Low Carb Bacon Avocado Cheese Curd Burger

It’s rough getting back on track after a week long vacation.  Especially when it’s a vacation when you’ve overindulged…. And that first week back, I’m a mess.  There’s no food in the house, our camping and rafting gear is everywhere, so much laundry…so much laundry!  And all I want to do is sit on the couch, eat, and relax, just for a day or two.  But I think one of the worst parts of coming back from vacation is going through alcohol food withdrawal.  This low carb cheese curd avocado burger is just what I needed to help let myself down slowly and get back on track with healthy eating.

I went with the lettuce wrap to keep it low carb.  I know there’s some eye-rolling going on in parts of the dietitian world about eating low carb… But I can honestly say that I’m a huge proponent of following a low carb diet, for many reasons.  (Still working on a post about why I eat low carb, it’s coming, promise! But in the mean time, check out the Low Carb Dietitian; she’s a great resource.).  We ate it with grilled zucchini from my garden.  Home grown veggies taste 100x better than store bought.  And vegetables grilled on the barbecue are one of my favorite ways to cook veggies.  I’m getting back on the veggie train.  My vegetable intake always plummets when I’m traveling; especially when camping or rafting.  We divide all the meals between the group, and no guarantee there will be vegetables.  Although I think we do pretty well bringing any vegetables at all while camping, it’s just less than my usual intake… which is a lot, I’m a dietitian and I eat a lot of vegetables, for real, I try to aim for ten servings of vegetables a day.

This burger is perfect.  Cheese curds mixed into the actual burger, like little surprise bombs of gooey, melty cheese.   Then topped with fresh mashed avocado, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and bacon.  Finally, the whole thing is wrapped in crispy iceberg lettuce.  The flavor combo when you get the perfect bite of cheese curd with the avocado, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and bacon…. Mmmmmm, so delicious.  It’s food like this that makes me happy and helps with the post-vacation food withdrawals.  Okay, so we’ve been back from our rafting trip for a week, but, confession, I’m just now getting caught up on laundry.

I recommend using grass-fed ground beef for your burgers and anytime you use ground beef.  I have to admit that I was skeptical about using grass-fed beef over traditional beef, but once I decided to try grass-fed beef, I never went back… Grass-fed beef has a better fat profile than grain-fed beef – up to five times more Omega-3 fatty acids, and that’s the good kind of fat you want! Check out this article from Authority Nutrition on Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef for more information.  I can honestly tell you that grass-fed beef tastes better and visibly has a different fat profile.  Most grass-fed beef is 85/15, not that lean.  When I brown grass-fed beef in a skillet, no fat to drain off at all, nothing! But when I brown normal ground beef that’s 85/15, so much fat! It amazes me!  Grass-fed beef isn’t greasy and love the flavor.  Never going back to regular ground beef.  Anyone else use grass-fed beef?

Give these burgers a try!  Let me know what you think!

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Low Carb Bacon Avocado Cheese Curd Burger

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

35 mins

 

Cheese curds mixed into the actual burger, like little surprise bombs of gooey, melty cheese, topped with fresh mashed avocado, sautéed onions, and bacon. Wrapped in crispy iceberg lettuce.

Servings: 2 -4

Author: Emily

Ingredients

• 1 pound of grass-fed ground beef
• 4 oz of cheese curds
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes depending on how spicy you want it
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 ripe avocado fork mashed
• 1 small onion thinly sliced
• 4 small-medium mushrooms sliced
• 2-3 slices of bacon
• 1 head of iceberg lettuce large outside leave removed to be used for lettuce wraps.
• Optional: zucchini or other veggies to grill on barbecue.

Instructions

1. Prepare barbecue.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together ground beef, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder. Add in cheese curds. Form into patties.
3. Cook bacon in skillet over medium heat until just crispy. Remove from heat and place on paper towels to drain. Reserve small amount bacon grease to sauté onion and mushrooms. Chop bacon when cooled.
4. Reheat skillet over medium heat and sauté onion and mushrooms in reserved bacon grease until caramelized, about 10 minutes, stirred occasionally.
5. Once bacon, onion, and mushrooms are cooked, grill burgers on barbecue to desired doneness.
6. Grill zucchini or other vegetables as desired.
7. To assemble burgers, top them with avocado, sautéed onions and mushrooms, and bacon. Wrap with iceberg lettuce leaf. Secure lettuce with toothpicks if needed.