There’s just something so hearty about… a burger.
I don’t eat animal protein really, but I DO love a good veggie burger (click here for an amazing, homemade Kale Veggie Burger recipe). When I’m cooking turkey burgers for my family, however, I like to make it easier on myself by busting out my Dr. Praegers Frozen Kale Veggie Burgers. I’ll also make a fun assembly line of toppings, so the kids can build their own burger, and it turns out to be one heck-of-a meal… for all of us.
But what good is a burger without a nice batch of fries?! I do sweet potato fries all the time, so it’s fun to do something a little different (but still healthy) like… homemade, thinly sliced, sweet potato chips. That’s exactly where we’ll start this food-party!
- Grab one medium sweet potato. I like to use the longer, thinner sweet potatoes for chips. Give it a good scrub under cold water. One sweet potato will yield almost 2 cups.
2. I’m all about kitchen gadgets and recently bought this inexpensive, hand-held adjustable slicer with julienne blade from William Sonoma for $30. It’s perfect for jobs like this. If you don’t have a slicer, just use a knife and thinly slice the sweet potato.
3. Next, get some extra virgin olive oil, nutritional yeast, and sea salt. I love pink himalayan sea salt. This salt is mineral and iron rich, so great for adults and children alike.
4. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top of the cut chips, then sprinkle on nutritional yeast and a dash of sea salt. Nutritional yeast is so fantastic because it will give the chips great flavor, plus a little crunch.
5. Toss everything together in the pan, so the chips get evenly coated, then spread them out evenly.
6. Turn your oven on to 400 degrees. Bake the chips for 15 minutes on one side, then take them out and flip them over with a spatula and bake them for another 10-15 minutes, or until crisp.
Once cooked, let the chips cool in the pan, then place them in a bowl. I garnished with a little parsley on top and just like that… you’ve made yourself some fantastic, healthy chips!
Sweet Potato Chip Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 Tbs. of extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil
2 Tbs. nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp. of pink himalayan sea salt.
~make sure all the chips get lightly coated before cooking. If they’re NOT, drizzle a little extra olive oil on top and toss them again.
Yields 2 cups of chips. (For more chips, double recipe)
NOW… on to the burger! While the sweet potato chips are COOKING, that’s when I start on my burgers.
The type of meat you cook with, absolutely matters. We get the no antibiotics, hormones or GMO’s lean turkey meat (same goes for chicken) and I use these Dr. Praeger’s Kale Veggie Burgers (from Whole Foods) for myself. This is my favorite veggie patty because it’s simply vegetables with no sugar, additives, or anything else and they are fantastic.
1.First you’ll want to prep your meat. Place the meat in a medium bowl, drizzle a tsp. of olive oil on top, then a dash of sea salt and pepper.
2. Next, add in 2 Tbs. of ground flaxseed. This is how to make your burger next level. It’s rich in omega 3’s (great for heart health) and fiber, but you won’t even know it’s in there!
3. Mix everything together well and then divide your meat up and make small patties.
4. Warm up a pan on the stove, I used my grill pan, drizzle the pan with olive oil and cook the patties 7 -minutes on one side, then another 7 minutes on the other side, or until all the pink is gone from the burger.
5. While the burgers are cooking, start building your toppings line-up. I chopped up 3/4’s of a red onion in long, thin slices and sliced 7 small portobello mushrooms. Throw that in a pan drizzled with olive oil and cook until tender, about 7-10 minutes.
6. Next, grate up a little cheese, slice up some pickles, I also laid out some alfalfa sprouts. I washed some small romaine leaves for the lettuce (you could also use spinach) and sat out some mustard.
7. Lastly, assemble your burger. Layer on your toppings, but be sure to leave some room on the side for your sweet potato chips. Dinner is then ready to be served!
For me, dinner looks a little more like this. I’ll skip the bun, even though I get whole-wheat flax-seed buns for the kids, which are healthy, but still a lot of carbs for me.
I’ll use lettuce leaves as the bun and put on some calcium filled alfalfa sprouts, onions and mushrooms and a little mustard. Avocado is great too. I just forgot to get it with a pic! (Next time… next time.)
That’s all it takes to whip up a healthy, nutritious burger meal in no time at all!
Dig right on in and enjoy!
Turkey Burger Ingredients:
1 lb. lean turkey meat
1/2 tsp. pink Himalayan salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 Tbs. ground flaxseed
Burger Topping Ideas:
7 sliced portobello mushrooms
3/4’s of a red onion
=saute mushrooms & onion in 1 tsp. of olive oil
lettuce leaves or 1 c. of spinach
alfalfa sprouts
avocado
pickles
dijon or regular mustard
