fell off Erin's desk chair so we got this replacement for her for £10.

Our TV sits on a table JD got for free because where he used to work was throwing it away.

Our hall mirror cost £5.

My new monitor was £15.

We've had beds for both the kids, dining room chairs and kitchen appliances second hand too. Plus we make sure to pass on things we no longer need or want. It's much better to give away things free on Facebook than to take things to the tip to go to landfill. It's a really great feeling to give away things too.

It takes a little more effort to buy second hand rather than new but it's worth it to cut down on waste.

5 Alternatives to Pepperoni Pizza

Every Monday night is Pizza Night at our house. It came about because we used to have Movie Night on a Monday and pizza is great to eat on the sofa watching a film. Nowadays we have a more general Family Night on a Monday where we play video games, watch a film or do other fun stuff. Still pizza works great for those times too.

The kids would eat homemade pepperoni pizza all day long but I like a bit more variety so I try to sneak in some pepperoni pizza alternatives too. It has to be pizza themed at least or the kids would complain too much. The following is a list of different pizzas and pizza based foods I've gotten away with over the year!


Pizza Bombs

Still technically pepperoni pizza just a different shape. This recipe by Tasty is great. Ok, they use American biscuit dough but if you make some pizza dough and substitute that then this recipe is golden. We love pizza bombs with JD's homemade marinara sauce to dip them in. They're da bomb!


Pepperoni Calzones

Another pizza in a different shape but still 'not pizza' enough for me. These calzones were great but really filling. You wouldn't go wrong with some marinara sauce for the crusts here too.


Fugazzeta Pizza

Fugazzeta Pizza is from Argentina and it doesn't have pizza sauce. Strange, right? It's still pretty good due to lots of cheese and thinly sliced onion on top.


Sicilian Pizza

Sicilian Pizza is rectangular with toppings including sausage and breadcrumbs. It's really good, even the kids loved it. Makes a lovely change from regular pepperoni pizza.


Pizza Burgers

I'm not sure how I got away with this one! But I did, the kids accepted this as pizza enough. Such an easy meal to put together too, I love it.


There will perhaps be more pizza varieties to come!

Planning For The New Year 2020

Happy New Year folks!

I love the New Year, almost more than Christmas. It's not about New Year resolutions because I usually feel like those are pointless. Lots of people set them but don't carry them out longer than January. Facebook feeds are full of 'New Year, New Me' posts. I'm over here like:

And I'm happy about it. I don't want to change, I'm happy as I am. I don't want to lose weight, join a gym or stop eating chocolate. But I do want to spend the year ahead focusing on my goals.

For the last few years I've been setting myself yearly goals. Sometimes they work out (for example last year I set myself the goal of posting 50 blog posts and I did!) and sometimes they don't (for example the goal 'getting a new job' was in my my yearly goals for 3 years running before it finally happened). But whether or not I achieve the goal doesn't really matter for me, the point is to have my goals written down so I see them often and keep them in my mind.

My Goals for 2020:

I like to include goals both for things I enjoy doing (playing video games and crafts) and for goals that give me health benefits (cycling and learning new skills). I want to cycle daily as it helps my arthritis in my knees and I want to learn some new skills as I've had a mental list of things I want to find out more about for years. You might think I wouldn't need a goal for enjoyable things but for me setting a goal helps me make time and prioritise the things I want to do.

I keep my list adaptable, nothing is set in stone. If my exercise bike breaks and I have to exercise a different way I'll switch my goal to something doable. If halfway through the year I'm not enjoying reading from different genres then I'll just stop and go back to murder mysteries!

I don't want my goals to make me feel bad if I don't achieve them but I do want to stay aware of how I spend my free time.

This system works for me and so I wanted to share it with you, maybe you'll give it a go and find it works for you too!

However you spend 2020, I hope it's a year filled with love, health and fun. Happy New Year!