Imagine a toasty warm tortilla, smeared with garlicky hummus, filled with thinly sliced crispy, fresh cabbage, green bell pepper, carrot, cucumber, mushrooms, green onion, and a few black beans.  OH SO GOOD!

Charlie and I have had these crunchy veggie wraps for lunch three times this week.  They seriously ROCK!  You should have seen us.  Charlie was making grunting sounds as he ate his wraps.  I was doing a wiggle dance in my chair.  I haven't been this excited about lunch in a long time. And these wraps are very filling.  We had a late lunch today at 1:00 and I'm still full.  I didn't even get my usual 3 o'clock snack attack.  As I type this out, it's 5:30 p.m. I should be making dinner now but I'm not hungry enough to figure something out.  Yikes.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES FOR THESE GREAT WRAPS

• large flour tortillas
• Creamy good hummus
• carrot
• green bell pepper
• cucumber
• green onion
• mushrooms
• green cabbage leaves
• cooked black beans, rinsed

Heat a griddle over medium heat.  Julienne the carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, and green onion. Thinly slice the mushrooms. Roll up the cabbage leaves and thinly slice.

Toast one side of the flour tortilla(s) for 30 seconds or so.  Flip.  Smear the middle of the tortillas with a couple of tablespoons of hummus.  Lay the cut julienned vegetables parallel to each other in the center. Top with cabbage.  Add a tablespoon or two of black beans.  Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Carefully transfer the filled tortillas to a warm plate.  Roll up the tortilla tight and serve it up with extra hummus on the side for dipping.

After eating them the first time, I went back in the kitchen and cut more veggies for the next lunch rush.  It was a great help to have all the veggies prepared and ready to go the next day.  Give this lunch a run past your family and see what happens.  Then, come back and tell us all about it.

I tried out this vegetarian black bean burger recipe the other night and it was pretty darn tasty.  My husband and I really dig bean burgers especially when we're trying to eat lighter in the summer time.  The only thing I wish I had had on hand was whole wheat buns, they taste better with beans burgers.  Oh well, I had every other ingredient on hand so I shouldn't complain.  It was a filling dinner and no one missed the beef.

Oh, I should add that the next day, I ate the patties alone. (Even better tasting.)  It was one of those days when I ate and walked at the same time.  You get those days?

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 1 1/2  cups cooked quinoa
• 1 cup onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans or 1 (15-ounce) can, drained
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons dried steak seasoning
• 8 whole-wheat hamburger buns

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook onions and sun-dried tomatoes with their oil until onions are soften, about 4 minutes.  The oil coming off the tomatoes should be enough to coat the onions.  If not, add a smidgen more from the jar.

Add in 3/4 cup black beans, garlic, steak seasoning, and 3/4 cup water.  Simmer 5 to 7 minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated.  Move bean mixture to a food processor and add 3/4 cup cooked quinoa.  Process until smooth.  Move bean puree to a medium size mixing bowl.  Stir in the rest of the black beans and quinoa.  Season with salt and pepper to your taste, and allow to cool.

The bean mixture should be the consistency of wet cookie dough, firm enough to hold a ball shape in the bowl but wet enough to make a floppy, sticky patty.  I HIGHLY recommend using a 2-inch scooper or large serving spoon to measure out the dough.  An oily spatula will help press the dough ball into a half-inch thick patty.  It's too messy to try and use your hands. Trust me.

HEAT THE OVEN TO 350ºF.

Generously oil a good cookie sheet.  Scoop out 1/2 cup of bean mixture onto the cookie sheet.  Use an oiled spatula (rubbing the spatula on the cookie sheet will pick up enough oil) to pat down and shape the mixture into a 1/2-inch thick patty.  The patty won't spread, so it's okay to crowd the pan.

BAKE 15 minutes, carefully flip the patties and BAKE 10 MORE MINUTES.  The patties will be browned and crispy on the edges, firm and moist in the center.

Good condiments for these burgers are thinly sliced onions, lettuce, thinly sliced mushrooms, white mild cheese, mustard and mayo.

Try this vegetarian burger recipe out.  Tell me what you think.

Tried this for lunch, very nice, stuffed in a hot roll.  Bon appetit. - Laurie

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES

• 1 cup chopped cooked chicken
• ¼ cup finely chopped celery
• ¼ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped red onions
• 4 dinner rolls, partially split and heated up in the oven

Mix together the chicken, celery, salad dressing and onions.  Stuff the dinner rolls with chicken mixture

You can substitute lobster or 1 drained can chunk crabmeat for the chicken1 heaping tablespoon of sweet red pepper for the red onion.  Add 2 green onions chopped to replace the onions (must have onions).

This is one of those recipes that is born from leftovers, not one to be made from beginning to end.  That being said, I will share with you the ingredients and steps for slow cooking this pork loin in a crock pot. But first, I want to tell you the story behind this sandwich.

Last Fall, I got lined up with a farmer here in Sulphur Springs, Texas, who was trapping wild hogs on his land.  The farmer also happens to be a certified meat processor.  When I got the call that he had shot a small hog for me, all I had to do was tell him how I wanted it cut up.  Well folks, I'll tell ya, that was a first for me. My answer was, "uuuuhh..."

I quickly learned that telling him, "I'll take it in the form of ham and bacon", wasn't going to cut it.  (No pun intended.)  There were all the other parts that had to be considered.  I could have ham steaks, ribs, backstrap loins, pork chops...  Did I want the whole hog ground up unseasoned or made into breakfast sausage?
Oh and just so you know.  There's no bacon on wild hogs.  Wild hogs are lean and healthy animals that graze on vegetation, wild fruits and tree nuts.  They're not fat enough to have bacon.

And having a ham required knowing someone with a proper smoke house.  I learned there's a Mennonite community in the next town South of here that smoke meats, but I would have to bring them the meats.  I, also, learned they make rockin' butter.  Maybe next time.

When all the answers look good, choose 'D' for All of the above.  I told the farmer to give me parts I can grill and grind the rest half unseasoned and half into sausage.  That answer worked out for us very well.  It's Summer time now as I write this and we have plenty of pork still left in the freezer.  I'm thankful that it was a smaller than average hog or it would have taken up too much room in my freezer.

When I went to pick up the pork, the farmer was quick to advise me to cook all my lean cuts slowly and in some sort of liquid.  Because grass-fed, naturally raised meats are extremely lean, there's not enough fat in the muscle to ensure tenderness during the cooking process.  Crock pots or slow cookers were idea for tenderizing the larger cuts, so said the farmer.

Speed time up to last week.

So last week, I caught a show on the cooking channel called Drink Up.  This one episode was all about beer; drinking it, pairing it with food and cooking with it.  I watched this dude named, Justin Philips, from the Beer Table restaurant in Brooklyn, NY, cook up a hunk a beef with fennel and onions and roasted it in an I.P.A. (India Pale Ale).  I could almost smell it through the television.  I knew right away what I was going to do with that backstrap pork loin in my freezer.

HERE'S WHAT I DID FIRST

• 2-pounds lean pork loin
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 1 (12-ounce) bottle India Pale Ale or a darker beer (I had a Shiner Bock sitting on the frig door waiting for a purpose.)

I layered the bottom of the slow cooker with half of the onions, pork loin on top, covered the loin with the remaining onions.  Poured the entire bottle of Shiner, minus one swig, in the slow cooker.  Covered and cooked on low heat for 6 1/2 hours.  Removed the meat from the broth.  Allowed it to cool enough for me to handle, then divided it for two dinners.

Let me tell you something.  The aroma of meat, onions, and beer cooking together was enough to make me wanna slap my momma for not ever cooking like this.  It's the truth!

The first night, we ate the pork & onions straight up with a side of mashed potatoes, fried green tomatoes, buttermilk biscuits (leftover from breakfast) and fresh blackberry cobbler.  I couldn't get enough of that meaty broth seeping into my mashed potatoes, then dipping my biscuit right into the soupy broth.  There's nothing better in life than country-style victuals.

The next day, I knew I wanted barbecue pork sandwiches for dinner.  But first, I was going to need some seriously good barbecue sauce to pour over this seriously wonderful pork.  Using a store bought name brand would have been a shameful way to finish it off.  I couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle.  I had to make a batch of barbecue sauce from scratch.  So, I got out my trusty grilling cookbook, Barbecue Bible Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes, and went to work.

Go to the following link to read how I made the barbecue sauce recipe.

• A Manly Barbecue Sauce – It’ll Put Hair On Your Chest

I had about 8 sandwiches-worth of shredded pork.  Eyeing it, I'd say about 3 cups shredded pork.

HERE'S WHAT I DID AFTER MAKING THE SAUCE

• 3 cups, approximately, shredded pork
• 2 cups thick barbecue sauce
• 1/3 cup water

Put the shredded pork, sauce and water in the slow cooker on high heat for 45 minutes to 1-hour.  I could have warmed it in a saucepan on low heat, but then I would have had to stir it occasionally and keep watch over it.  I didn't want to do that, I had something else to do in that time.

I served these barbecue sandwiches with store bought buns, home made bread-n-butter pickles and GMO tator-chips.  For those keeping track of home grown goods verses store bought processed goods, yeah, I almost had it all from scratch.  Oh well, better planning next time.

If you can find yourself a farmer friend or hunter to score you some fresh wild game, make them your closest friend.  It's worth your money and your health to eat lean, naturally fed meats.  After you've tasted the clean and lean difference, you'll only be sorry that your freezer's not bigger.

Back in the years of living single & carefree, I had a Summer when I barely had enough money to buy eggs, bread, and a few vegetables.  And somehow, I look back on that time as the best time of my single life. Anyhoo.

Remember when I shared the Cheesey Zucchini and Squash recipe and told you that I would eat cheesey zucchini & squash when I grew tired of egg salad sandwiches?  Well here's the egg salad sandwich recipe I lived on.  I decided to call it Deviled Egg Sandwiches because I flavored the egg salad in the same way I enjoy deviled eggs.

HERE'S ALL IT TAKES
to make 1 Simple Sandwich