Burgermania!

I've been craving burgers lately, and since I've been craving them, I've been making them.  Now a lot of the diet/nutrition/health  information I've acquired in my weight loss journey says that one needs to give up red meat to go healthy. I think this is bull.  I've done well on my weight loss (recent hiccups aside) and I've eaten burgers, steaks, fajitas, tartare, and all kinds of beef.  I just make sure to eat relatively lean beef.  The burger pictured above is made of 90% lean beef. And is absolutely delicious.  Yes, It ended up being too big to bite. I had to deconstruct the fucker to eat it. But damn, it was delicious.  Sorry mom. I swore on my blog.



Here's what was going on this burger.  A 4 oz 90 percent lean beef patty, slice of onion, heirloom tomatoes, and basil. This went on the delicious bread I made early in the week.  Initially, I was going to put the greens on the burger too. I went with a salad instead. The burger was just too big.  

I pan seared the burger in a non-stick pan.  I didn't take pictures of that. but it was pretty easy.  When the burger is all caramelized on one side, i flipped it. It took about 6 minutes total to get a nice medium rare.

I smeared about a tablespoon (maybe less) of pesto on the bread, which I had toasted. 

Next, the patty. Nicely browned and lightly salted, just the way I like it.

On a side note, I'm not a fan of the way my blue plates photograph. Even when I use a plate without chips, the texture around the edges seems to throw the picture.  I'll start using a different plate.

Next, a slice of onion. Normally I'd caramelize the onion but I was REALLY hungry and in a rush, so I did it raw. It still tasted good, nice bite.  I stole my caramelized cross-section of onion idea from In-n-Out.  If you order a burger with a "whole grilled onion," you get the full slice, caramelized. Way easier to eat than the chopped ones. Just sayin'

 Next, a tomato. I used this once because I'd already been working on it. No point slicing a new tomato when I've got one sliced. It was delicious. I sprinkled a little sea salt on top of the tomato. As said, I like my tomatoes salted. It makes them more delicious and tomato-y!

Next, top it off with another piece of toasted bread. I served it with a salad.  I dressed the salad with a mixture of good quality balsamic vinegar and pesto.  It was delicious, and the burger was too, after figuring out how to fit the thing in my mouth. 








On another note, I'm off to Chicago for a few days later this week.  I'm going to try to keep up my posts from there, but we'll see how well that goes.  There may be some restaurant- type posts.  Because there's nothing like a picture of a giant Manny's Deli sandwich to make eating healthy look incredibly un-fun. and entirely necessary.