Keepin' It Simple With Slaw (and Burgers)

I can still remember the first time I served the husband ground turkey for dinner. I found a turkey chili recipe and thought it'd be a great meal to take off the February chill. It turned out I served bowls of crumbly weird meat and beans that I called chili. I'm not sure what happened that night more than two years ago now, but I'm still blaming the recipe. There's no way I did anything to mess up that dinner. (Ha!)

For a long time after that, the husband refused to eat ground turkey. I'd pick it up at the grocery store, he'd scrunch up his nose and I'd put it back. That went on for months. Months! But thank goodness the man finally came around.

I think he had ground turkey sliders at a local restaurant or something that finally helped him see the light. He likes ground turkey now. He lets me buy it at the store - and understands the importance of looking for the leanest ground turkey available - and, as of last night, actually requests it for dinner.

We try to keep burgers pretty simple: a few spices, maybe a little molasses if the husband is making beef burgers, but that's about it. (I mean, what's the point of eating a venison burger if it doesn't even taste like venison?) And now that the husband has forgotten all about his first encounter with ground turkey, he feels the same about turkey burgers: Keep it simple.

Last night's burgers were so simple, in fact, I don't even really have a recipe to share with you! We mixed 1 1/4 lbs ground turkey, 1/4 cup reduced-fat feta, a little salt and a little pepper; we had four nice burgers in no time. 

Our side was almost as simple. I tried out a new slaw recipe I found in my (ol' faithful) Cooking Light cookbook, but I'm not sure I'd make it exactly the same next time. It was good, and the husband ate a serving and said it was good, but I don't think he'll be requesting this one again anytime soon. (I found the onion to be a bit overpowering - and I love me some red onion.) 

Sweet and Sour Slaw

Similar to Cooking Light's Recipe

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

4 cups broccoli slaw mix

1 cup thinly sliced green bell pepper

1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion (though I think I'd cut this down next time!)

Combine the first five ingredients and whisk well (preferably in a large bowl that has a secure top). Add in the slaw mix, pepper slices and onion slices.

Put a top on your bowl and shake well. Let the slaw rest in the fridge for at least 10 minutes. (We let our side cool for probably more like 30 minutes while our burgers cooked and it was perfect.)

Enjoy!

Serves 4

Nutritional info, if made with coleslaw mix, as per Cooking Light's instructions:

93 calories, 3.5 g fat, 14.9 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 1.1 g protein