This weekend was all about amusement.
Saturday night brought the demolition derby type of amusement, complete with mullet-sporting spectators, loud cars, lots of mud, and my 9-year-old thrilled to pieces over some car with the word “renegade” spray-painted on the side.
And then on Sunday there was this:
Soooooooo many rollercoasters. I am a thrill-ride junkie. I love love LOVE a rollercoaster. It’s been a few years since we’ve made it over to Paramount’s Carowinds (which is, like everything else in the civilized world, about an hour from here) because it is usually pretty pricey, the heat is unbearable, and the lines are way too long. But! Our dear friend Pat, who is too adorable to even try to put into words, really wanted the boys to do something fun this summer – her treat. We waited until the summer was hanging on by a thread and picked yesterday to indulge in all things too fast, too high, and too much fun.
Armed with a 12-pack of Coca-Cola, a pile of peanut butter sandwiches, and a box of those chocolate Hostess cupcakes with the curly-cues across the top, we made our way to the amusement park, dead-set in our rain or shine mentality. It was a torrential downpour all the way up the road… I was beginning to fear I’d have to placate the children with a movie I couldn’t bear to sit through (to give you a good idea of what I mean, Evan thinks that Air Bud makes for quality viewing material). But when we pulled into the park the downpour turned to drizzle and eventually just… stopped.
As a result of our fearless drive through the hurricane-force sheets of rain, we were able to ride every rollercoaster in the park at least TWICE without waiting in one single line all day. That was a very sweet gamble.
So it’s been a few years since I’ve been on a rollercoaster, and though I am ever unafraid, I have to admit that the Intimidator rattled me. It was the first stop of the day because we just knew that bananas long lines would happen at any minute. Rather than work our way up to the tallest, fastest, longest coaster in the southeast, we just jumped in with both feet. Eyes wide open.
There are no shoulder harnesses. YIKES.
But ohhhh so worth the scary.
Chad, my little brother, and I spent a good chunk of the day convincing the children to get on rides they had dubbed “too high” or “too scary”. Evan quickly established that his comfort zone involves lap belts and hills, but absolutely no loops. He actually buried his face in his hands on his first go of the Goldrusher, a train ride I very affectionately remember riding with my parents when I was very super small. Five I think.
Andrew totally resisted his status as son of a thrill-seeker until …he didn’t. When he finally got it, he was all-in. You have never seen a kid more excited or more fueled by pure happy adrenaline than mine after his third trip round on the scariest rollercoaster I’ve ever ridden.
Heart-warmingly adorable.
The only thing we didn’t do yesterday is eat greasy amusement park food. We by-passed every steak ‘n’ hoagie, every single cheeseburger. We did not eat even one giant soft pretzel. There were no $7 Dippin Dots or $9 soft drinks in fancy souvenir cups. Halfway through the day we marched out to the parking lot, ate our picnic lunch, and marched right back in. That’s not to say I wasn’t totally enticed by the smells of Cinnabon wafting past, but I’m the mom that brings a purse full of candy to the movie theater. And I’m okay with that.
I did, however, bring thoughts of fair-like food home with me. So I indulged today, but I healthed it up a pretty good bit.
These Cheesy BBQ Veggie Sliders are HANDS-DOWN the best veggie burgers I’ve ever had. What’s better is that they’re itty bitty, so you can have two.
Cleverly smashed into these lovely little sliders are chick peas, black beans, carrots, spinach, caramelized onions, cheese, and BBQ sauce. Ohhhhhh yeah.
Topping these with more cheese was an important decision. In my opinion, there is no such thing as too much cheese.
More veggies on top of the unreasonable amount of cheese.
If they had sold these tiny veggie burgers at Carowinds, I might have been tempted to splurge. But I think I’m glad I waited to gorge myself on park-ish food today, in the comfort of my own home, where Chad is the only person that might point and laugh if I smear BBQ sauce on my face.
- ¼ cup red onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- just a dab of butter
- a pinch of kosher salt
- 15-16 ounces of cooked, drained, and rinsed garbanzo beans, black beans, or a combination of both (see note at the bottom)
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- ½ cup cooked greens — spinach or kale both work well, OR you can use thawed frozen spinach- just be sure to squeeze allll the water out
- ½ cup grated Colby jack cheese (or whatever your preference)
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet & Spicy)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- a dash of onion powder
- 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- More cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and BBQ sauce for topping the finished sliders
- 8 whole wheat dinner rolls
- Place the red onion, olive oil, butter, and kosher salt in a small saute pan over medium heat. Caramelize the onion, stirring it around in the butter and oil occasionally. This should only take a few minutes.
- Put the beans in a large bowl and start smashing them with the back of a fork. You could use a food processor.
- Add the grated carrots, greens, and cheese.
- Add the onions, BBQ sauce, honey, pepper, paprika, and onion powder.
- Keep using the fork to combine all the ingredients evenly. Then mix in the flour.
- Form the mixture into 8 equal-sized patties.
- Refrigerate them for 30 minutes (this just makes them easier to handle- it’s not completely necessary).
- Heat a large skillet on medium high. Coat with just a dab of oil or non-stick cooking spray and add the patties just a few at a time so you have room to flip them (they will be a little bit soft; I like to cook 3 at a time so that there is room for my spatula in the skillet).
- Cook them for about 3 minutes on each side – you’re just browning them and trying to heat them through.
- Slice the whole wheat dinner rolls in half, burger-bun-style. Drizzle a little more BBQ sauce onto the bottom half of each mini bun, Place the cooked veggie sliders on top of the BBQ sauce. Then top them with cheese while they’re still HOT! so it will melt.
- Stack each slider with lettuce, tomato, and red onion slices, finishing with the top half of the bun. You can hold them together using frill picks if you’d like.
From THIS recipe at How Sweet It Is
I will be trying these very soon. Don’t know if my hubby will even try one, but we’ll cross that road later – LOL!
These are so so so good! Chad is a meat and potatoes man – he’s not a picky eater but his favorite meal includes a Triple Whopper with Cheese – and he loved these. I made the burgers for dinner, we had leftovers for lunch last week and then yesterday he and I ate these sliders. They are really easy, full of veggies, tasty and awesome! Lemme know how it goes! And if you’re left with lots of veggie burgers that no one will eat but you, just go on and cook them in the skillet, wrap them tightly in plastic, and freeze for later.
Props to Evan and Andrew for getting wild at the amusement park!!! I wasn’t as brave as them when I was their age haha I can’t believe you went to that park and avoided all that temptation that is freaking awesome!!! Honestly if my Mom had Hostess cupcakes in the car I’d pick those over a cinnabon anyday too hahaha I literally LOL’ed when you said ‘I’m the mom that brings a purse full of candy to the movie theater. And I’m okay with that.’ Hey..if you actually buy candy at the movie theater in this day and age there’s something wrong with you…especially when you can get that sh*t for a $1 at the gas station next door lol I’m the same way!! I bring drinks too! It just made me laugh when you were like, ‘I’m okay with that’ lol Anyhow, I love rollercoasters too, although now I’m getting too old where they would hurt my hips…too much shaking haha I haven’t been on one of those in probably 10 years…maybe more, but I used to love the feeling of my stomach dropping as we plummeted to the ground haha I’m glad you guys had fun!! I just ate a veggie burger…these look MUCH better than the one I ate lol YUM!!!!
Okay, so I’m older than you and I rode everything. Also my mom has been on all of these rides in the last year or so, so throw that age disclaimer right out the window. I love roller coasters!!!!! I was sooo proud of the boys conquering their fears. Andrew was ALL IN. So cute. I bring drinks to the movies, too lol. And sometimes we pop popcorn at home and put it in sandwich baggies! Last time Chad and I took JUST EVAN to the movies it was $38. If I didn’t smuggle food it would have been well over $50! I’m the oldest of 5 kids, my mom always had a huge purse, and she always took candy to the movies. Raisinets. Ohhh yeah.
the cinema is soooooo espensive! When I was little, we always used to take our own sweets (are raisinets the same as poppets – chocolate covered raisins? If they are, that’s what we always had too! I am so not a popcorn girl!) Now, I don’t take sweets, but that’s because the cinema has become my excuse to splurge on a haagen daazs/ben and jerries (depending on the cinema) – and I wouldn’t want that melting all over my bag before I got in there!
Ummm… are you trying to tell me that you can have Ben& Jerry’s at the theater?! Like you can buy it there?! (btw it thrills me to pieces that two ice cream making hippies from Vermont are popular over seas) If I could have Chubby Hubby at the movies I wouldn’t sneak sweets in either! And yes, Raisinets are chocolate covered raisins… poppet might be a more fun word, though.
YES – are you trying to tell me that you don’t get ice cream at the cinema there?! In England, it’s entirely normal (expected in fact – I’d be outraged to get to a cinema and find it were not the case!) to have an ice cream ‘bar’ with either B & J’s or HD diff flavours, sprinkles, tubs, cones, nuts, choc/caramel sauce etc. etc. Here, it’s not quite that good, but they do at least sell the tubs of B & Js (I didn’t know that was who Ben and Jerry were – I love that too!) I also completely love that chocolate covered raisins (by whichever name, though I agree, poppets is better!) are a commonplace cinema snack everywhere!
I love raisinets…but I was always a JuJu Fruits kind of girl…ever since I saw Elaine eat them in Seinfeld I have loved them ever since haha Oh and for the record…you’re barely older than me! And you’re a lot smaller than me!!! It’s like a feather floating on a roller coaster!!! haha Big fat hips hit hard as sh*t lol Case dismissed!!!!!! lol Movies are so crazy expensive, I think on Tuesdays they’re only $5 or something like that, but nothing worth seeing in the theaters…I’m totally waiting for Breaking Dawn part 2…love that movie!!!!
That roller coaster looks so hectic!
Loving it! And your veggie sliders are delicious!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
It was hectic! Insanely so.
So glad you had a great day. It sounds like it was the perfect combination. Thrilling rides, perfect temperature, and NO LINES! Spencer will want these burgers. I just know it!
We had such a blast! Spencer will love these burgers – you’ll like them, too. The BBQ sauce makes them awesome.
Nom nom nom, I love veggie burgers. Once you slather them with cheese and ketchup, it tastes just like the real thing, mostly
The super great thing about these veggie burgers is that there was so much flavor I didn’t feel like I needed to disguise anything with cheese or ketchup. They were really good.
Mmmmm…I can’t wait to make these!
I can’t wait to make these again! My family is gonna be soooo over veggie burgers.
Great idea Heather! Hadn’t thought about freezing them. Darrell is pretty much meat and potatoes too and a pretty picky eater on top of that. He isn’t at all adventurous about trying new things. I will definitely make them though as I’ve been wanting a good veggie burger recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out
.
thsi looks like such a fun weekend!! Brilliant! good on the boys for getting on the roller coasters – and for you (I’m sure it was *such* a chore for you!!) I love a good roller coaster – loop the loops and up and down, I’m a scaredy cat all the way up, but once I’m on I LOVE it! We have planned to get to the theme park here before rain and cold set in, but money is getting in the way right now! fingers crossed! Glad you had a good time aaaaaaaaand post park burgers look yum (minus the cheese – you’ll never convince me of that one!) I keep saying I’m going to try and make a veggie burger for us to try, if I can hunt down some black beans, this one’s a goer!
So on the coaster pictured here, there are 4 seats per car. Two are close together in a pair and two are far apart, so you are arms length from your riding buddy which is basically like riding alone. Chad and I were side by side on our first run. That first hill is frightening, but he could hold my hand. On our second go we accidentally got into the far-away-seat spot, and didn’t realize it till we had to strap in and go. I was soooo freaked out going up that hill. Yeesh!
On a veggie burger note, I will gladly have your share of the cheese. And if you can’t find black beans, make this with all chick peas! They are really good.
Ok, I will update you when I make them (this may take me a while, I’m insanely crap at getting round to new recipes! But I am going to do it!) On a roller coaster note – I would have been scared out of my mind to be sat on my own too! Don’t make that mistake again, but extra bravery points for doing it (however unintentional!)
I am obsessed with these veggie burgers!!! I’m tempted to try them with partial meat (like ground pork or beef with all of your yummy ingredients). Mmmmm! And I can totally try these on my gluten-free bread (score!).
Let me know how they turn out! Especially if you incorporate a bit of meat? I’m interested in how that might be!
Pingback: » Baked Cheesy Mustard & Sweet Onion Fries
Pingback: Crispy Baked Green Bean Fries | Sugar Dish Me
I’m wondering if these are doable minus the cheese? I can’t eat dairy because my skin breaks out (TMI? Sorry). But I love veggie burgers!
Hahahhaa not TMI. You could totally make these sans the cheese. They are HANDS DOWN my favorite veggie burgers ever. The BBQ sauce + little bit of flour helps them stick together. And I substitute all kindsa things for the greens. Broccoli works. The other day I used shredded zucchini. It’s a really great base recipe and I love that they don’t require an egg like so many veggie burger recipes do… I always worry about the middle being cooked through when the recipe calls for eggs. Anyway- totally flexible recipe, totally would work without the cheese. Lemme know how it goes!