Almond Flaxseed Burger from Thrive

I've been struggling to find a diet that is perfect for me, living quite a stressful life with a family with three kids and being a business owner for a +110 award-winning, high-prestige, video-games developer (Avalanche Studios). I've read many books and I shouldn't say my transition to a plant-based diet has been easy. I travel +100 days a year and it's very tempting, not going back to meat (never been a big fish or chicken guy anyways) necessary, but to eat vegan junk-food which is super-tasty but not very healthy. Also, I'm not getting younger and I need to get my lazy ass down in my basement gym and hit the weights and start riding my bike to work.

Anyways, long intro... I've read Brendan Braziers awesome book Thrive for the third time and the 1st of May will be the start of an attempt not only to get back into shape, but also to follow Brendan's 12-week meal plan - strictly.

Tonight we did this awesome raw Almond Flaxseed Burger with Sweet Pepper Hemp Pesto as I was trying out some recipes for next week. It's super tasty and by far one of the best raw food burgers I've tasted to date.

Ingredients - Burgers

2 Garlic Cloves

2.5 dl Almonds (I use Saltå Qvarn's as they are organic and great)

1.25 dl ground Flaxseeds (grind the seeds in a coffee grinder)

2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

2 tbsp Hemp Oil

Sea salt

Mix everything in a food processor and make two patties. Done!

Ingredients - Pesto

1 Garlic Clove

1 Red Bell Pepper (cored and seeded)

1.25 dl Fresh Basil

3 tbsp Nutritional Yeast and Sesame Seeds

2 tbsp Hemp Seeds (I use Renee Voltaires)

2 tbsp Hemp Oil

Sea salt

Mix everything in a food processor.

Serve with mixed greens.

Books for recipes and education

I obviously didn't learn everything I know in such a short time just by doing. I've read almost every vegan and vegetarian cookbook there is and almost every lifestyle "guide" on this topic. I've also read books about why you should eat meat and compared the two as I've been an extreme meat consumer for over 30 years.

These are my favorites and the arrangement does not reflect my opinion about each (it's more who kept still without falling down as I took the picture), but I have a few favorites. The authors of the books in the picture have been on a plant-based diet for a far longer time than I have an without their shared knowledge, I wouldn't be able to live how I live these days.

From left to right:

Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook by Kim Barnouin, The Candle Cafe Cookbook by Joy Pierson, Bart Potenza and Barbara Scott-Goodman, The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn, Meat is for Pussies by John Joseph, The Great American Detox Diet by Alexandra Jamieson, Peace, Love and Food by Renee Voltaire (In Swedish only), The Conscious Cook by Chef Tal Ronnen, The Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier, The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone, Skinny Bitch/Skinny Bastard by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, Superfoods by David Wolfe (not really a cookbook) and last Raw Food på Svenska (in Swedish) by Erica Palmcrantz.

Almost all these books are available through websites like Amazon, Bokus or just by looking up their various publishers.