My 4 favorite burger recipes

I have a packed blog for you today. Here are my four favorite beef burger recipes and a some information from an article published yesterday about a beef filler that maybe in the beef you are buying from the grocery store. 

BEWARE OF BEEF. sigh. I cannot believe I just wrote that. I love hamburgers, cheeseburgers, turkey burgers, and basically sliders of any kind. I have many burger recipes on my website. See these beauties: 

Peppered Candied Bacon & Egg Burgers on Ciabatta Bread

Palate Pleasing Parsley Burgers

Chipotle Herbed Burgers

Smoky Mozzarella Sliders

I love all meat and occasionally do hit the drive thru for a tasty burger - mostly skipping the fries or sharing them with my kiddo. Especially since the burger has met the ciabatta roll (at one of my fav sit down places) and/or the pretzel bun (wow) my mouth has fell in love with burgers all over again. But I feel as an eater & lover of beef to warn people just incase I wasn't the only one not paying attention last year. Last year, when I was busy being a mom, moving to a new state, transitioning my family out of the navy while a meat scandal rocked the food scene. You probably are well aware of it. I seem to have a knack for missing out on big historical news stuff that my husband teases me about later. But if you aren't knowledgeable about the "pink slime" issue, here are some basic facts with links to other sites for more detailed information. 

According to wikipedia, which is a somewhat creditable site, "pink slim" is essentially boneless beef trimmings that are frozen, smashed, and disinfected. But the problem is that they made of muscle and connective tissue to lower the fat and make people think they are getting a lean batch of ground beef. Two other sources can be read here and here. 

So imagine my surprise when last night we had burgers for dinner, and then today my mom asks me if I know about the additives that are put into ground meat. I say no and tell her I can google it. Articles about pink slime were EVERYWHERE. It was one of those searches that brought up a over a million websites in 3 seconds. This was a very big thing! 

Thinking this is an old issue, it was last year, it was probably stamped and dealt with lawyers and food health officials in a court far away.... Nope. The first thing I clicked on was an online article published yesterday, by Star Tribune writer Mike Hughlett. He wrote a fabulous article addressing how this disturbing food practice of adding "pink slime" (aka...a beef filler) to ground beef, then selling it to consumers, without any labeling, is still a threat to consumers. Now I am wondering if there was that pink slime stuff in the burgers we had the other night. I don't want to hurl so I keep my mind focused and finish the article. Then I read what I thought was the biggest blow to the beef lovers everywhere within these words, "Cargill Inc. will begin labeling ground beef containing the so called [pink slime] as 'finely textured beef' "(Hughlett). So success in getting a new label on the beef with the pink slime has been achieved. But label is deceptive, and misleading. Finely textured could just mean a finer grind to some people and they would have no idea that their meat is being subjective to an additive (previously used for animal pet food) that was manufactured with ammonia to remove bacteria. Yuck.

So please do read all labels. Labels are usually helpful. But know that this new labeling that already may be hitting grocery stores is inaccurate. So do the popular thing... eat local grass fed organic healthy meat if you can, whenever you can, to fuel your body. It may cost more money for you now. You may have to cut back to be able to afford the higher cost food, but considering all the meds that are pushed on people who are sick - you might be saving yourself thousands later. Or not. But do you really want to gamble with your health? 

Don't let this ruin your love of meat - just make good choices of where and what is in it. 
There will be new burger recipes added on soon. 
Keep a look out ;)

From my kitchen to yours