Greek Turkey Burgers

So the meal plan is going really well. I've had to play shuffle with the schedule a couple of times due to our crazy schedules, but we're right on track.

I did have a small issue with my tomatoes (wherein one of them apparently caught the plague and was trying to give it to the others), but I salvaged them...save the instigator. The rest of the produce is doing awesome. I'm slated to chop up my peppers for freezing this week. FYI...I only recommend doing that on those peppers that you will be using in a cooked fashion...ie. those where crunch doesn't so much matter.

Our first meal on the meal plan was Greek Turkey Burgers. Not only are these pretty stinking easy to make, they're also pretty good for you, all things considered. The burgers themselves come in at just over 250 calories each. Plus they pack a whopping 30.2g of protein. This is one of the recipes that Collin & I used back when we were torturing ourselves with the Insanity workout. (As a side note, I could really stand to get back on that. Soon.) The original recipe came from SparkRecipes, but I've slightly modified it.

You can't tell me this doesn't look pretty good.

The first time I made these last year, I made the mistake of failing to PAY ATTENTION. I misread the recipe and dumped in 1 tablespoon of oregano instead of 1 teaspoon. Not horrible, but not the best idea ever. This time I got it right and they were awesome.

Here's what you'll need :

4 Hamburger Buns
1 large tomato (or 2 Roma tomatoes)
Leaf lettuce
1 lb. ground turkey (93% lean for the calories listed above)
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg
1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried mint)
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray...don't forget this. It's critical. Trust me.

Mix the turkey, bread crumbs, feta, egg, mint, oregano and black pepper in a bowl. Divide the mixture into 4 even portions and shape into patties. Place patties in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

While the patties are setting, spray the grill rack with cooking spray. Failure to do this will result in turkey burger nuggets and a very dirty grill. Heat the grill to medium heat. Don't overheat the grill or you will have very quick charcoal briquettes.

Pull the patties out of the fridge and place a dimple in the center of each one with your thumb. This will keep from getting a big bubble in the center of the burger as it cooks.

You can still kind of see the dimple. I am sometimes slightly aggressive.

Cook the burgers for 5 minutes on each side. Don't flip more than once or you'll end up with a dry burger. Serve on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato and desired condiments.

Pretty easy right? I'm all about the easy in this meal plan. The meals that I have planned for the week nights (other than Friday) are all typically fairly straight forward. With the exception of the CrockPot meals, I tried to keep all of my working weekday meals to a maximum of 1 hour prep time. Because let's be honest...I don't want to be in the kitchen all night after work and if it doesn't get ready fairly quickly I'm just going to end up snacking on something else.

Just Not Feeling It...

I had a really nice Memorial Day weekend doing virtually nothing. It was nice to relax for once. But now I'm finding that it's a little tough to get back in the swing of things. I had big intentions today. Not only was I going to put up a "real" post, but I was going to prep a couple more for the rest of the week.

Instead, I spent my lunch hour making cookies so that the ricotta wouldn't go to waste and now I'm slugging around at my computer. I've decided that the biggest issue is really a lack of a laptop. I find the urge to write all the time, but by the time I drag myself upstairs and sit down at the desk, I just don't feel like it anymore. It's sad, but true.

I'm going to make an effort later this week, but for now I'm going to indulge myself and bail on the post I had planned. Instead, I'm going to go check out some Pinterest and then go read for a while before bed. Collin will be home from shift tomorrow and if I'm lucky he'll leave the laptop at home for me to use during the remaining part of the week.

I hope you all had as much of a relaxing weekend as I did!

Darian's BOTY: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Darian has gotten himself ungrounded from the blog and is working to catch up on his book reviews. Since I have yet to be able to catch up on mine, I'm taking advantage and using his posts to plug some holes. I'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another post by soon-to-be 10 year old Darian. As a reminder, all of the words from this point forward are his - I am merely his stenographer...

The Call of the Wild by Jack London is about a dog named Buck who is transformed when he becomes a sled dog in Alaska. Buck faces many hardships and tragedies, such as being kidnapped. This will bring you through the harsh coldness of Alaska and some of Buck's life.

The genre of this book is realistic fiction. I gave this book 5 stars because it was an awesome book. I liked everything about this book. What made this a really good book was how it was put together and put in order. It felt like it had really happened. Another reason why I really liked it was because it just drags you in and makes you feel like you're sad for Buck and at some times you felt happy for Buck.

This book was so good that there wasn't anything that I didn't like about it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes survival stories.

This is my ninth book of the year. See you next post!