Better than Boomers!

The Friday night dilemma reared it's ugly head and we were once again faced with the decision: to eat out, or not to eat out. Of course we're trying to save money like every other household, but with Boomer's Anniversary sale going on at only $2.98 a burger, we were sorely tempted to usurp our cooking duties and sneak out for a quick and tasty burger. Still, we already had ground turkey defrosted and the quality of ingredients plus the nutritional value of our home cooked and fresh farm laden foods prompted us to gird up our strength and get in the kitchen.

I set to work on a fresh Lemony Carrot Salad with Dill from EatingWell.com which afforded me the rare and fun opportunity to play with my Cuisinart. My Cuisinart has quickly become my preferred method for shredding root vegetables - four carrots in less than 30 seconds! Of course, if you want to burn the extra calories, be my guest and grate them by hand. The recipe combines shredded carrots, chopped scallions, fresh dill, and a refreshing vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. The simplicity of the salad is refreshing and the flavors marry well for a tasty cold treat. I can't wait to try the salad as a tapenade on some tuna melts later today as suggested on the website.

Meanwhile, Don set out to master our own gourmet burgers, another Eating Well Recipe called Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Burgers. For the full recipe, please visit their website. Here fresh ground turkey is combined with fresh chopped scallions, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, grated lemon zest, oregano, salt and pepper, and then stuffed with shredded part skim mozzarella cheese and fresh basil. The recipe recommends grilling, but Turkey is hard to hold together on a grill so we cooked in a cast iron skillet on the stovetop, about 5 minutes on each side to brown and then baked at 350 for another 10 minutes in the oven to be sure the thick turkey patties get cooked all the way through. The recipe is served bunless with a homemade marinara sauce of onions, garlic, fresh chopped tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, salt, pepper and, of course, more basil!

The awesome results were declared "definitely better than Boomers" and well worth the effort. We will likely make both recipes again, although I think the marinara sauce would greatly improve when tomatoes are more in season.

Bon Appetit!