Healthier Homemade McDonalds Part 1 - Burgers

We ALL love McDonalds, right? And some of us go there EVERY SINGLE DAY!
No joke, I'm serious, and Dan is a victim; He is one that goes there everyday. But since we're low on money, he has cut down the past week, going only once every 1-4 days. He may not go there everyday to get a McMuffin, but he will at least go there everyday to get a soda.
But when we are stocked on money, he will go everyday. And though he looses more weight than he gains, it is still VERY UNHEALTHY!
So I decided to change that for him, and myself. Saving money, time, and days on his life.

Now making burgers everyday at home DOES NOT mean you are eating healthy, however, it does beat eating whatever unknown items they are putting in the McDouble.

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Lets say a McDouble is $1, and trust me, its small. Nothing like the pictures. So to feed 2 boys, and a girl, you'd have say 5 burgers. Thats $5 + Tax.
Each of those burgers with everything that comes on it:
Calories: 390  Calories from Fat 170 Total Fat 19g (29%) Saturated Fat 8g (42%) Trans Fat 1g Sugars 7g

Now a homemade burger can get a bit pricy... But thats if you decide to buy everything for a one time use only. When making burgers you'll want maybe a large or small tomato, 1/2 onion, 2-3 leaves of a lettuce head, maybe pickles, buns, and meat. Sounds like a lot, right? Well you can use ALL of that minus the meat and buns to make a salad, or tacos for another day, some of that you can add to spaghetti, or some of that can go towards a turkey sandwich. So in reality, you're still saving money. Because $5 and McDonalds can only feed you for one night. And only for 2-5 hours at that, till you get hungry again!!

Homemade Burger: 1lbs Ground Beef: $3.99 - $5 depending on where you buy it.
Tomatoes, Onion, Lettuce, Buns: Cost us $7.45
American Cheese which we had already: $3
Garlic: $0.58
I'm going to assume you already have ketchup and mustard.
$15.02 and that's if you don't already have garlic, and cheese, which most people already have in the house. Soo, in reality, your burgers CAN just cost $6 if you are always stocked on veggies, which you should be. ;)

Lets Get Started!

Ingredients:

1lbs premium lean beef Or if you want, regular ground beef.    

2 clove garlic, crushed    

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced (Or however much you want.)  

1/2 tsp (s) olive oil   

1/8 tsp (s) dried oregano   

Sliced singles reduced fat american cheese (Or whatever you like.)  

Wheat burger buns   

1 small/medium tomato, thinly sliced 

1/2 tsp rosemary

Other seasonings (as well as mustard, salt, and pepper for taste.)

 

Method:

You can use a skillet if its winter time, or even your oven. I used my stove top, on medium with a drizzle of olive oil.

OR Preheat a grill pan or barbeque over medium-high heat.

Combine beef, cut up rosemary, 1/4 onion and garlic in a bowl and season to taste with a little bit of mustard, other seasonings of your choice, oregano, salt and pepper. 

Form mixture into 4 x 1cm thick patties. Place patties in pan and cook for 4-6 minutes each side (or to whatever your meat cook preference is), then cheese ontop and cook until cheese has melted.

(I'm using gloves because I have long nails.)

Meanwhile, put a tiny bit of butter for taste, and a drizzle of olive oil into another pan. Melt, than add slices of onion, and sauté. For approximately 2-5 minutes, or until they become translucent. 

Lightly toast bread in toaster. Place patties on buns then top with onion lettuce, and tomato. Mustard and ketchup. 

Notes:

• The secret to a juicy, lean patty is to avoid pressing down on it while it cooks so it retains all its juices.
• This recipe was written by Weight Watchers as part of Kidspot's Positively Life Changing initiative, with my own little ad ins here and there.
  
  

The dogs like to stick their nose in EVERYTHING, even if its not meat.