Love Burger

I’ve been on a bit of a journey lately. I’ve committed (verbally) to adding, “personal trainer”, “group fitness trainer”, “professional dancer” and “hoop teacher” to my growing number of hats that I wear. My husband is working with me on the business aspects, which has freed me for the first time in 5 years to give myself to the art. I’ve felt like the floodgates have opened. This week if I wasn’t talking about an idea, I was scribbling about it in a notebook or finding a way to express it physically. I’ve just been creating constantly. I’ve also had a lot more love available to give. I truly think that the mantra work that I’ve been doing has had a gigantic effect on this. Chanting and meditating on a topic has the strange ability to, someway somehow, bring it into reality. At least in my findings. The breakthrough access I’ve gained to my love is truly a gift. I’ve been pampering myself in ways that I never do as well as spoiling my family with my experimental cooking and crazy fits of spontaneous cleaning.

When I got home last night I found my husband, 2 year old and resident basement dweller, Chris sitting in the living room watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with rumbling bellies. My brother in law and Ez were all on their way over. I ran to the refrigerator in hopes of finding a miracle. When I didn’t, I got a little creative on the cutting board (making my own miracles). Below is the recipe for the burgers I made last night. This recipe was intended to force more veggies into my family as well as being yummy. It took a bit longer in prep time then I would have liked (about 15 minutes) but the sight of my little one eating my tricky burgers was reward enough. She kept mumbling “yum, yum, yay” between bites.

Yummy Trick Turkey Burger

Ingredients
5 dashes of soy sauce
1 tablespoon Thyme
2 tablespoons Rosemary
1 tablespoon Savory
3 tablespoons Basil
3lbs Ground Turkey
2 Large Carrots, grated
3 Bell Peppers, sliced (fun colored peppers tend to make their way to my little one’s belly more often)
1 medium onion, sliced
Olive Oil (or your favorite cooking oil)
Buns/bread and burger accessories

In a large bowl combine the turkey, carrots, savory, rosemary and thyme. Mix it well! Form your ground turkey mixture into balls (a burger that is satisfactory to me is about an open handful of this mixture but feel free to experiment on the size). You have an option on how you’d like to cook these. I generally either drop them on the George Foreman or, like yesterday, cook them in a pan with olive oil. Let them stay in a ball until they’re ready to be flipped. Flip with a spatula and gently press the raw side flat into the pan. Be conscious not to squeeze all of the juice out of the burger!

In a sauce pan pour a few dashes of oil in and let it heat up. Drop your onions in first and after about 30 seconds of sizzling, drop in the bell peppers. Mix them a bit to get all of the veggies coated with oil. Keep an eye on them while they are cooking, turning ever 30 to 90 seconds. After about 2 minutes, sprinkle on the basil and mix it in. Shortly after, throw on the soy sauce, reduce the heat and continue to mix. You will know that they’re done when the peppers are tender yet firm and the onions are transparent.

The cooked peppers and onions make a great topping or even side dish for these burgers.