Chicken burgers with pub cheese

These easy, fast chicken burgers are packed with flavor and ready in under 30 minutes. They’re what I cook on nights when it’s suddenly dinnertime, everyone’s hangry, and I need a quick, crowd-pleasing meal.

Take me to the burgers!

Guess what?! Change is hard! I sent my little off to Kindergarten on Monday (we’re on a hybrid schedule so he’s in school one week and at home the next) and then wandered around my house for 5 hours like I’d never been here before. (And he went back to Pre-K for almost two months this summer, so I don’t know why it felt so weird!)

That happens to me any time I go through a big transition. The edges suddenly feel a little fuzzy and I temporarily forget how to negotiate my day. It’s no wonder my kid struggles with change too.

How do you deal with change? Is there something that anchors you when the seas get rough? For me, it’s cooking. When I feel off kilter, I need to cook something. It focuses my mind, forces me to think about the present, and following a recipe is really helpful when I just want someone to tell me what to do.

So, here is a fab recipe for chicken burgers. If you’re feeling strange as this new school year starts, I’ll be the grown up telling you, “Make these for dinner. Here’s how.” Problem solved.

A couple of notes:

• The heat of the skillet is important. A good sear on both sides and then covering the pan and letting the meat steam as it cooks seals in the juices as well as cooking the meat pretty fast.

• I try not to handle the raw meat mixture too much; the more you mix the meat, cheese, and spices, the tougher and more rubbery it can get.

• DO NOT, I REPEAT: DO NOT use another bowl to mix these ingredients. Use the container that the ground chicken came in. Save a dish.

Chicken burgers

Time: 25 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 4 burgers 

1 lb ground dark meat chicken (I like to use leg meat) 
1 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp onion powder 
1 tsp fine sea salt 
½ tsp cumin 
½ tsp coriander 
pepper to taste
¼ cup pub cheese 
2 Tbsp olive oil

Sprinkle the seasonings and plop the cheese onto the ground chicken in the package. Using your hands, mix thoroughly, but try not to over mix. I like to make sure that there aren’t any pockets of dry spices, but if there are still blobs of cheese, that’s fine.

Heat a skillet over a medium high flame. Add the olive oil and heat until the oil slips easily around the pan. Add patties with ¼ of the mixture in each one, trying to shape them into rough circles. 

Get a good sear on one side. If the pan is hot enough, this should take about 3 minutes. Flip and sear on the other side, 3 more minutes.

Turn the flame to low and cover the skillet. Cook until the burgers are firm and have reached an internal temperature of 165, about 10-12 minutes. 

How to fill a lunchbox

I spend a lot of time thinking about, planning, and executing M's lunches. And there are days when he eats...none of it. But there are days when he eats tons and I feel utterly triumphant. I wanted to share my top lunchbox tips so that you, too, can declare victory when that lunchbox comes home nearly empty (and you haven't worked that hard to make it happen).

Sushi is always a favorite and can be filled with WHATEVER your kid likes. See my Instagram post for my simple sushi rice recipe.

1) Repurpose leftovers: Obviously, you can plop a portion of last night's dinner into your kids' lunchbox. (See below for some favorite ways to do this.) But another tactic is to make extras of the proteins and veggies that were dinner's components. Those ingredients, plus a tortilla with some cheese (or vegan cheese) and avocado, become a taco, quesadilla, or roll-up. We're also big fans of the "open face" sandwich with cheese melted on top. Or, cube it all up and make a skewer. Or, if your kid is a pasta eater, add those proteins and veggies to noodles and some jarred sauce. Easy peasy.

Leftover fried rice plus smoked salmon, blueberries, cheese, hummus, and pretzels.

2) Prep: Every weekend I do these 5 things:

• Hard boil some eggs

• Make a white, wheat, rice, or bean pasta

• Bake mini muffins or doughnuts

• Make no-bake energy balls or granola bars

• Roast two veggies that I know M will eat

3) Send breakfast for lunch: I often make double breakfast and add it to a lunchbox later in the week. For instance, these two-ingredient egg and banana pancakes are a big favorite. Use them as sandwich bread with nut or seed butter and chia jam or rolled them up like little cigars. Savory waffles like veggie or cheese can sub in for sandwich bread. Granola cups are also an easy batch bake that work for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

4) Take inspiration from their classroom learning: I like to theme M's lunches, but that's mostly because I need inspiration and not because I'm trying to win any mom awards. Dinosaurs, Butterflies, and The Ocean were particularly fertile ground. Even if "theme-ing" lunch just means cutting out a sandwich shape, it feels a little special.

5) Deconstruct something they like: Add the fixings for tacos, nachos, sandwiches, pasta, etc and let them put it together themselves. Like a homemade lunchable.

6) Think about appetizers: Have you considered sending your kids to school with a cheese plate or chicken sausage pigs in a blanket? Half of M's lunch most days is a crudite plate.

See? Basically crudite.

Double Duty Dinner/Lunch Recipes 

Salmon and sweet potato burgers

Lentil meatballs

Chicken meatballs

Cream tomato and white bean pasta

Spring veggie baked gnocchi

Zucchini and pea mac and cheese

Sweets with oomph

honey, lemon and ginger spelt muffins

Banana bread doughnuts

Apples and honey breakfast cookies

No bake add-ins

No-bake granola bars

Pumpkin energy bites

S’mores energy balls

Happy lunching everyone!

Shrimp and black bean burgers

Shrimp is one of the things that M will almost always eat. Almost. He likes them cooked any way and in any flavor combination. But you know what? I worry about shrimp. There's a lot of variety and choice at the supermarket and it's hard to know what's best. Fresh or frozen? Large or small? Shells or no shells? Pink, white, tiger, or rock? Wild or farmed? Do I really need to spend $40 a pound? See? It's crazy making. I did a little (very very little) bit of research and there are a few guides out there to help determine what's right for you.

Once you figure it out (or not, sometimes you just have to choose your choice and be done with it), these shrimp and black bean burgers are tasty and easy and summery and healthy. They're gluten-free because corn flour or corn meal are your binder. And though there's a long list of spices in there, the end result is subtle and complex, considering. 

And the chives add a nice green note to the burgers, but if you don't have any or can't find any, scallions are a nice substitution.

A note about your choice of corn meal vs corn flour: I've made these with the the finest corn flour and the coarsest corn meal and they're good either way, so use what you have on hand. Just know that the finer the corn flour or meal, the better the patties stick together. The coarse meal works well, but you may have a bit of breakage in the cooking process.

Black bean and shrimp burgers

12 oz shrimp, uncooked
12 large or 20 small chives, torn or chopped into large pieces
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp Mexican oregano
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp cayenne
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup corn flour or meal
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
lime wedges for serving

If using frozen shrimp, defrost in lukewarm water and squeeze lightly before measuring.

Add whole raw shrimp to a food processor with the chives and the spices and pulse about 10-12 times until the spices are distributed and the shrimp are chopped into medium pieces.

Turn the shrimp mixture out into a bowl and add the eggs, cornmeal, and black beans. Mix well, smashing some of the beans with your spoon or spatula.

Form into 12 balls or patties (about a heaping ¼ each) and chill for 20 minutes.

Heat a skillet with some oil over medium heat. When ready turn heat down to medium low and brown on one side for 3-5 minutes. Flip the patties and repeat on the other side. Cover the pan, turn heat down slightly, and cook for 10-12 minutes or until cooked through. (I usually just split one open to test it.) 

Yield: 12 patties