Monday Night Burgers with Rosemary Roasted Beets and Pomegranate Almond Dressingless Salad

There are many reasons that I love my husband. But on this particular night, at the top of the list is the fact that he had this awesome meal ready and waiting for me when I got home from Church Council tonight.

Monday Night Burgers

Olive Oil
1 Pound Ground Beef
Salt and Pepper
2 Thick slices sweet onion
Lettuce
Tomato
Hamburger Bun
Dijon Mustard
Prepared Horseradish

The burgers couldn't have been simpler and so tasty after a hard workout followed by a long council meeting. Don cooked up the patties in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper. Then sauteed the onion rings in the same skillet after the patties were done cooking. We served on lightly toasted buns with lettuce, tomato, dijon mustard, and prepared horseradish for garnish.

Rosemary Roasted Beets

1 Red Beet, peeled, chopped, and stemps removed
Couple of sprigs of chopped rosemary
2 Cloves of Garlic Sliced
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

The roasted beats were all for me as Don will have no part of this vegetable. We are blessed to be in a marriage where neither of us are picky eaters and both excited about trying new things, but this singular produce item remains the one thing on his 100% boycott list. But we received one this week in our Organic Delivery so I was excited to try it out. I have never had a fresh farm to table red beet in my life, though we experimented with a couple of golden beets we received last winter. I was excited to see how different it was from the canned variety. Don simply tossed the beats together with fresh rosemary, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Then roasted in a baking dish on 400 degrees for 30 minutes. I loved them!

Pomegranate Almond Dressingless Salad

2/3 Bunch Green Leaf Lettuce, Torn into bite size pieces
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1/4 cup whole plain almonds

The salad perhaps was my favorite part. By the time I was done eating my burger and beets, I didn't feel like dirtying another bowl so I considered skipping the salad all together. However, as I was standing over the salad bowl, I reached in absent mindedly for a few bites and discovered that this salad needed new dressing. It was delicious as is. The fresh green leaf lettuce rapped easily around the pomegranate seeds and almonds for an easy appetizer finger food. The sweetness of the pomegranates combined with the crunch of the nuts, and the fresh earthy crispness of the lettuce were too good to be true. Before I knew it, I ended up eating a whole servings worth right out of the serving bowl and saved myself an extra dish to clean up.

Turkey Burgers with Grated Zucchini & Carrot

I sometimes like to sneak vegetables into my diet. Even though I know they're there, I feel so subversive, like I'm getting away with something. This recipe was once served to me by Camille and I just tried them on my very own for lunch today. Turkey burgers incorporate shredded zucchini and carrots with a little bit of egg for binding and dried thyme, salt, and pepper for a delicious seasoning. Be careful to cook all the way through. Keep the setting on medium and cook slowly about 5 minutes on each side until all traces of pink are gone. For a full printout of this recipe, please visit http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1617870. Even though our hamburger buns came from the freezer to Don's disdain, he still declared them "good stuff."

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!