Guacamole Elk Burgers.....Minus the Bun

Last week we tried bison burgers.

Tonight it was elk burgers.

I seasoned them the very same way: egg, worchestershire sauce, chopped onion, minced garlic, sea salt, ground black pepper and while it was cooking, I sprinkled them with our favorite steak seasoning. It has salt in it so I went easy on the sea salt.

We usually would cook these on the grill, but it was just Wade and I and he was working on his truck, so I just cooked them on the stove.



These burgers were much leaner than the bison. I know that Wade asked for 10% fat to be added to the elk when it was processed, but it was so lean, I had to add a bit more oil to the pan while cooking. Bison wasn't that way.

We enjoy guacamole burgers, but since we are taking it easy on the bread, we just had guacamole and elk burgers. I am no food stylist and my camera is not working well, so this isn't a good picture, but we both wound up putting that guac on our burger and eating it that way.



It tasted good. Texture was a bit different, but we both enjoyed it a lot. We have a freezer full of elk so this will not cost us any money! Guess what? We'll be having elk burgers regularly.

New Clean Eating Recipe

Wade and I are in the middle of trying to revamp our eating lifestyle. I am turning often to my favorite food magazine, Clean Eating.



All of the recipes I have tried so far, we have enjoyed.

Even the kids.

Tonight there were only three of us at home: Me, Wade and Grant. So I had enough ingredients to make "Shrimp and Goat Cheese Quesadillas" out of the March 2011 magazine.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

I only had frozen shrimp on hand, so I thawed and rinsed them, making sure they really were deveined well. Then I gave them a rough chop. You will need to use about 6 oz of shrimp.

Next you will be chopping your ingredients for the mixture that will be placed inside you quesadillas. First you chop about 1/4 cup of green olives.



Then it calls for a 1/2 cup jarred sliced roasted red peppers. I had some fresh red peppers in my crisper drawer that needed to be used up, so I gave them a rough chop, along with some cucumber (which I love), tossed them with olive oil and a little bit of salt then put them in the over to roast while I finished the rest of the mixture. I think you could use a variety of veggies for this.



Next chop some fresh basil, about 1 Tbsp of the yummy herb.



It didn't take long for the veggies to be done in a really hot oven. Don't you just love the look of roasted veggies?



In a large bowl, put together the chopped shrimp, basil, roasted veggies (after you give them a slicing), olives and then crumble in about 4 oz of goat cheese.

Now I will have to tell you that before tonight, I have never had goat cheese. Just the sound of it put me off.

But you can't cook with an ingredient that you don't taste, right? So I took a taste and I learned something new tonight:

I LOVE GOAT CHEESE!

It has such depth of flavor and is really bold.

So mix all of this together well.

Place 4 whole wheat tortillas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I use a silpat, but you can use parchment paper. Using one fourth of the mixture for each tortilla, spoon the mixture onto half of the tortilla leaving room to fold it over as shown.



Fold the tortillas over. Brush each tortilla with olive oil and then sprinkle with crushed black pepper.



Into the oven they go! But only for 6 minutes. So I had these babies all ready and when Wade walked in the door tonight, I popped then in the oven. They were ready by the time he laid his stuff down, washed his hands and came to the bar to eat! How easy is that?

They looked yummy and crisp on top!



And they tasted yummy, too! Can you see that beautiful color inside?! I love food with color. Makes you want to dig in! And dig in we did.



I will say that the bottoms of these were soft and soggy. When I do these again, and I will, I will think about oiling the bottom of the tortillas or browning them in a skillet in order to get a crispiness on top and bottom of the tortillas.

They also did not have as much "kick" as I anticipated they would, so next time I will increase the spices. I think I will try something "hotter" which is what we prefer. Maybe jalapenos, cayenne pepper, paprika.........

Wade took seconds which is always a sign that he likes them. He gave this a "keeper" status and that means it will go into the recipe box for good with the necessary changes.

Grant ate a small portion. He didn't love it, but he doesn't like shrimp or olives. He did well to eat what he did. Our kids have to taste and try new things, even if it is not their favorite.

Thanks, Clean Eating! Once again you have delivered a quick and easy meal for my family that was healthy and yummy!

Still sick. Actually worse today. Last night was rough so I went to Dr. Bishop's early this morning to get my motor turned on. She recommended some probiotics, Olsba (?) (instead of Vicks Vapor Rub) and Zinc. She also encouraged me to up the dosages of Bio Fizz. I will do all of the above.

When I went by Whole Foods to get the probiotics, I also picked up some of their Chicken Soup which has cayenne pepper in it to open me up. It is the first thing I have taken in that has stopped the coughing for a while! :) I need more of that yummy stuff! I bought the biggest container of it, but need about 3 more!

This week's eating well has helped, I'm sure, although I can't see it physically, as in my chest cold/sinus trouble being gone. I can see it on the scale. I have lost 3.4 pounds since Monday. Go figure! Why would I ever eat sugar!?

I haven't felt like doing much exercise, but I have done some yoga because it doesn't make me cough.

Praying for all of these supplements to work quickly. I am so weary of coughing. And I want to cook! I have some, but really don't feel like it. And today I am in bed.

Worst day yet.

I know, I know......I've been lazy here. Lazy to blog, but also very lazy with my diet and exercise. Well, exercise has gone well, but eating has not. You know that if it had been going well, I would have been posting all the time, right? Just the way my pride works. :)

We just got back from a week at the beach. There were some victories in that most of us that were going (extended family) are trying to eat healthy. My niece, who is a massage therapist, asked that we pack our lunches on the way down and eat no fast food. I was so happy to hear that because we have really cut out the fast food. Well, except for the occasional Chickfila.

So we packed veggies, fruit, protein bars, Babybel cheese, etc. It was really great. We even had to stop at fast food for breakfast because of a mix-up, but half of us didn't even order. We just ate what we had packed.

Then we went grocery shopping and bought a ton of avocados, fruit, salad makings, etc. We had healthy snacks to choose from. We ate a ton of seafood (tilapia, shrimp, crab) but fixed them in healthier ways.

But we also were indulgent. Leah and I made Kimmy's wonderful scones one morning. I think bacon and sausage were on the breakfast plates every morning. We did eat a lot of eggs. I love eggs! I ate more bread than I have been, as well as chips and ice cream. We had ice cream cones every single night!

So now Wade and I are back "on track." Starting over.

No sugar.

Exercise.

No grains or bread for a time.

No alcohol.

Very little caffeine.

Today was the first day.

Of course, it didn't help me that I came home sick from the beach. I have not had a bit of sinus trouble since seeing Dr. Bishop, my wonderful chiropractor, but the first night in Florida brought allergy symptoms. Ugh!

I should have "upped" my greens and taken my Bio Fizz (high dose of vit C), but didn't. I have not felt well since Friday night and Saturday, Sunday and today I have spent coughing.

Thankfully, today I was able to get an adjustment to "turn my motor on" and will get one every day for the next three days. Should help.

Today when I went grocery shopping, I found bison on sale. I bought three packages and decided to make bison burgers tonight. They were really tasty! Better than beef any day! I hope to find it on sale again soon. I think I will go back tomorrow and see if there is any of the bison left that was on sale.

I seasoned them with onion, egg, garlic powder, sea salt, ground black pepper, mustard and worchestershire sauce. As I cooked them, I sprinkled a little bit of our favorite steak seasoning on it. They were delish!

And sweet hubby and all the kids but Luke (who wasn't here) loved them and are fighting over who gets to eat the leftovers tomorrow!

We also tried baked sweet potato fries, but we need some help in that area. They were soft. We followed a recipe tip in the Clean Eating magazine (my favorite right now), but it didn't work.

We did eat them because the taste was fine, but I would like them to be a bit more crispy. We will try again with a new recipe.

Then we all had a huge helping of spinach salad with tomatoes drizzled with olive oil.

Healthy.

Yummy.

Good start to back to healthy.

Hopefully, I will share more here as I work hard on this lifestyle change with the whole family.