Greek Turkey Burgers

So the meal plan is going really well. I've had to play shuffle with the schedule a couple of times due to our crazy schedules, but we're right on track.

I did have a small issue with my tomatoes (wherein one of them apparently caught the plague and was trying to give it to the others), but I salvaged them...save the instigator. The rest of the produce is doing awesome. I'm slated to chop up my peppers for freezing this week. FYI...I only recommend doing that on those peppers that you will be using in a cooked fashion...ie. those where crunch doesn't so much matter.

Our first meal on the meal plan was Greek Turkey Burgers. Not only are these pretty stinking easy to make, they're also pretty good for you, all things considered. The burgers themselves come in at just over 250 calories each. Plus they pack a whopping 30.2g of protein. This is one of the recipes that Collin & I used back when we were torturing ourselves with the Insanity workout. (As a side note, I could really stand to get back on that. Soon.) The original recipe came from SparkRecipes, but I've slightly modified it.

You can't tell me this doesn't look pretty good.

The first time I made these last year, I made the mistake of failing to PAY ATTENTION. I misread the recipe and dumped in 1 tablespoon of oregano instead of 1 teaspoon. Not horrible, but not the best idea ever. This time I got it right and they were awesome.

Here's what you'll need :

4 Hamburger Buns
1 large tomato (or 2 Roma tomatoes)
Leaf lettuce
1 lb. ground turkey (93% lean for the calories listed above)
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg
1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped (or 1 teaspoon of dried mint)
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray...don't forget this. It's critical. Trust me.

Mix the turkey, bread crumbs, feta, egg, mint, oregano and black pepper in a bowl. Divide the mixture into 4 even portions and shape into patties. Place patties in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

While the patties are setting, spray the grill rack with cooking spray. Failure to do this will result in turkey burger nuggets and a very dirty grill. Heat the grill to medium heat. Don't overheat the grill or you will have very quick charcoal briquettes.

Pull the patties out of the fridge and place a dimple in the center of each one with your thumb. This will keep from getting a big bubble in the center of the burger as it cooks.

You can still kind of see the dimple. I am sometimes slightly aggressive.

Cook the burgers for 5 minutes on each side. Don't flip more than once or you'll end up with a dry burger. Serve on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato and desired condiments.

Pretty easy right? I'm all about the easy in this meal plan. The meals that I have planned for the week nights (other than Friday) are all typically fairly straight forward. With the exception of the CrockPot meals, I tried to keep all of my working weekday meals to a maximum of 1 hour prep time. Because let's be honest...I don't want to be in the kitchen all night after work and if it doesn't get ready fairly quickly I'm just going to end up snacking on something else.