Learn How to Prepare Hamburger Patties in a Healthy Way
As summer turns into fall and kids are back at school, people are trying to squeeze the last bits of the summer sun before the chillness of winter comes. With one more holiday left to enjoy backyard cookouts, making time honored favorites helps bring everyone together. But in the wake of our battle of the bulge, many find it hard to maintain the diet and still enjoy those family favorites.
While some burgers are better than others, I’m a sucker for a grilled patty on a burger bun. But I’ve also been in a movement to take better care of myself and at the beginning of my weight loss, I was saddened to realize that all of my favorite foods would need to go to the wayside.
There is good news for those that like me, enjoy a tasty patty, but know the importance of keeping with the diet. In this article, I’ll go over some ways on how to prepare hamburger patties, but without the fat and cholesterol you need to avoid.
Preparing Hamburger Patties
There really isn’t an ‘art’ on how to prepare hamburger patties. Each individual person has their own way of making them, just as they have their own way of cooking them. The secret is how to prepare them and eat them that is productive to your diet and nutrition. The first thing to preparing healthier burgers is to purchase either lean ground beef or healthier substitutes.
Ground beef packages will be either 80-93% lean and will contain very little fat. You can of course substitute ground beef with say Ground Turkey. My favorite so far is buffalo, which actually is much leaner than ground beef and tastes just the same. You can also use veggie burgers, which are burgers that aren’t made of meat (good for those family members who don’t eat meat). The above is of course about ground meats; you can still purchase already made hamburger patties. The key there is to make sure to check the nutritional facts, checking to see what type of ground meat the patties were made from.
After your purchase, if you’ve selected ground beef, you will need to empty the container into a bowl in order to start making patties. Again, the key is to make small to medium sized patties. This makes a difference, as the more meat you use, the more caloric intake you face and that’s assuming you plan on just eating the one burger. At this stage, you can add seasonings to the burger, like salt, pepper, or garlic.
Don’t add too much salt as it adds more sodium, as well as making the burger taste salty.
When you’ve seasoned the meat, take a hand full and begin to roll into a ball, like the size of a tennis or baseball. You can flatten them later, after you’ve made as many as you need. Make sure that, if you have guests of differing tastes, you keep the meats separate and label the bowls and/or trays, so you know which group gets which burgers.
Burger Extras
Cooking the hamburger patty is different for everyone - they can be grilled, broiled, cooked in a pan, etc. The most effective is probably grilling, as the fats from the burger drip off and into the grill. For those without a traditional grill, the George Foreman or other types of indoor grills use the same principle, only you don’t need to buy charcoal.
Preparing hamburger patties is the first part of making a healthy burger, while eating one is the second part. By this I mean, one needs to watch how much they eat or how much they add to their dish. One plain hamburger with the fixin’s of minimum condiments and veggies should be able to keep the stomach happy for a few hours. Add in side dishes or snacks and the stomach should be content.
Don’t try to overeat! If the stomach says it’s full, it probably is. Wait at least two to three hours before eating again; bored and stressed eaters will want something to occupy their minds so they won’t snack, so enjoy the time with a game for everyone.
Sources
eHow: Types of Lean Beef - https://www.ehow.com/list_6911661_types-lean-beef.html
Spark People Recipes - https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/recipes.asp
Image courtesy of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamburger.jpg