Help, help, I have moldy buns!!!

Happy Friday everyone! I seem to find myself blogging pretty faithfully on Friday's.  Well this week I was pretty lax in my counting and a little less than disciplined in my eating as you may have read on Wednesday.  Good thing for running I guess I still managed to lose another 1/2 a lb. All losses, even tiny ones, are good! This week I discovered I am down 3 pant sizes.  I found clothes I was going to give to goodwill because I had given up on fitting in them and they fit, so luckily I have a few more pairs of capris to get me by for a little while longer. I really need to start doing weights or something this week to go along with my cardio which is finally on track!

OK dinner tonight, plus I know you are all dying to find out the story behind the title of this blog entry.  Tonight we had Mediterranean Lamburgers (the Lamburger part makes me smile). This is another Jillian Michaels Master your Metabolism "Master"piece (man I am on a roll tonight). This is what they were supposed to look like:

Mediterranean Lamburgers

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup rolled oats (not instant)

1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

1 teaspoon fresh mint leaves, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 pound ground lamb

1/4 cup hummus (this is one of my only alterations to Ms Michaels fabulous recipe, it called for a little tahini but I didn't really want to buy it and it is one of the main ingredients in hummus so I added more hummus instead which allowed me to spread my burgers out a little further for fewer points)

1 garlic clove minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Yields 6 servings.

In the work bowl of a food processor, place sunflower seeds, rolled oats, oregano, mint and lemon zest. Process until ground, but not mushy or pureed.

Place the lamb in a large mixing bowl, and add sunflower seed mixture along with hummus, garlic, salt and pepper.

Use your clean hands to gently combine. Form the mixture into six patties and place on a plate.

Cook as you like on an outdoor grill. Or heat a large cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed (not nonstick) skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the burgers and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Then turn with a spatula. Cook for another 5 or 6 minutes. For any cooking method, USDA recommends that burgers be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 F.

Serving suggestion: Good served on toasted buns with a 1 Tbsp feta and 1 Tbsp tzatziki sauce, lettuce and tomato.  (Seriously if you have a Costco membership and you haven't bought their tub of tzatziki yet you are missing out.) Now this is how we would have eaten the burgers, as I volunteered to make dinner tonight for my in-laws when we arrived to their house after my Mother-in-law had been working all day.  However I opened my package of buns at the table and they had......um.....expired.  The inside was green and was turning into what my Father-in-law refers to as a "science project".  Nice, how embarrassing.  Luckily my Mother-in-law had whole wheat tortillas, break that meat apart and it's instant gyro!! Awesome.  This meat was SO so good you guys. If you like gyros you have to try this!  Ok with bun, tzatziki and cheese they are 12 pts.  A little harsh, I think.  However delicious enough to be worth it, esp on weigh-in day.  My poor husband missed out on this one as he was leaving for a poker night bachelor party. No way he is eating this good. 

Now lets talk side dishes.  I had to have my ever popular:

Parmesan Sweet Potato Fries

Seriously we eat these like twice a week.  Good thing my husband likes them so much he is willing to cut the potatoes for me, those suckers are hard to cut! Recipe found here in case you missed this one!

OK and we had to do something else exciting, so we found this one thanks to my weekly Yahoo Shine Food emails:

Cilantro Three-Bean Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup(s) vinegar, cider
• 3 tablespoon oil, salad
• 2 teaspoon sugar, brown (packed)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper, black ground
• 1 can(s) beans, garbanzo (chickpeas), (15 ounces) drained and rinsed
• 1 can(s) beans, white (small), (15 ounces) drained and rinsed
• 1 package(s) beans, lima, (10 ounces) thawed
• 3 medium carrot(s), coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup(s) cilantro
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt (my add on)
• 1 pepper(s), jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped (I skipped this one due to kids!) 

Recipe Tip:

Chill 2 to 24 hours. Or zero hours as we did!

Preparation

1. For dressing, in a large bowl, whisk together cider vinegar, oil, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Stir in garbanzo beans, white beans, lima beans, carrots, the 1/3 cup snipped cilantro, and the chile peppers. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Transfer bean mixture to a serving bowl. If desired, garnish with additional snipped cilantro and garlic salt.

Makes 14 servings and this little gem is only 2 pts! It was really good. I definitely thought it needed the salt but maybe that was just me. 

That was it! I will be back on Sunday with a new nugget for you all that may help you in your exercise ambitions and some stretching techniques. Have a blessed weekend!