Bacon Stuffed Burgers

Ok, the first order of business is to apologize for the garbage picture...I'm always in a hurry. I know that is a terrible excuse but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

On Friday Jeff invited some friends over for dinner. Now because they are all growing boys I needed to figure out something that was fairly easy, not too much like chick food, and that was not extraordinarily expensive. Hamburgers seemed like a safe choice so off I headed to the store.

A few months ago I tried a cheese stuffed burger that wasn't hugely successful and I wanted to try it again. I mean come on, how hard can it be? The problem last time was the cheese melted and ran out of the burger so that there wasn't anything actually left in the middle when it was time to eat. So, to avoid that I decided to forgo the cheese altogether and stuff with something that wouldn't disintegrate. Bacon. Boys like bacon. Bacon is good. Mushrooms. I love sauted mushrooms and onions are only edible if they are cooked in my humble opinion so that was the plan.

When I got to the meat counter I was looking at the ground beef and decided to branch out and mix it with some pork sausage to up the flavor a bit. I love that combination in other things and meatloaf is always better with a combo of meats and isn't a burger just a mini meatloaf? :)

Here's the final result of my random musings. It was YUM! Everyone ate up and there wasn't anything left for leftovers. I used ranch rolls instead of hamburger buns, cheese and lettuce as the toppings. Definitely going to do this again. Especially using the grill...no pans! Woohoo!


Bacon Stuffed Burgers
8 servings

4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 med onion diced small
4 oz mushrooms, diced small
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb bulk pork sausage
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbs A1 steak sauce
8 buns or rolls
Lettuce, cheese etc

Directions:
1. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and discard all but 2 Tbs drippings. Saute onion and mushrooms in drippings until tender. Crumble bacon; add with mushrooms to skillet and set aside.
2. Meanwhile in a large bowl combine beef, pork, cheese, pepper, garlic powder and steak sauce. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
3. Shape into 16 patties. Divide bacon mixture and place on top of 8 patties. Place remaining patties on top and press edges together tightly to seal.
4. Grill over medium heat until well done (pork needs to be cooked all the way through) approx 10 min. Serve on buns with lettuce etc.

Cal. 408; Fat 24 g.; Carb 24 g.; Fiber 2 g.; Protein 21 g.