"Cheese"burger

My bestie went to the East Coast last night, so back to single servings :[
On the bright side she comes back in a week and I’ll see her again :D

Side note I: Also, I noticed that my past two dinners verged on maybe unhealthy so luckily I had planned out a healthy (or at least healthier) dinner tonight. 

Anyway this is a portion of the ingredients I used. Halfway through cooking I added some ingredients.

Side note II: That’s the fun part of cooking yourself, you get to customize and swap in different ingredients than what’s called for in recipes. Or adding ingredients. Just go for it.

 Best case scenario: the food comes out yummy
Worst case scenario: food comes out yucky (but you’ll live) and you just have to try another day.

“Cheeseburger” (plus some!):

• ½ pound ground beef
• 1 small/medium onion
• 1 small carrot
• (about) 0.5 oz of mozzarella (I used part skim milk mozzarella) 
• 4 brown mushrooms
• Italian Seasoning
• Salt and Pepper

Side salad:

• ½ head of green leaf lettuce
• ½ Roma tomato
• (about) 0.5 oz of cream cheese
• salt, pepper, and olive oil to taste

1) Mince onions and carrots. 

2) Cook over low heat in oil (or butter) and wait until onions become translucent and carrots become tender.
Add salt, pepper, and a pinch of Italian seasoning to taste.

3)Allow to cool down a bit.
Side note III: I set aside half to use another day

4) Add mixture to ground beef. Add some more salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Mix together well.

Side note IV: [[Take half of mixture and roll into bite sized meatballs to use on another day.]] Preparing food on one day for another day saves time. Also planning ahead tends to save money  because it prevents you (or at least me) from going out to eat later in the week because I know I have an easy meal to prepare.

5) (Wash your hands) and cut mozzarella into small pieces. 

Side note V: I cut a chunk off a larger block of mozzarella but using something like a string cheese stick will easily work, especially since it’s also a pre-proportioned size.

6)Make a hamburger patty and place mozzarella in the middle. Re-form hamburger patty. Try and make sure a piece of mozzarella isn't sticking out of the patty so that it doesn't melt and burn on whatever you cook it on.

7)This patty can easily be grilled but I simply cooked it in a pan.

Side note VI: I fully cook my hamburgers because while it’s true that beef only has surface bacteria (the reason why we can eat steak rare and medium) the nature of ground beef makes it so that there’s a whole ton of surface. Additionally some manufacturers will mix pieces from multiple bulls in order to mass produce ground beef which is asking for a cluster of bacteria. But if you feel safe cooking your hamburgers less than well done, that’s your personal choice.

8) While the patty was cooking I washed and ripped the lettuce into pieces, cut the tomato, and cubed a piece of cream cheese. I also tossed the tomato in some salt and pepper.

Side note VII: I used cream cheese because it has a flavor and texture similar to that of goat cheese. Unfortunately, goat cheese can get kind of pricey. Basically, the cream cheese is my poor/unemployed man’s goat cheese.

9) Slice mushrooms in the last few minutes that the patty is cooking. After you remove the patty quickly cook the mushrooms until soft and tender. It shouldn’t take very long.

 Plating:
I feel like this one is pretty self-evident…  Serve the salad with your favorite dressing (or make your own!). I drizzled some olive oil on top and added a little more salt and pepper.

Cut open to see the melted cheese:

Side note VIII: You can easily bake off some more of the biscuits from last night, make smaller patties, and have made some hamburger sliders (maybe plus some mayo, ketchup, whatever).  Remember, the creative director powers are in your hands and your hands alone.

Cost Breakdown:

“Cheese”burgers

• ½ pound ground beef @ $4.19/lb= $2.07
• Onions $0.59/3= $0.20/onion  (My three onions were 1.2 lbs)
• $0.20/2= $0.10
• Carrots $0.59/8= $0.07/carrot (There were 8 carrots in my 1lb bag of carrots)
• $0.07/2=$0.03
• Italian Seasoning A pinch or so probably cost about $0.01~$0.02
  
  Meat Total: $2.07+$0.10+$0.03+$0.02= $2.22
• $2.22/2= $1.11 (I set aside half the burgers, remember?)

• Mozzarella $2.84/16= $0.18 (I used a sixteenth of the block of mozzarella that I bought)
• Mushrooms $1.70/8= $0.21 (I’m not really sure how much of my bag of mushrooms I used. This is a ballpark number)

Burgers Total: $1.11+ $0.18+ $0.21= $1.50

Salad

• Green leaf lettuce $0.39/4= $0.10 Unbeknownst to me, there were two small heads of lettuce in what I bought and I used about half of one.
• Roma Tomatoes $1.23/4= $0.31/tomato 
• $0.31/2= $0.16 (my four tomatoes were about a pound, and I used half of one)
• Cream cheese: $2.62/16= $0.16 (I used a sixteenth of the small block of cream cheese that I bought)

Salad total: $0.10+$0.16+$0.16= $0.42

Total (as well as total per serving): $1.50+$0.42= $1.92