Outside-In Cheeseburger Patty

Another burger! Hungry-Girl really gets me! What’s more comfort food then a cheeseburger? (besides turkey that is) Grilled beefy goodness with gooey cheesy heaven on top! Throw it on a bun, eat it wrapped in lettuce or all by itself, burgers have a very soft spot in my heart! (I even like veggie burgers, tuna burgers, black bean burgers, turkey burgers….etc) This recipe however won’t send you into a fast food greasy coma or expand your waist line to extremes!

This recipe calls for The Laughing Cow light cheese wedge. If you love cheese but also love your skinny jeans, you have got to check this stuff out (if you haven’t already) it comes in many of great flavors (new flavors just hit supermarket shelves a few months ago like blue cheese, queso fresco & chipotle….and a few more) my favorite is the garlic and herb variety.

After yesterdays “I’m so excited to try this recipe, but it turned out gross” issues, I tried not to get too excited about this one. Even though it involved burgers and The Laughing Cow cheese! I had to control my excitement!

THE RECIPE:

Outside-In Cheeseburger Patty

PER SERVING (entire recipe) 179 calories, 6.5g fat, 502mg sodium, 1.5g carbs, 0g fiber, 1g sugars, 26.5g  protein

Wow, look at the impressive protein stats!

INGREDIENTS:

4 ounces raw extra-lean ground beef

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. onion powder

1/8 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

dash salt, more to taste

dash black pepper, more to taste

1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese (not gonna lie, I used the garlic and herb variety….don’t judge me)

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a bowl. Add as much salt and pepper as you like. Knead mixture by hand until integrated.

Form into a ball and, using your thumb, make a large, hollow indentation in the ball (past the center but not all the way through). Fill the hole with cheese and squeeze the meat to seal, making sure no cheese is exposed. (ok, why am I just now reading this, I swear I skim stuff too much, I had cheese showing, oops!) Flatten slightly into a thick patty.

The hole in my meaty ball! (Wow, my hands look porky)

Stuffing the cheese into the hole! This was harder than it sounds, the mushy cheese is quite pliable. (Please ignore the black line at the bottom of the picture, it was hard to take a picture with a touch screen camera phone with one hand full of cheesy meat)

The formed patty! (see the cheese on the outside, oops!)

Bring skillet or grill pan (again, went with the skillet) sprayed with nonstick spray to medium-heat. Place patty in the skillet/grill pan, cover and cook for 4 to 7 minutes per side, depending on how well done you like your burger. Heads up: Don’t press on the patty with your spatula (your burger might ooze cheese!).

Serve however you like your burger….We like ours with ketchup and pickles between giant leaves of lettuce!

I like  mine between giant leaves of lettuce too, minus the ketchup and pickles. 🙂

Holy batman! Thats a friggin close up!

So what does it look like on the inside you ask?

After about 12 different trys, I think this one was the best shot!

Yeah, its a little on the rare side, deal with it mad cow haters! Ha! (and no those are not my hairy fingers, haha!)

THE REVIEW:

My first bite reaction: Mmmm, I like cheese!

Mike’s first bite reaction: A hamburger with cheese, it’s good!

This was a success and so utterly easy! Nothing too complicated, no fancy knife skills involved and such comfort food appeal! Score!

Creativity: I really liked that after cooking it looked like an innocent looking burger. Then you take a bite and BAM, there’s cheese in your mouth! And it melds so well with the burger its like it was meant to be there! Yes, you could have just put the cheese on top of the cooked patty but hell, that’s no fun! The fun makes you feel like you cheated, but you didn’t!

Texture: Pretty straight forward burger patty, nothing too complex to delve into here. The cheese inside didn’t change the texture a ton, it really worked well!

Taste: A little bummed that the Worcestershire didn’t stand out more (seeing as how this was the only thing I had to pick up at the store to make this) but Mike said he could tell it was there! (In all honesty, I was freakin’ fammished by the time I got around to eating this and almost inhaled it, I guess I could have paid a bit more attention) Overall, I loved it! Cheese & beef, yum!

Satisfaction: So completely and utterly worth the 4 weight watcher points! I don’t honestly eat a lot of red meat (red meat takes your body 72 hours to digest, just knowing that makes me cringe a little) but I do love it! I keep going back to what Mike said about the peanut butter and peanuts, tonight I felt like i ate a cup of peanuts and crunched on them for days! (btw, the whole article is great, the peanut butter thing is under the “touch” category.) In other words, I was so happy with this and (even being completely starving before consuming) I was extremely full after eating this burger with some veggies and a few potatoes (aka, same as yesterday, yeah I was being creatively boring)

What kind of comfort food makes you feel this happy?