Power yourself up with a “Power Burger”

This week has been a full week with not a minute to myself. I have been to swim meets (for Daijia), track meets (for Tajiah), and and finishing up my last week of summer school. I am exhausted!! I guess I would not be Mom on the Run without my busy schedule.

I love to make a good burger during busy weeks because it is filling and not as time consuming as other meals can be. Burgers also tend to be a crowd pleaser which also makes my life easier. This mom loves any thing that saves me time! So onto this great burger recipe…..

This recipe is from my favorite 30-minute girl Rachael Ray. I have made these burgers numerous times because my husband loves these recipe. I love this recipe because it incorporates one of my favorite ingredients……VINO!!

Excuse the crazy picture…I was hot and really in the mood for some wine!

Power Burgers By Rachael Ray

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3/4 cup dry Italian red wine
• 2 pounds ground sirloin (93% lean or greater)
• 1/2 cup pepperoni, finely chopped (I used prosciutto)
• 1/4 cup (about a handful) Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed up slightly with your fingers
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 4 slices sesame semolina bread, each about an inch thick
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 8 slices deli provolone

Yields: 4 servings

Preparation

Preheat broiler.

Place a large pan over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons EVOO, about 2 turns of the pan. Add the onions and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place a lid or piece of aluminum foil over the pan and cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, 2-3 minutes. Remove the lid or foil from the pan and continue cooking until fully softened, another 4-5 minutes.

Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until it smells sweet and has caramelized slightly, 2-3 minutes. Add the wine and scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to remove any bits that may be stuck to the bottom. Cook until the wine has almost completely evaporated, 3-4 minutes. Remove the onions from the heat, cover them again with the lid or aluminum foil and reserve until ready to serve.

Place a large skillet over medium-high heat with three turns of the pan of EVOO, about 3 tablespoons. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground sirloin, pepperoni, parsley, oregano and red pepper flakes. Season the meat with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then flatten the meat down in the bowl and score it into four using the side of your hand.

Form a patty with each of the four portions of the meat and place them into the hot skillet. Cook until desired doneness, 4-5 minutes per side for medium. We decided to grill our burgers.

This is with the pictures end because my camera died! While the burgers are cooking, place a small pot over medium heat with the garlic. Melt the butter then remove the pot from the heat to allow the garlic flavor to infuse the butter. While the butter is melting, place the bread slices on a baking sheet and toast them under the broiler until golden brown on each side. Brush the toasts with the garlic butter and sprinkle the grated cheese over each of them. Place four toasts back on the baking sheet and top each with one of the burgers. Divide the onion mixture between the four burgers and top each one with two slices of cheese. Place the burgers back under the broiler to melt the cheese.

Serve the burgers with a knife and fork, and your favorite salad on the side.

These burgers are great for a dinner party or a weeknight meal. The onion wine mixture adds so much flavor to the burgers that it melts in your mouth with flavor explosion!

TGIF….Don’t forget that tomorrow ends the Mom on the Run Fantastic Friday giveaway. I am love with ZEVIA! I need to buy more at Whole Foods.

Sunday Dinner with a bit of Italian Flair

I am having a bit of a frustrating blog moment right now. This post was supposed to occur yesterday, since it is about Sunday dinner. After typing a very good post about my goings on and creation of a fantastic Sunday dinner menu, my computer starting acting CRAZY and I lost everything. Now I am re-typing my blog masterpiece and hope that it can be as great as yesterday.

So here I ago again (saving at each paragraph)…….

In keeping with the Sunday dinner tradition, I wanted to create another theme dinner that incorporated my fresh garden fare and that was not going to take me more than hour to make. The weather has been quite muggy and cooking over a hot stove is less than desirable. I had quite a lot of basil that I harvested as well as zucchini and summer squash. So I began looking for Italian inspired recipes.

The basil smelled amazing! There is nothing like fresh herbs.

I went to my girl Rachael Ray for some quick Italian good tasting food. Love her or hate her, the girl can cook an amazing quick meal. After looking through a ton of great recipes, I settled on Caprese Lasagna. I have other recipes to share but do to my computer frustration I will share this one and post the others tomorrow.

Caprese Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk
• A few grates fresh nutmeg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Half a bunch (about 30 leaves) basil, chopped
• 4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Place a large saucepot over medium-heat and melt the butter. Add garlic to pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. S

Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic, and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble. Add the nutmeg, season with salt and ground black pepper, and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9×13″ baking dish and laying 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce.

Top the noodles with a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and a third of the shredded cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes.

Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. When ready to serve, top with remaining chopped basil leaves.

This dish taste amazing as it looks. I was a little worried by how few ingredients this lasagna needed and if it would effect the taste. No need to worry because all my dinner guests loved it. Having all fresh ingredients really enhances the flavors.

What is your favorite Sunday dinner dish?

Reminder…..Mom on the Run’s Fantastic Friday giveaway will end on Friday. Get your name in for a chance to win a case of the amazing new all natural diet soda-ZEVIA!!

More recipes and a new What’s in Daijia’s Lunchbox? segment tomorrow.

Can-Do Bar Winner-PART 2

I have not heard from the winner that I previously drew. So I am proud to announce another winner of my first summer giveaway!!! I wish I could have picked you all put alas only one lucky reader can receive these yummy bars. I pulled the number from the random integer number generator.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

18- kateystrembel said…

cookies and cream sounds great to me!

July 21, 2009 5:34 PM

Please email me at smmuconnatgmaildotcom to redeem your prize.Congrats to the winner!! You will have 24 hours to respond!

I am working on a Sunday Dinner Post so stay tuned for some great food recipes!!

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