Things I Eat: Hamburgers!

That's right. Time for some beef!

Did you know a lot of people do NOT know how to MAKE hamburgers at home? They buy frozen hamburger or pre-made patties. OR they go to a fast-food place? What ever happened to treating yourself to a gourmet burger right in your own home? Without pants. And a cockatil.

The husband and I celebrated 6 months of marriage - and by celebrated, he did all the work. He made me a two potatoes worth of sweet potato fries and I ate the whole plate all by myself. He also got ground beef, but, neither of us were that hungry to make burgers.

NEXT DAY!

I made burgers!

What You Need

• 2 lbs of ground beef: Beef, beef, beef, beef!
• Peppers: I had yellow, orange and red. I used about 1/2 a cup of the mix, because it's what I had.
• Onions: Just a sweet onion. Sweet. sweet, onion! About 1/2 a cup.
• Paprika: This is the best thing ever! I used like a tablespoon.
• Garlic: I used Squeeze Minced Garlic because it appeared to be vegan. I used about 2 tablespoons - about three glopes. 
• Thyme: I got more than thyme, baby! About 1 teaspoon.
• Onion Powder: Just a bit.
• Parsley: I had fresh Italian parsley - which is fantastic!
• Spinach: Optional, but, strongly encouraged. 
• Hamburger rolls: I like the thin ones? I don't eat them.
• Fixin's: You know, condiments (which I don't eat) or salad.

If you want, make some fries. I made sweet potato and Russet potato fries. You will have to estaimate how much you want. I used one large sweet potato and like. . .you know. .a couple Russet ones. 

What You Do

Hamburgers are made with love - real ones are. Love is getting your hands dirty. DIRTY! So, dump your ground beef into a bowl and then throw everything in. That's really it. 

I meant EVERYTHING! Amounts? Ok, it's really up to your tastes. You could really season it anyway you want. You can throw in taco seasoning or BBQ seasoning. You can throw in whatever goodness you want - I liked thyme, paprika and garlic, mostly. I also like to have chunks of onion and chunks of colorful peppers.

I also like fresh spinach and parsley. Add more green for. .you know. .more green.

Then you just roll 'em into balls and then flatten them out. I made about nine patties. It was a good time. I put them into the fridge and didn't take a picture because I was tired of washing my hands. 

Then I cut up the potato and found we were out of olive oil.

For the Russet potatoes, I cup them up and used garlic olive oil. I added a little layer of onions, too, because who doesn't love onions?

For the sweet potato, I cut them very, very thin which is the only way you can even hope to get them crunchy. I used the last of the olive oil and a little salt on them. And ate some. Just some. 

The potatoes, I cooked them for about 20 minutes at 400.

The burger - get this OVEN! Yep, in the oven with the fries. I cooked them with the potatoes for 20 minutes. I turned them at 10 minutes. You could pan-fry or throw them on the grill. I don't have a grill and I didn't want to pan fry because I have a smoke detector that is dying to go off at any notice. 

Everything turned out great! Here is me getting a plate!

And then I tried to be artistic. I also put some garlic on top of mine and put the burger on a bed of spring mix. 

These were so good. Just the right amount of meat and my sweet potatoes even got crunchy because I cut them nice and thin. This is actually a very healthy situation - and when it comes to allergies, not a problem! You don't need to use breadcrumbs or eggs or any of that stuff. Just keep it pure.