Burger Night

For those of you that may not know, Tim is a dude. A car loving, motorcycle riding, carnivorous Australian to be exact. Naturally this means his favorite foods are burgers, pizza, and since his transplant to Texas, fajitas. But that's another story.

We like to have burger night pretty regularly around here; Tim fires up the grill and whips out his Bar-B-Mate and even has converted our American-issue Weber into the Aussie style half-grill half-hot plate configuration. This is fantastic for caramelizing onions and frying eggs; you'll soon see why this is important.

Back in February, I decided to jump on the gluten free bandwagon. Then I started doing crossfit and have been trying paleo for the past few months, although I do still have a cheat day so that I don't lose my mind and can enjoy the phenomenal restaurants that have decided to invade our neighborhood.

As such, Tim and I generally configure our burgers differently; maybe that's not so abnormal. I suppose everyone has their "go-to" burger build, depending on venue, mood, weather, whatever. We had some leftover pesto and mozzarella at home from dinner the night before, so I was inspired to make Tim a "Caprese Burger."

Just like it sounds, I added fresh mozzarella, some thick heirloom tomato slices, and a quick pesto mayo (literally pesto and mayo) to slather on the buns. Tim decided this burger needed a fried egg as well. I don't know that I would have gone that route, but I'm pretty sure a fried egg is one of those things that makes everything better.

I'm probably the only Texan that didn't grow up eating cow, so I never quite developed a taste for it. I tend to keep turkey burgers in the freezer for such occasions, cause who wants to watch their boyfriend eat a burger and not join in? I whipped up a sweet potato to serve as the base then topped my turkey burger with a fried egg, caramelized onions, and aussie BBQ Sauce, which I'm pretty sure its just ketchup and worcestershire, but its damn tasty.

Lastly, for dessert, a truly lovely treat of choco banana 'ice cream,' 100% vegan and paleo and 200% delicious.

Caprese Burger

1 6oz Beef Burger. Tim's preference here is the gourmet beef burger from WFM.

3 slices fresh mozzarella

1tbsp mayo (I use spectrum eggless lite canola mayo)

2tbsp fresh pesto

2 slices tomato

1 egg, fried

1 bun - your choice here

Heat your grill to medium and let it warm up for a few minutes. While the grill is heating up, mix the mayo and pesto and prep the toppings.

Cook burger to your liking; toast the bun on the grill. At some point, fry up your egg if you're having one, just make sure to keep that yolk runny.

Once the patty is cooked, assemble! Basic structure: bun, pesto mayo, patty, egg, mozzarella, tomato, pesto mayo, bun. Just to make sure you get your veggies, serve with a side salad; Tim got arugula and baby spinach with a drizzle of olive oil and squeeze of lemon.

Assembly: heap your plate with baby spinach and drizzle with olive oil. Structure: sweet potato patty, turkey burger, aussie bbq sauce, fried egg, caramelized onion. Throw some tomato slices on the side and you'll never know you skipped a bun.