Memorable Meals: Part One

Happy Memorial Day! I hope you had a wonderful long weekend celebrating with friends and family, as well as honoring those who serve our country.

In Chicago, we enjoyed one glorious day of sunshine and warmth. Finally.

Happy to be hanging with my hubby. 🙂 Jill invited us over for a wonderful brunch this morning and we just happened to wander up to her rooftop patio. It was gorgeous up there!

The main event this weekend was the food. Oh. My. Goodness. Bobby and I went all out on the recipe front and managed to pleasantly surprise ourselves! I took more than 100 pictures (!!) but in order to spare you the scroll through of one gigantic post, expect several pieces of the puzzle to trickle in as the week goes on.

I’ll start with my most festive breakfast – an old favorite brought back from 2010.

I have missed this fantastic combination!

The Best (Yogurt) Mess You’ll Ever Make

Ingredients (serves one):

• 1 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean
• 8 raspberries
• 8 blackberries
• 1 heaping helping of Dark Chocolate Dreams

Take another pretty picture for posterity, then proceed to mix and enjoy.

After enjoying this on Saturday morning, I had to have it again on Sunday. Welcome back, yogurt mess.

Our first foray into creating a successful new recipe started out pretty sweet.

We decided to go round two at burger making, but this time, we were prepared with our side dish.

We seasoned one sweet and one russet potato with garlic salt, pepper and olive oil.

We baked them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, turned and baked them for 10 minutes more.

The result?

Crispy, seasoned perfection. At the very least, we had something to munch on.

Now about those burgers…

As you can see, they came out in one piece this time around! We took your advice on smaller patties and the “missing ingredient,” and though we did not have any bread crumbs on hand (you’d think we would have remembered those when we saw the grass-fed beef on sale), we had the next best thing: flour!

Take Two (And Pass Them Down) Beef Burgers 

Ingredients (serves four):

• 1 pound ground grass-fed beef
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. mustard
• 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

We formed the mixture into quarter-sized patties, which held together much better.

As the patties began to sizzle, we also started our beer-soaked mushroom topping.

This was comprised of two large portabella mushrooms, garlic salt, pepper, olive oil and…

…beer. Drinking the leftovers is optional, but encouraged.

Soon enough, the burgers needed flipping. The biggest test of all.

SUCCESS! Sure, they have their “wrinkles,” but like a fine wine, these burgers taste better with age. 😉 On the other side of the stove, the beer-soaked mushrooms smelled heavenly.

We chopped up some fresh tomato for garnish.

Then whipped out Nature’s Pride Whole Wheat Bakery Buns. Too good looking to pass up.

Before we knew it, the time had come to begin stacking…

…and snacking. These fries need to become a weekly staple.

At meal’s end, our bellies were perfectly full and we toasted to burger success, the second time around.

It was a great way to kick off the long weekend. Can’t wait to share our next recipe with you!

Hint: It was an attempt to recreate part of our wedding meal!

What did you do this weekend? Hope the weather was nice wherever you are, too!

Abrazos,