Lamb Burger with Greek Yogurt Dressing

I've been buggin' my friend and fellow blogger, Tony, for months now to share one of his delicious and inventive recipes! He'll describe his lasted dish in which I wipe up my drool and follow up with a "Tony, when are you going to send me this recipe for my blog?" Atlas, I am thrilled to feature one of Tony's yummy creations on my site. He is a gifted technological guru who's digital presence has thrived over the past years and has been an huge inspiration to my own blog. Check out his impressive website, Sheckiiville, and Twitter!

This lamb burger is as delicious as it is healthy and I'm about to grill up a few up this Memorial Day (FYI: Tony just informed me that if you're going to grill these, add some bread crumbs to the mixture for more patty firmness!) 

Thank you so much Tony and enjoy everyone!

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Recipe for Summer Burger with Greek Yogurt Dressing

Patty

Ground lamb

Red onions, diced

“Greek seasoning” (garlic, onion, black pepper, oregano, mustard powder, thyme)

Ground Cayenne red pepper

Fresh garlic, chopped finely

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

(Optional)

Red pepper, diced

Ground pork

Dressing

Greek yogurt

Whipped cream cheese

Cucumber, diced

Tomatoes, diced

Cantaloupe, diced

Lemon juice

Lemon zest

Before I start explaining the recipe, here are some pressure points:

·        Dressing needs to be in fridge immediately after mixing the ingredients. The burger’s temperature will make the mixture runny — and a thick, rich dressing is better.  

·        Most people under season. Also, if you have never cooked with lamb, it reacts to seasoning different from beef. So, a pinky nail-sized test meatball is recommended.

·        When cooked, the patty’s circumference will shrink, while the thickness will increase. Keep that in mind and form accordingly to bun size.

Start with the patty mixture using a 3:1 lamb to pork ratio. The pork is optional, but a 100-percent lamb burger doesn’t taste right to me. For this recipe, make it a total 16 ounces (ie: 16 ounces of lamb or 12 ounces of lamb and 4 ounces of pork).

Dice up about a fourth of a medium sized red onion. The red pepper is optional, but I think that spice adds a very interesting taste profile with the dressing. Mix that into the patty mixture.

I’m a huge believer in season it to your pleasing, so please forgive me if you hate those type of cooks. I added a 1/4 cup of the Greek seasoning, and two cloves of finely diced garlic.

(I bought a premix named “Greek seasoning.” I’ve listed what was in the ingredients at the top.)

For the olive oil and cayenne pepper, I mix those in a small bowl together. After dividing the patties into equal amounts (I made six burgers from that 16-ounce mix), I rolled each of the meatball-shaped portions into the mix, generously coating it. Then, I formed each burger patty.

Notice I haven’t added salt and pepper yet. I adjust accordingly after the taste meatball.

After you’re please with the mix, put it into the fridge, patties fully formed and ready to cook. Let it chill there for about 30 minutes.

Now work on the dressing, but add in the Greek yogurt last.

Dice equal amounts of cucumber, tomatoes and cantaloupe. Even if you don’t like one or two of those ingredients separately, an equal combination of those together brings a lovely mix and texture.

The great thing about this dressing is that you could eat it as a desert, too — so dice a generous amount. The highlight of this burger is this dressing!

Combine it with the Greek yogurt and mix. Add in a small amount of lemon juice. Then, put it back into the fridge.

After the patties have been set for about 30 minutes, cook it on a pan on medium heat.

Because it’s a summery burger, I don’t like to toast my buns with salt, butter, mayo or anything. Like stated above, the dressing should be the highlight! Still, a light toast is recommended.

Take out the dressing from the fridge and put a light coat on the bottom bun. Put the patty on the bottom bun, put more dressing on it and generously sprinkle the lemon zest. You’ll love the scent!

I’d recommend serving this with apple fries (still working on a good recipe for this) with a whipped cream and whipped cream cheese mix (whipped cream cheese alone is pretty dense). Or a nice baby greens salad mix with a mango ginger vinaigrette.

Banana Nut Breakfast Cookies

What if I said that you could have cookies for breakfast? Delicious cookies. For breakfast. Can you contain your excitement? I can't. What if I told you that these cookies are also healthy? Hallelujah, it's like every childhood dream that followed us into adulthood has come true.

I saw this recipe in my May issue of Fitness Magazine. After seening the words "breakfast" and "cookies", somehow the the oven was magically turned on and set at 350. They're full of fiber, iron and yumminess. A perfect start to any day. Here's the recipe:

I slightly tweaked the recipe and used two banana vs. one (more bananas = more fun) and Stevia over honey--- sadly, honey wasn't home. These cookies are  >150 calories a piece according to the recipe but will be more or less depending on how big or small you want them.

Step 1.

Ground 1 cup of ground oats in a food processor.

Ground walnuts and flax seed.

Step 2.

Mix all of the ingredients together and mash the bananas (isn't this a line from a kid's song? mash bananas, mash mash bananas, go bananas, go go bananas--- any one?)

Step 3.

Place on a well butter sprayed cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Step 4.

Let cool and eat! You have permission to enjoy these outside of breakfast.

       

Ander's Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

My downfall is sweets especially chocolate. If it's covered in chocolate, it seems to quietly speak to me in a tongue that only my stomach can understand. Knowing my downfall, I've substituted healthier alternatives into my baking. Baking has also given me a greater respect for skinny chefs; somehow when I bake, there's always more broken cookies than whole and the perfectionist in me can't serve cookie halves (so they find their way into my stomach). Oh well.

I had the opportunity to bake for my graduate class, I was excited to produce healthy cookies that tasted far from healthy. A few tweaks in the ingredients and I was able to create ooey-gooey chocolate chip cookies that wouldn't take tolls on waistlines.

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What you'll need:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 

1 cup whole-wheat flour

5 teaspoons water (to balance out whole-wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon liquid Stevia (or 3/4 cup sugar)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used minis for a bigger chocolate punch)

Yields about 3 dozen (depending on cookie size) 
with less than 90 calories a cookie!

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350.

Add dry (minus chips) ingredients in a large bowl and wet ingredients in seperate large bowl.

Mix both bowls well.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet (add half, mix well, then add the rest).

Add chips!

Try not to eat all the dough (this is the toughest part).

Spoon (about an inch or two apart) onto a well-butter sprayed cookie pan lined with aluminum foil for easy clean up.

And bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool, pair with almond milk and enjoy!

I think they were a hit with my class (the 2 lone cookies were #proof of success). They couldn't believe they were healthy and I was proud to show how healthy can be delicious!

What healthy substitutes do you use while baking or cooking?