I really, really hated hamburgers as a kid. I can count the number of burgers I ate as a kid on one hand. They were flavorless, dry hunks of mealy yuck and I never understood why anyone liked them so much. Even though I used to be a vegetarian, and even now I only eat red meat a few times a year, I find myself craving a burger every now and then despite thinking they were gross. It was probably just the anemia rearing its ugly head. So, imagine my surprise when I had my first burger in 20 years when I was pregnant with my first child and enjoyed it. It was juicy, well seasoned, and delicious. It turns out my family simply cannot cook. I always knew my family was full of horrible cooks, but I never knew the true extent of it until I started cooking professionally. I wasn’t a fancy chef in a swanky restaurant either. Just a simple cook at various large establishments that needed particular meals in large quantities. The down side now of being the only decent cook, is everyone wants me to prepare food.
Anyway, I was craving my annual burger treat and had some 100% grass-fed ground beef from Trader Joe’s in the freezer. I am trying very hard to lose my baby weight from my last pregnancy, and I am trying to reduce my grain intake as much as possible, so it was time to make a bunless burger.
- 1 pound ground beef (85% lean, NOT 98%)
- 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground dried thyme (optional)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
A good burger isn’t complicated. Mix your ingredients together and mold it by hand into patties of whatever size you want. I don’t have a grill, so I just browned the patties in a frying pan. They really only need about three minutes on each side on medium heat. Any longer and they will be overcooked hockey pucks.
I constructed a bottom and top layer to replace the bun from romaine lettuce leaves. This burger has pepper jack cheese, mustard, and some sliced peppers on top. I will admit, a burger is way better with a bun, but this tactic still satisfied the yen and saved significantly on carbs.
I am still having a hard time getting my protein up and my carbohydrates down into the optimum balance for my body composition to shift. I guess if maintaining our best body weight was easy, everyone would be better at it!