Tuesday night Veggie burgers

I love veggie burgers, and my husband enjoys a good veggie burger but when I was asked what Tuesday nights meal was from Max (a very hungry almost 8 year old) I was greeted with "Wahhh mum, you know I'm a meat eater.....I NEED it to survive!"
After explaining that is good for the body to have other sources of protein in the diet, he looks at me like I have gone completely mad and comes out with "What are you trying to do to me? just PLEASEEEEE make beef burgers".
I stuck to my guns and promised he would love them--just wait and see (with that you know all I got was an eye roll and the longest face you've ever seen!).
I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed as my original recipe didn't really excite me anymore (I was in a peanut butter phase at the time). I had just finished a big day at work and needed to rush off to pilates within the hour but needed to get dinner on the go before I left. I have to confess I almost abandoned the burgers but then Nic asked earlier in the day if we could have the potato and lentil ones I made for a function last week as they smelt fantastic....
Great idea but I wasn't quite sure what I did? I know I pre cooked potatoes, peeled them and then re cooked them with oil infused with spices.
In the beginning it sounded like too much work (seriously, I was really tired) but decided while the pots were cooking the first time I'd get everything else ready so when I refried them with spices all I needed to do was throw it all together in the end.
Another way of saving time was to grate my veg (carrot, zucchini), shred a corn husk and add frozen peas (no effort at all!). By the time potatoes were ready and I had mushed them up a bit, heated the olive oil, added spices and onion I was ready to go with everything else. I placed all the raw veg in a big bowl, added my hot potato mix followed with a cup of drained lentils (from a tin), added an egg then mixed it all together.
The smell was wonderful and I was starting to get excited that it might actually work! Just before rushing out the door I crumbed the burgers so they would have a lovely crunchy coating of bread crumbs (always have some in the freezer) and also hoping this would entice the boys into thinking they were good enough to eat.
 Nic got home just as I needed to leave; something that happens way to often in our house lately so I yelled out directions on cooking and serving burgers while trying to find my yoga mat. With that done I left him to feed our hungry boys.
When I got home I was starving and looking forward to MY burger.
"How did the veggie burgers go down?" I asked
"Well Max ate all his, salad as well but made sure he told me it was ONLY because he was so hungry and we better be having meat tomorrow night". Alex ate half, decided that was enough and agreed with Max that it really isn't a burger if it doesn't have meat! (a classic really seeing as he doesn't even enjoy meat that much).
Ok so I didn't serve them in buns but I think they are still classified as a burger, it tasted delicious and to my surprise I did manage to make them in under an hour from scratch and that included crumbing them so I am going to work on this recipe and tweak it a bit more then swap it over....or dare I have two veggie burger recipes?