Jam-Packed Turkey Burger

You may have noticed a trend in my last few posts: healthy. That is because, as I have mentioned, my New Years resolution was to clean eat/eat healthier. Although I do not follow all of the rules of clean eating, I do use it as a guide and I have definitely noticed a difference. When I took on this new healthy lifestyle, I was forced to find healthier recipes as opposed to my family classics.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Turkey burger? Ewww. That sounds like a cheap boring alternative for an actual hamburger." First, there is nothing boring about this turkey burger. That's why I chose to call is jam-packed. It is full of flavor and deliciousness. Second, you should not eat this turkey burger thinking it is going to be anything  like a hamburger. It's not. It does not taste anything like a hamburger. I think it tastes more like a meatball if anything. Also, I chose to it mine without a bun unlike the traditional hamburger.

Instead of a bun, I chose to eat this "burger" with a fork and I eighty-sixed the yogurt sauce that the original recipe author, best-food, incorporated. I enjoyed mine with a simple baby spinach feta side salad and broccoli.

When buying your turkey for this, it is important to look for lean ground turkey. If it is not lean, there is really no nutritional difference between ground turkey and ground beef. As Dr. Gourmet explains in this article, the benefits of ground turkey over ground beef can be questionable. However, if you look for quality ground turkey breast, you will save a lot of fat an calories compared to ground beef.

I found lean ground beef at aldi. I love aldi and their "Fit and Active" brand stuff

Here is the recipe from best-food blog ---> Healthy Burger. I of course changed it up a little bit. Instead of bread crumbs, I used rolled oats. I do this in my meatloaf as well. It holds it together just as well and is gluten free! You'll see in my picture below that you can see the oatmeal. If that bothers you, quick cook oats is the solution. Those mix right in and you can't even see them. I also chose to use fresh Roma tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes; I am just not a fan of their flavor. I also left out some of the spices she called for and, of course, added extra garlic.

Jam-Packed Turkey Burger (Makes 3 good size patties)

3/4 lb. lean ground turkey

1 Roma tomato, diced

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 tsp dried orengano 

2 cups fresh spinach, steamed 

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tsp minced garlic 

⅓ cup dry oats

1 lg. egg

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

This "method" is about to be so freakin easy it's not even funny. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Put all ingredients in a bowl--

Veggies. Not pictured, ground turkey, egg, oats, feta, and spices.

Be sure and "wring out" the spinach after you steam it. It can hold quite a bit of liquid. After you mix everything up (I had a picture of everything in the bowl but somehow I lost it) just form it into patties like you would hamburgers. 

Then guess what you do? Throw 'em in the oven. Set the timer for 25 minutes. Ground turkey is done when the center temperature is 165 degrees. Here is a great meat temperature cooking guide from Food Network.

You can pretty much tell if these are done by the way they look and feel (slightly firm) but you should always check meat with a thermometer before you dig in.

Told ya you could see the oats. I kinda like that you can see them.

And that's it. That's all there is to it. Of course you can serve them up on a bun, but they are just as delish without. Enjoy!