Blue Cheese Burgers {Light and OMG delish}

Ok, so we need to catch up. Here's what you missed:

Major presentation in which I worked 40 hours over the course of 3 1/2 days - whew! and wahoo! at the same time

Went out of town

Got a sunburn

Ate 6 cookies on Memorial Day

Baby E got a tummy bug

I got a tummy bug

Fever

Lost 3 pounds - hooray!

Got better

Taught classes

Endured 2 major temper trantrums (Baby E, not me), 1 cranky Ad Man as a result

2 Birthday parties for 2 year olds

And that brings us to the Blue Cheese Burger

So, Ad Man and I usually cook a fun dinner on Saturday or Sunday each weekend. It is sort of our thing. We used to cook like crazy before Baby E was born. We'd go to Central Market and spend way too much money buying ingredients for an elaborate dinner for two. Then we'd drink too much and leave a messy kitchen to clean up the next morning.

Well, we still mostly do the same thing, but only once per week.

This Sunday, we cooked up Blue Cheese Burgers and wowza were they amazing. I took a very scary, unhealthy recipe and gave it a quick makeover. It still tasted divine, but without all the guilt!

Better Blue Burger


Ingredients
4 ounces of low-fat or fat free blue cheese (crumbled)
4 ounces of light or fat free cream cheese
sliced tomatoes
Sweet vidalia onion sliced
ground lean (or extra lean) turkey
Wheat sandwich thins

Combine blue cheese and cream cheese. Beat with hand mixer until combined. Set aside to let the flavors marry. Form your turkey burger and season with salt and pepper to taste. Grill until juices no longer run pink. While the burger is grilling, saute the onion with a splash of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

To assemble your burger, put the cooked burger on one half of the sandwich thin, then scoop a dollop of the blue cheese mixture and then top with onions and a tomato. And serve with fruit. Who needs fries or a creamy salad.

This recipe was inspired by Food.com's 10 Killer Burgers Article: http://www.food.com/slideshow/10-killer-burgers-37?nl=RZ-053111-eaters-digest__main-link-url-2

The makeover burger is roughly 300 calories, while the original packs over 800 calories. Whew!

And I wish I had taken a pic of the finished burger. It was to die for. It might not have been super pretty, but man was it out of this world. So rich I couldn't even finish it!

Oh and Ad Man opted for angus beef vs. the turkey burger. And he used a regular bun. Hey you can't win 'em all!

Grill Baby - Yummy (and easy) Recipes to Try Today!

Texas heat. It's here!

And you know what that means, right? Yes, it means 100+ degree days and feeling like you need a shower every time you leave your house. But it also means that the grill is heating up, too.

So, ok, Ad Man is a brilliant griller. He takes pride in this cooking method in particular and ends up cooking most meals on the weekends. Which, I L-O-V-E for two reasons: 1) becuase the food is damn good and 2) because I can just handle sides (which I am best at anyway). I think a lot of men are big grillers. It's like a primal instinct. "Me man. Me cook meat on grill. You woman. You gather side dishes." [Insert grunting and chest pounding here].


No but seriously, there is major pride in preparing great grilled food. And I'll brag that Ad Man is the best!


But grill masters, you CAN eat healthy! You don't need oodles of sugary bbq sauces, oils and creamy side dishes. Grilling is inherently healthy since there aren't generally lots of oils needed for cooking. Here are some healthy grilling recipes that are tried and true at our house:


Chicken Skewers
Easy-peasy. Grab just about any veggie and cut into one inch pieces.  Onions, bell peppers, squash and zucchini work perfectly. Then cut up raw chicken into 1 inch cubes. String the veggies and chicken onto metal or wooden skewers. Ad Man usually marinades the skewers in a zip-loc filled with light soy sauce and a dash of olive oil. Then before he grills, he spices it up with black pepper, garlic powder and a little salt. Grill those babies until the chicken is no longer pink. Then serve over brown rice.


The beauty of this dish? You can marinade in whatever you want! Lime juice and honey. Olive oil and rosemary. Salsa. You name it!


And you don't even have to use meat! Add some pineapple on there and make it a veggie/fruit skewer!


Cedar Plank Salmon
Ok, so this is my all-time fave meal. You can buy these cute little cedar planks at Bed, Bath and Beyond (or other places I'm sure). You just season a piece of salmon with olive oil, lemon and rosemary sprigs (we have rosemary growing in our garden, so fresh is easy for us!) Then put the fish on the cedar plank on the grill. Grill until desired doneness. I like salmon either raw (sushi) or fully cooked, but many eat it medium.


Serve with grilled veggies or brown rice.


Spicy Turkey burgers
If you know me well, you know that I go Ca-Razy for turkey burgers. It's perhaps one of my favorite meals ever. Eating turkey burgers at restaurants can be really misleading in the "healthy for you" department, unfortunately. The meat can be really fatty or prepared with lots of oils, so make sure you know the preparation details before you order it at a restaurant. Anyway, ok, so to make it at home we get extra lean ground turkey (I like Jennie O).

Moosh up the raw ground turkey with chopped onion, garlic, cilantro and a little taco seasoning. Grill it until no longer pink. I use Thomas' whole wheat bagel thins or wheat sandwich thins to cut out on calories vs. a regular bun. Top your burger with avocado, ketchup (sans high fructose corn syrup, which is one of my pet peeves) and lettuce, tomatoes and onion. I always opt for no cheese since for me it doesn't add that much extra to warrant the extra calories and fat.


Serve with fruit. Delish!


If you find that your turkey burgers are on the dry side, try adding a little Worcestershire sauce and/or a light bbq sauce when you smoosh everything together. 


A hot grilling app

Ad Man just showed me the best free app on the iPad & iPhone - The "Weber's On the Grill" app.
It has lots of recipes (which you can sort by meat), cooking times, prep tips, grilling tips, grill timer and a grocery list tool. Pretty fabulous!


There are some great recipes that you should try
(I found a few that look healthy):

1) Chicken Breasts with Citrus-Avocado Salsa
2) Kingston Jerk Chicken (just don't eat the chicken skin!)
3) Herb-Crusted Salmon with Lentil Salad
(just use light soy sauce and cut the olive oil in half. You will still have good results!)


I think Ad Man had better cook me up some this weekend!


Nakedly Yours,
M