Classic Avocado Cheeseburgers and Fries

It's not a secret that we eat organic as much as we possibly can. The only problem with eating meat that's not mass-produced and mostly meat-filler is that it's expensive. Being college students, we can't exactly spend a lot of money on meat, especially when I can make a lot of tasty dishes that don't need it.

However, I was relieved when my mom sent a care package of grocery essentials that included hamburger meat. Right away I started thinking of all the recipes I could make - anything but meatloaf or Hamburger Helper. We also don't get the chance to eat out often (even though we think of every reason why we should) so what better thing to make than cheeseburgers? My mom gave us a pound of meat, but since there's only two of us I only used half. The problem was that I didn't think just the burger would be enough after a long day at work, so I decided to make fries too.

Beware, this is not a healthy meal. The thing is, well, I didn't try to make it one - if you can believe that. I think some meals should just be what they are. This is one of them.

French Fries

What You'll Need:

 4 Potatoes 

Vegetable Oil
salt

Start the fries first. Peel about 4 potatoes and cut them into your favorite fry shape. I chose to go with long fries that would get crispy.

Heat about 2 1/2 inches of oil in a large pot. After a few minutes on medium heat, the oil should be hot enough. Put a small fry in and see if it sizzles. If it just sits there and no bubbles are coming out, it's not hot enough. So when it is put just a few fries in. Make sure they're all submerged in oil so that they all cook evenly. Use tongs to flip them after 4 minutes.

When they are golden brown take them out and put them on a plate with two layers of paper towels to absorb the oil. Sprinkle salt on them right away. Remember to cook these in small batches, it may take a little longer but they will cook evenly. You can also put any other kinds of seasonings on your fries at this point. This is just my basic recipe but lot's of stuff would be awesome - but all that's for another post...

Classic Avocado Cheeseburgers

What You'll Need:

1/2 - 1 pound Hamburger Meat

 Pepper

Garlic Powder

Season All

1 Avocado

 American cheese

Tomato

Lettuce

Mustard

Mayonnaise

2 Hamburger buns

Before you get your hands germy and dirty get out your grill and preheat it. We don't have a BBQ (yet) but we do have a grill/griddle thing that's a lot like a George Foreman. Get your 1/2 pound of meat and separate that into two pieces. I'm super phobic about raw meat!! I probably washed my hands five times just caring the meat from place to place. I hate the amount of mess raw meat leaves behind and I hate knowing how sick it can make people so please be careful!

 

You can use your own seasonings for burgers but I didn't have the opportunity to go out and by special stuff so I made my own "grill mix." Season All is my favorite seasoning to put on chicken or beef. Add the amounts of stuff you like onto each soon-to-be-patty. 

Roll each half into a ball making sure to mix the seasonings in well. Pat those down into patties. Wash your hands. Done.

By now your grill should be hot. Throw those babies on. While they're cooking cut your avocados, mayo-up your buns, and wash the lettuce. After about 8 minutes the patties should be done. I actually lowered the heat because I was afraid I would burn them or something. So just cook them until they're not pink in the middle anymore. Mine are a little dark from some of the extra seasoning I put while they were on the grill but they were totally juicy and delish!

 Assemble your burgers and serve the fries. And don't worry about the fact that you're eating a burger - enjoy it... it's awesome and you know it!

Triple-Stacked Breakfast Sammies

 I'm the kind of person that likes things mashed, mixed, and eaten all together. Not to toot my own horn but I'm the queen of crazy concoctions. Like most of the things I make, this was completely spontaneous. The second best part of this sandwich (the first being taste) is that there aren't any rules - you can add whatever you want, or whatever you have.

What You'll Need:

(makes 2 sandwiches)

4 Breakfast sausage patties (maple flavored)

2 Slices of American cheese

2 Frozen hash brown patties

4 Eggs

 4 Slices of bread

Mayonnaise

The first step is to get a large pan and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Put the sausage patties and hash browns in the pan on medium heat. I used patties because when I bought them, that was all the store had. Had they been links I would have probably cut them up and mixed them in with my eggs. And I always have these hash browns on hand. My mom use to buy them and they're so delicious and easy to make. You can bake them, or fry them like I did. Just make sure you flip them every few minutes until they're no longer cold in the middle. When they're done, put them aside.

As those are cooking, get your eggs ready. I always add a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of milk to my eggs. Of course, this is totally optional. 

Cook the eggs on low heat. You'll want to keep the eggs together as much as possible, so go more for "omelet" than "scramble." 

While the eggs are cooking, toast the bread and put mayo on both sides. Like the rest of my family, I have a small addiction to mayo and love it on whatever I can get it on. When the eggs are done separate them into sections in the pan so it makes it easier to put on one slice of bread. Assemble the rest of it by putting one hash brown and two sausage patties on the other slice of bread. Put cheese on the egg and close the sandwich up.

These are really good and filling. We both enjoyed them, even though Mike gets skeptical when I don't tell him what I'm doing beforehand. I'll definitely be making these again. 

Portobello Mushroom Pitas and Cheesy Garlic Potatoes

In order to eat healthier this new year I've changed a lot of eating habits. I now eat a lot less red meat, and if I do eat it, it's organic so I actually know what I'm eating. This is actually a little more expensive which is another way I can monitor how much I eat. I also eat way more organic foods and way less processed foods in general and I actually can't remember the last time I had fast food. When I go out to eat I no longer indulge and only get what I know I'll eat- which leaves me with a lot less leftovers. For Christmas I got Michael a new grill (among other things) so we could both eat healthier. The cool thing about the grill is the grill plates come out and you can put griddle plates in instead... I fell in love as soon as I saw the thing. These Portobello Mushroom Pitas were the first meal I made with the grill. I'm a sucker for mushrooms and I'll eat them any way you give them to me (probably) so this was a definite yes. I found the prettiest ones at Trader Joe's and got my favorite pita bread from them too. I didn't think one pita per person would be enough so I decided to make some potatoes on the side. 

I had made a version of these potatoes for the blog before, and many times after, but since I didn't have red potatoes I improvised. Here's the link to that Baked Potato Chips I made before.

While I was preheating my oven and grill, I sliced 6 Yukon Gold potatoes and layered them with butter, salt, garlic powder, chopped garlic (the kind that comes in the jar), black pepper, and parsley. When my oven was preheated to 350 degrees I covered my 8x8 pan with foil and put them in for 25 min.

What I got when I pulled them out.

While the potatoes were cooking I wiped the curved part of the mushrooms with a damp paper towel and got a little bowl and poured some olive oil into it. To the oil I added garlic powder, salt, chopped garlic, and pepper (see a trend with my ingredients?) and brushed this on the outer part of the mushrooms. No I didn't measure anything, I just poured enough oil to LIGHTLY coat the tops of both mushroom. By this time my grill was hot. I set my temp for this at 300 because I figured it shouldn't be too hot. I put the oil-coated side down and put the top down.

I only pressed it like this for about 4 minutes. I didn't brushed the other side with oil because I figured I didn't need the extra. This is what I got :)

I washed some lettuce and cut some tomato to put in my pita. 

I didn't put any mayo in my pita like I usually do but I did put a little ranch just because it sounded good. And guess what- it was!

By the time I was done with making my pitas my potatoes were nice and soft. I had some Cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese mix leftover from taco night so I put a healthy amount on my potatoes when they came out. 

Once the cheese melts this was a good amount of food for two people without leaving you feeling gross and overly full. I really hope you enjoy it too.