Former Fat Guy Blog

Real People Real Results - Understanding how food, fitness and mental attitude affect weight loss

Featuring Black Bean Recipes

This week’s whole food recipe will be a compilation of various bean recipes Darlene has done over the past year. These recipes include black beans, red beans and garbanzo beans. Darlene is away showing her art this weekend, so I (Rob) will be posting on her behalf.

Being low on the , beans not only provide fiber to your diet, but also have very little, if any, impact on blood sugar.

not all protein is equal

Not All Protein Is Created Equal

Ounce for ounce, black beans provide the same amount of protein as ground beef, but have no saturated fat, no cholesterol and provide 9 grams of fiber. As well, 4 ounces of black beans are almost one third the calories as ground beef.

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Recipe: Ultimate Green Lentil Vegetable Burger

These lentil burgers with kale, walnuts and flax are a convenient food for us around our house. The flax seeds and kamut flour hold the burgers together without egg or other unhealthy options while kale is one of the you can eat. More often than not, we make a triple batch of these, cook them all and then store them to be re-heated later or used as the filler in a wrap along with avocado, fresh greens and Franks Red Hot sauce.

Each lentil burger is roughly 7.5 grams of fiber or more (depending on how much you use for each burger), so they are both filling and nutritious.

Ultimate Lentil Vegetable Burger

The Ultimate Green Lentil Vegetable Burger

1 Tbsp ground flax seeds
2 Tbsp
1/2 cup walnut pieces
3/4 cup cooked green lentils, well drained
1/4 cup grated onion
1/4 cup minced green kale
1/3 cup kamut flour
Celtic sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large blender, combine the flax seeds and Braggs, blending until viscous and then set aside.

In a food processor, pulse the walnuts to a coarse mixture. Add the lentils, onion, kale, kamut flour, flax mixture and the salt and pepper. Process until well combined but with some texture remaining. Shape the mixture into patties and place on a platter. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Have a cup of green tea.

Heat a small portion of coconut oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the patties, cook until browned on both sides – about 4 minutes per side.

Serve hot, or if you make a large amount, store them in a container in the fridge to be reheated later or to be used as filler in a veggie wrap.

We found that no oil is required in these lentil burgers lowering their fat content even further. 1 cup of cooked lentils has less than 1 gram of fat in it so the only fat in this recipe comes from natural sources, the walnuts and flax seeds, both a good source of essential omega fats.

Serve with steamed Swiss chard and a salad, to add even more of the desired greens into your menu plan. Pictured here is Quinoa Salad from a few weeks ago.

Subscribe to my recipes by email: Make sure you get my recipes emailed to you every weekend by subscribing to my recipe email service. Every weekend, one new whole food recipe posted for you to enjoy and then comment on.

Ultimate Green Lentil Vegetable Burger Photo Credit: Her View Photography

3 Weight Loss Tips

3 weight loss tips to help you improve your health, increase energy levels and have a good poo first thing in the morning. My buddy Dirk used to say “Rob – there’s nothing like a good crap first thing in the morning!” and I think most would agree.

I release 3 weight loss tips every Friday here on the blog (most weeks anyways) and I’m always on the lookout for a good tip. If you’ve got one that is healthy and natural, please leave a comment. I might use it in a future post.

3 Weight Loss Tips

breakfast muesli

Eat Breakfast

Eating breakfast increases your metabolism first thing in the morning as well as keeps the hunger gremlins at bay later in the day. If you skip breakfast, you’re more likely to be making up those calories with unhealthy choices later in the day.

by simply making a few changes to her diet and eating the breakfast I recommended was one of them. You can read about her experiences with it on her post .

For members of the National Weight Control Registry, eating breakfast is part of their success strategy. These successful weight loss champions made it a daily habit to eat breakfast and have maintained a 30 pound or more weight loss for at least a year and as long as 6 years.

Breakfast is the fuel that starts you day. With it, you’ve got the energy you need to provide clear thinking, normalize blood sugar levels and keeps you on track with your food program for the rest of the day.

If you’re not eating breakfast and still procrastinating about doing exercise, breakfast may very well be the thing that gives you the energy to get mobile.

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