Who Knew!

Now that Dave and I are getting older we no longer can eat like we did in high school and college. For some reason our bodies tend to protest at the candy bar and soda lunch, or the pizza dinner at 11 pm. With that being said I have been trying to cook healthier and I am pretty darn impressed with how the taste of alot of the "healthier" choices have improved over the last few years along with the variety that is available. Last night I made Italian Turkey burgers for the kids and I (since dave is still gone). I was expecting a complete revolt from the kids but to my suprise they LOVED them. With such great sucess with the turkey burgers I tried making spagetti and turkey meatballs tonight for dinner. Again I was expecting a revolt, mainly because usually the kids don't like anything that isn't beige (chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, french fries, etc. - you get the picture). I was pleasantly suprised again when they said "Mom, we need to have this more often!" I will post any of the recipes that our family find good enough to share, so stay tuned. For now here is the Italian Turkey Burger that we enjoyed last night. (For those of you on Weight Watcher one burger is has a point value of 5 pts.)

Italian Turkey Burger

Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 20 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

The addition of fennel seeds makes these burgers reminiscent of Italian sausage. Top them with fresh basil and tomato for a wonderful summer main course.


Ingredients

1 spray(s) cooking spray
1 pound(s) lean ground turkey
1/3 cup(s) onion(s), chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
4 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray
2 small tomato(es), ripe, yellow and/or red, thinly sliced
1 cup(s) basil, fresh, leaves, torn or thinly shredded
4 item(s) reduced-calorie hamburger roll(s)

Instructions
Coat a grill or grill pan with cooking spray; preheat to medium-high.

In a large mixing bowl, combine turkey, onion, garlic, fennel seed, salt and pepper; form into four 1/2-inch-thick patties. Coat burgers and inside of rolls with cooking spray.

Grill burgers for 5 minutes; flip burgers and add rolls to grill. Grill open-face rolls until lightly charred, about 1 to 2 minutes; remove to serving plates. Grill burgers until cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

To serve, top grilled rolls with tomato slices and burgers; garnish with basil. Yields 1 burger per serving.
Notes
For an extra hit of flavor, rub the bread with a cut garlic clove as it comes off the grill.

Try these burgers with arugula leaves instead of the basil.