a summer burger

note: I LIVED through my race!! (only almost died once) 

It was awesome and amazing and terrible all at the same time. race report coming soon.

I want to share a little something about myself. 

I really, thoroughly, truly, love, appreciate, and drool over,  and loooovve a good burger.

I went probably 5 or so years burgerless. (It was during my fat free stage of life--remember?)

A couple years ago I started researching and learning about quality of meat. 

How it was raised, what it ate, all that good stuff. 

Around the same time I was becoming a lot more active--adding more miles to my running, as well as starting yoga and weekly strength training. 

I was hungry.

We were at the farmer's market, and I decided to see what this whole

"grass fed beef" thing was all about.

We grilled burgers, 

and,

wow. 

It actually tasted good. 

really. good. 

The burgers I'd eaten before had been dry and "boingy" and just tasted bad. I never thought I'd eat another burger, and I was totally ok with that.

I can't really explain the difference in good quality meat--all I know is that you simply must try it. 

I still don't eat a lot of beef--I'm not really a fan of steaks or ribs or any of the other cuts that I have no idea what they are called......but I'm sure if that's your thing, a good quality and fresh steak would be hard to beat. 

(remember we eat LESS meat, so we can afford the better stuff. read more HERE)

Burgers get a bad rap of being unhealthy, but the important thing is that you don't eat them constantly--there is no problem with an occasional burger (everything in moderation!) And a lot of it also depends on what you are having WITH your burger. 

We love to grill burgers sometimes on the weekends, and it's always fun coming up with what toppings we want to go on them. The summer is the best because we can always pull fresh ingredients from the garden to go on our burgers. 

Here is what we had yesterday.

A Summer Burger

bolded ingredients we grew ourselves.....I LOVE summer

-yummy, happy, grass fed beef--local if you can find it--check your farmer's market! salted, peppered, and grilled

-gouda cheese (put it on the burger the last few minutes of grilling)

-our FIRST (woo-hoo!!) tomato of the year

-arugula

-caramelized onions

-balsamic and basil mayo (chopped basil and balsamic vinegar mixed into your favorite mayonnaise)

-all on a toasted whole wheat bun

we paired it with a salad of spinach, spring onions, goat cheese, pine nuts and a quick lemon dressing (fresh squeezed lemon, olive oil, lemon thyme, dijon mustard, salt and pepper)

yum.

What do you like on YOUR burger?