Pizza Burgers a la HG

Per Serving (1/4th of recipe, 1 patty with cheese and sauce): 5 Points+
223 calories, 7g fat, 559mg sodium, 9g carbs, 1.5g fiber, 5g sugars, 31g protein
The recipe: "300 under 300", pages 266 - 267

Growing up, two of my favorite nights were hamburger night and steak and potato night.  I was a big red meat eater when I was much younger.  Then, in high school, I decided I would no longer eat red meat anymore - at the time mostly for environmental reasons.  I even became a vegetarian for over five years in college and beyond.  Now, I eat plenty of meat, except for pork and beef - mostly for health reasons.

This recipe calls for lean ground beef, so I substituted lean ground turkey.  Surprisingly, the nutritional stats are nearly identical for ground beef and turkey - as long as you get the same percentage of fat.  Ground beef that is 3% fat has similar nutritional stats as ground turkey with 3% fat.  It is all about flavor preference in most cases.  For me, it has been so long since I have had beef, that I figure I might as well just use alternatives since I am used to the taste anyway.  My husband is also used to me using ground turkey, and didn't even think anything of me using turkey instead of beef for these.

Well, enough rambling about my meat preferences.  These burgers turned out pretty good.  I have seen italian-style burgers on menus before, but I have never actually tried one myself.  An interesting and delicious spin on a traditional burger.  I liked that I didn't have to add a bunch of condiments after making these, since the flavors in the recipe were plenty for the burger.  I ate mine on a leaf of romaine lettuce to save calories, while my son and husband ate theirs on sandwich thin buns.  Everyone was happy with dinner tonight - a definite plus! 

I also liked how the recipe called for actual pizza sauce instead of crushed tomatoes.  HG uses crushed tomatoes quite frequently in recipes that call for red sauce, and I find that it is sometimes lacking in flavor.  Pizza sauce is pretty low in calories and has a good flavor already.  Overall, this was a good burger that I would definitely consider making again.