How to make Healthy Hamburger

Natalie Butler: Hey guys its Natalie, I'm back in the kitchen and today we were doing healthy hamburger and this is a great alternative especially if you are the one that get sucked in you know to going to the drive troughs and getting hamburger, this is going to be lower in fat, lower in calories much healthier and its actually going to be obsessive, if there is going to be good stuff to it and its going to be full flavored so you are not going to feel like you are missing out. Now we are going to start off, we are going to make one hamburger patty and this is about 4 ounces of ground buffalo meat and a serving size for red meat is 3 ounces but when we cook it, it will shrink a little bit so that's why I've portioned off about 4 ounces and the reason why I choose buffalo meat is because its much lower in fat than regular beef and it doesn't have you know a very different flavor at all. I think it actually tastes better and so its just a better choice now, not every place has buffalo meat but I am seeing it more at you know chain, grocery stores that aren't necessarily health food stores. So they are becoming, you know its beginning to be more prevalent in normal grocery stores, so just check it out in your meat section. And the bun that I have chosen is it's from Alvarado Street Bakery and it's a sprouted burger made with 100% organic whole grains and sprouted grains are really great alternative to the regular bread. Because the grains are actually put in a little bit of water and so the water helps the enzymes and the grains breakdown a little bit and so the enzymes and the vitamins and the minerals are more abundant you are able to digest them easier so this is an excellent choice for any one I mean anybody who likes bread just because you are trying to eat healthy does not mean that you can have bread in your diet and I know that it's a popular diet right now but you know don't think that's the case because you know healthy breads and healthy grains are actually a very important part of your diet. So this is an excellent choice to have especially when combined with the yummy burger and then while we were making our burger patty I am going to add a little bit of bread crumbs, this is just bulk bread crumbs from a health food store and you are just going to add a little bit to kind of keep the meat together and then we are going to put on top a few slices of Organic Valley Pepper Jack Cheese. So you are getting some richness and some flavor but you are not going to cut it pretty thin, so you are not going to add a whole lot of calories but I want you to realize that just because you are eating healthy it doesn't mean that you can you know include foods like cheese and you know things that you may think I can never eat again because that's not true. You know these things are loaded with vitamins, calcium and they do have benefits you just have to eat them in moderation. So everything can fit into your diet and moderation. So we are going to add cheese and then we are going to thinly slice some fresh organic tomatoes and fresh jalapenos and nuts just for spice. So if you cant do spice and then of course you don't have to put that on there. We are going to add a little bit of onion to top it off and a bed of fresh spinach instead of lettuce because it has much more vitamins than iceberg lettuce has. So we have our meat here in the bowl and I am going to add a little bit of ingredients to it to give us some great flavor. So we are going to add a little bit of breadcrumbs and you can just I mean just about a teaspoon not much at all and we are going to add a little bit of balsamic vinegar and this is going to help the burger stay moist when you are cooking it and also balsamic vinegar I am using organic balsamic vinegar and this is also going to add a really great flavor to it. Now we are going to add some red onions and I have chopped them pretty finely and this is going to give some really good flavor almost like a spiciness to it and I am going to add some sea salt and just a little sprinkled, you don't want to add too much, you can always add a little bit at the end if you need a little bit saltier taste. The great thing about sea salt which I am using is it doesn't impact high blood pressure like regular sodium because that have the whole lot of minerals that balance out the salt or the sodium in the salt we are using. So it's much better choice and then we are going to add a little bit of black pepper okay. So we are just going to get you know all mixed up and then balsamic vinegar is giving a you know a darker color that let you know that its getting you know all mixed, all mixed up which is good. And again you don't have to be perfect. So now I am going to take this out and I have two cutting boards here, one for the meat and one for the non-meat products and that way they don't get mixed up and you don't have any contamination. So I am just going to flat it in my hands and you'll see you know all the ingredients we have added are in this patty here and this will shrink down but this is a good size of meat and it's a serving so its not like you have to you know hardly have any meat on your burger and a good way to make this is if you make that edges thicker than the inside, they want to shrink so it will all be even and don't have a you know a hump in the middle and then all your toppings fall off. So now we are just going to put the patty on the non-stick pan and that's perfect you know the pan is hot enough. You don't have to put any oil in the non-stick pan and of course you can put this is on the grill too but this is great because it works for everybody. Even if you don't have a grill you can cook it in your pan just at home and yeah and don't add any extra oil or you know any kind of fat because its non-stick so its going to cook just fine and then that actually will allow some of the fat from the buffalo meat to come out and that way its you are not adding fat its actually can take away that when we you know when we lift it out at here the fat will stay in the pan. You notice usually when you cook with ground meat, ground you know red meat beef is you'll get a lot of fat that comes out but because the buffalo meat is so lean you are not going to have a whole lot of grease that's going to come out which is white buffalo meat is such a good choice. Okay, so lets go ahead and flip this and you can see that you know its cooked in enough and you know the onions in there are cooking as well, which I mean you know its just getting a really good flavor and now because the bottom is now cooking and the top is already cooked we are going to reach over and grab a few slices of our cheese so that they have on the top and these are very thinly sliced and you are not adding a whole bunch of calories but you are going to get a really great flavor from that meat or from the cheese on the meat. Then another great idea too is to allow the cheese to melt even faster because you don't want to overcook your burger either because then it will dry out, so you can just add a plate on top or if you have a lid for your sauce pan that's fine and just doing this will allow the steam cause the cheese to melt slightly. Alright, so I have turned our heat off because the meat will actually be cooked by now and that cheese is perfectly melted now. So we are just going to take a little peeking here and make sure that everything is cooked on the inside, no you don't want it to be red and that looks fantastic. So here we have our burger on our sprouted grain bun and you can add mustard to this and I don't really recommend ketchup because unfortunately a lot of it does have high fructose corn syrup and it really is loaded with sugar so I don't recommend ketchup but you can even spread a little bit of tomato paste on there if you want that tomato to be flavored, so its up to you just make sure that you keep in mind whatever you add to it of course will add calories. So you want to add in small amounts but you can be a little bit more liberal with mustard. When you are eating a burger and then you are getting French fries with it, that's a lot of carbohydrates. So you either get a smaller bun and then you can afford to have a starch or you can eat half the bun so there you know there is different variations but typically when I will eat a burger like this is will eat half the bun and then have a vegetable that's really the best way you are getting good protein you are getting vegetables and you are getting a little bit of fat with the cheese which is giving you some calcium and vitamin D and so there you have it and like I said serve it with the vegetables that would be the best choice. So I wanted to make this video you know regarding a healthy hamburger because you know obviously burgers are very popular in society. A lot of people are going to fast food restaurants and drive troughs to get burger respect. This is a great alternative, it dint take a long to make it at all and then you could do really customize it how you like it and you are adding your own vegetables you are actually giving some nutrients on your burger and it really taste great and then you are actually getting to choose buffalo rather than beef which is a better choice you know lower fat but anyway try this at home, leave your comments, let me know how you like it and I will see you next time, bye.