Cheeseburger Bites, Winter Squash Recipes & Books
life is hard; food doesn't have to be #78 [vol3, 1.2]
Last week 25 swimmers came to my kitchen in 3 waves. I gave one workshop three times to UALR’s Division I Women’s Swim Team. Coach asked that I bolster their nutrition knowledge while giving practical cooking skills in 60 minutes. No small feat and I loved every minute.
One of the recipes I made for them to taste - and hopefully give them courage to try at home was for Cheeseburger Bites. It’s a cross between a cheeseburger and egg bites from Starbucks. Yummy for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Cheeseburger Bites
Don’t skip the dill pickle. It’s a must for these. Unless you hate pickles.
Ingredients
1.5 lb uncooked ground beef
8-12 eggs or more
1.5 cup shredded cheese (can reduce or omit cheese just add more eggs)
1c quick oats
1/4 c + ketchup
1/4 c + mustard
¼ c + dill relish or 5 small dill pickles finely diced
onion, chopped or 1T dried
1.5 t sea salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 t smoked paprika (optional and yummy)
Instructions
Mix and scoop into sprayed muffin tin. Bake 20 minutes at 400* till golden.
Notes
I made a larger batch because my ground beef is in 2 lb packages from the butcher. I just eyeballed a little extra of the other ingredients. I’m telling ya, it’s a versatile recipe.
Also have omitted oats. I like the oats for a bit of texture and bulk.
Optional: add bacon! Use kitchen shears to cut small strips of bacon and add to the top of the bites before baking.
I have 3 different muffin tin pans - each of varying quality. There is a stark difference in muffin pan quality. Definitely spray pans well. I used a coconut oil spray to avoid the gross industrial oils.
Two Squash Recipes I Tried This Week
Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing. The hardest part is peeling the squash. You can buy it already peeled and cut up.
Baked Spaghetti Squash with Garlicky Chickpeas - she’s also the recipe writer of the super easy Peasant Bread I’ve been making non-stop.
Bonus: Liver is a superfood I want to enjoy (but haven’t yet; it makes me gag most of the time). Reading this article that reads like a story plus recipe put liver on my radar once again. I learned that chicken liver actually has more iron than beef!
Cookbooks & Books
Two cookbooks I recommended to the collegiate swimmers: Not Your Mother’s Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook as well as Good Cheap Eats Dinner in 30 Minutes or Less. Both are at my local library. I followed Jessica Fisher for years as a blogger and love her no-nonsense, practical style. Either would be great gifts for a newlywed or anyone learning to cook.
Cook Once, Eat All Week is another helpful healthful cookbook I’ve enjoyed from the library. It’s best for families of 2 or 4. If you’re an experienced home cook you can certainly gain ideas and increase portions.
If you’re a bibliophile, my husband wrote a blog post on the books he read in 2021. It will inspire you.
Water
You’ll often hear me talk about toxins, contaminates, etc. The Environmental Working Group just released its Tap Water Database for 2021. They’ve analyzed more than 31 million state water records; see how your zip code fares. Little Rock has 21 contaminates and 10 of those exceed EWG guidelines. Legal doesn’t equal safe.
Up to 60% of our bodies are made of water. Pure water is important for our overall health. My family uses a reverse osmosis water system in the kitchen. They’re about $200 from Lowe’s and relatively easy to install. We replace the filters about twice a year. Here’s an affiliate link from a friend that she recommends - no extra cost to you but she gets a percentage of the sale.
Life is hard, food doesn’t have to be,
Julie