You can keep creating Thanksgiving Flavors all this month.
I was watching ‘The Chew’…. (yes I have been watching that lately)… and I think it was Mario, or was it Michael… who stuffed a turkey burger with stuffing?
Now, I have a vegan daughter and a son who eats anything that isn’t tied down. And I did do a vegan Thanksgiving right?
YES CHEF!
My son wasn’t around for Thanksgiving, but turned up yesterday, so I decided to give him a treat, by creating hamburgers… actually turkey burgers with all the fixin’s!
Now, I’ve stuffed regular angus burgers with Gorgonzola…. YUM.
But how about this? Take a ring (round silver or plastic used to cut out hand size or smaller circles), place it on a surface, add ground turkey, create a small ball of stuffing and place it on top, and finish it off with more ground turkey, pressing down. When you remove the ring, (pulling it up), you then seal the edges all around, pushing in any stuffing that may have popped out.
Then pan sauté it, place a slice of jellied cranberry on top and place it into a brioche bun.
(Yes. I know. Brioche = butter). I told you, I’m not always a saint!
In this case? For my son? I added more stuffing in the middle of the spread pieces, in case my son didn’t get his fill of stuffing!
And here’s the best part…
Next day… it’s even better (once the flavors have had a chance to ‘marry’)!
And the thought occurred to me, that I was more like Guy Fieri, who does that ‘big bite’ thing (fitting or trying to fit a ‘hard to fit’ sandwich into his mouth). It doesn’t look like it on the plate, but that first one was like a ‘mile high’ sandwich! Crazy! And I found it way less enjoyable to try to stuff food into my mouth like that. Hey! All this talk about ‘mindful eating’ has finally paid off!
You will notice the second time around, I took a third of a turkey burger… and I cut one brioche into 4 pieces, so I had thin sliced bread. Way less damage. And I enjoyed the flavors even more!
Now, because I put the cranberry on the side, the extra space and flavor decrease allowed me to add organic katsup on the burger. You can’t see the stuffing… but take my word for it. It’s in there. And oh so yum.
What that means is: you can throw together a bunch of these, freeze ’em leaving enough out for a couple of days … so people can help themselves when they feel a hunger coming on!
Actually, I would think that sweet potato fries would add another level of satisfaction. But what do I know…? lol
It’s hard on me, cooking like this. Cause I try my best to stay vegan at home, and only eat meat when I’m out. But these burgers were so good, I really had to try one…. and then another the next day. lol
And should we talk about my stuffing?
YES CHEF!
Well, my stuffing is always ‘the bomb’. This year, I bought four 10 ounce bags of Arrowhead Mills Organic Savory Herb Stuffing. It’s basically old bread crumbs, nice and hard and Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. Remember me to the one who lives there… she once was ….
Ok. Ok. I ‘get’ that you don’t know that song. But it was a beautiful time in my life with Simon and Garfunkel, so I just go there.
Aaaah…. you do remember that song? How cool is that?
Getting back to stuffing, in my history I have always added thin little breakfast sausage, cornbread, butter, egg, celery, carrot, onion and chicken broth.
In an attempt to cut down in some ways, I used chicken sausage, mushroom broth, coconut spread instead of butter and no egg and way less cornbread.
Doesn’t look bad, does it? You see the corn? I added one small little cornbread from Jimbos for an entire tray of stuffing. Good ingredients. I added caramelized mushrooms. So all in all, the stuffing itself is a meal. I can sauté these up on the stovetop and it’s a great side dish.
Another thought? How about in scrambled eggs in the morning?
BUT CHEF! YOU SAID YOU WERE TRYING TO EAT LESS OF THIS, NOT MORE!
Oh, not me! We’re talking about you! Again, leave some out and freeze the rest. Use them all month long!
Remember: I used only two chicken sausage, taking it out of its’ casing as a crumble inside the stuffing. Protein/Carb/Veggies. No Butter. No Pork. No animal broth. Hey! You cut where you can!
So that ends my rant on Thanksgiving Flavors.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the ride and that I have given you some ez breezy ways to make a dinner that everyone will love!
Occasionally it’s nice to be a rock star, in your own kitchen!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian