"Buffalo" Turkey Burgers

It has been pretty busy around here lately with different types of food events, friends in town, and, of course, general summer enjoyment.  Sometimes, that doesn't leave enough time to get a lot of cooking done, and can occasionally lead to "fast" meals.  Of course, you know, as well as I do, that "fast" meals don't need to be bad tasting, or bad for you just because they are quick to prepare, and they can always satisfy a good craving.  


A few evenings ago, I was craving something spicy, and I was craving something that I could prepare quickly since I was returning from the gym and had a hunger that needed to be satiated quickly.  So I decided on something summery, fast, and spicy- and settled on Buffalo Turkey Burgers.  A quick stop at the store for some ground turkey meat and some lovely blue cheese I was home bound ready to make a satisfying and delicious meal.

I started off by heating up my grill pan over medium high heat until it was nice and hot.  While I waited for it to heat up I placed the turkey meat into a plastic container, and sprinkled over the top about a tablespoon of garlic powder, a tablespoon and a half of cayenne pepper, and a sprinkle or two of salt.  Then came the fun part- I crumbled about half the small wedge of blue cheese- so perhaps 1/3 of a cup of blue cheese into the meat,
and then mixed it all together until the spices and the cheese were equally distributed.  After that was done, it was just a matter of forming four patties, and throwing them on the grill.



I used their cooking time (a bout 10 minutes aside depending on thickness) to make myself a side salad, and cut up some veggies for toppings (mmm avocado, tomato, red onion and some lettuce), and then I toasted up some bread and spread a single wedge of French Onion Lite Laughing Cow cheese on one side.  Once the burgers were done, I slid them off the grill and threw one directly onto my sandwich.

The flavor combination was really fantastic!  The cayenne in the burger was good and spicy and with the garlic powder and the salt it created a really nice flavor profile.  The blue cheese addition was really great- it cooled off the taste buds and was constantly a nice surprise of creamy tanginess throughout the burger. 

These were a perfect summer time easy dinner, that turned into a couple of nice lunches with the leftovers!  Sometimes things just don't need to be hard!

What are your favorite mid week recipes?