Day 10: Inside-Out Cheeseburgers

This recipe was sent to me by my Aunt Caryn who saw it on her MSN homepage. With the weather getting warmer, I was excited to find a burger recipe since we love to grill out. It also reminded me of the Juicy Lucy that was featured on Man vs. Food. Clearly, the Juicy Lucy has far more calories, but the concept is the same. The only negative right off the bat with this recipe is that it called for Gruyere cheese. I love the taste but hate the price. It only called for 1/4 cup of Gruyere, and I had to buy an 8 oz container for $7.00. WTF!!!!! I will now be on a hunt for another low cal recipe that requires a lot of Gruyere cheese.

Here is the link to the recipe with picture...

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/inside_out_cheeseburger.html

Here are the changes I made:
85%lean(I couldn't find 90%)
Reduced fat cheddar
1 and 1/2 tablespoon of Worcestershire(I love the stuff)
Light Hamburger buns

I'm not sure if these changes increase or decrease the calorie count, but I don't care. This is how I wanted to make them.

Kitchen Play by Play: I loathe the feeling of raw hamburger meat, so I very rarely make burgers. I just wait for mom to invite us over :). It was very tough for me to separate the 1lb of meat into 8 4-inch wide patties. Paul told me several times that they were not 4 inches but more like 2 or 3 inches. I had to re-roll and pat numerous times. It was also hard to keep a 1/2 inch border around the pile of cheese. I eventually said, "screw it, " and just closed the puppies up. I figured that the worst that could happen was that the cheese would ooze out onto the grill; I had frozen meals on standby. I let my burgers meld for about 45 minutes before grilling. Paul took over from there and because I am a "dead meat" girl, he kept them on the grill for a total of about 10 minutes. They shrunk quite a bit. I served them with tomato and pickles. We also had fresh strawberries and tater tots on the side. One serving of tater tots added 170 calories.

The finished product: Paul took the camera to school today to take pics of his Senior classes and forgot to bring it home, so please see the above link for a visual representation.

The Verdict:
Nicole: Pretty yummy. I did not taste the Gruyere per say, so I'm not sure if I would spend the money again. I may just use cheddar or Monterrey jack or a combo of both. The flavor of the burger was really good too. It is very similar to my mom's burger "recipe." Paul cooked mine perfectly. He is the grill master! I give the burgers a 4.

Paul-gives it a 3.95. The 90% lean makes it a little dry and you can always use more cheese. **

Austin- There were pickles. No need to say more. The meat was a mere side dish next to the pickles. He ate the tots too. He ate a quarter of a burger.

** I told him that it would no longer be low cal if we listened to his recommendations. He said, "yeah, I guess it's only fault is that I'm used to your mom's juicy burgers."