The Runner's Kitchen: The Runner's Burger

Burger and fries- that’s what I craved after the NCAA National Track Meet. For an unfortunate, but somewhat valid reason, the plate of burger and fries has been pushed away by the runner many times. The greasy, fat filled burgers and oily salty french-fries aren’t always appealing to the runner’s temple, uh a runner’s stomach. Still everything in moderation is ok once in a while- I still ordered a juicy gorgonzola burger with french-fries after my race; I felt I deserved it.

Tonight I attempted a “runner’s burger”, a bit more lean and green. While most burgers use 80/20 ground beef for their patties I used 93/7 (97% lean meat to 7% fat). The downfall to this decision is that the less fat in the meat, more likely you are to get a dry-crumbly burger. To compensate for the lack of fat, I threw in an egg.

Patty time:

1lb. ground beef 93/7

1 egg

¼ cup feta cheese

2-table spoons fresh cilantro

3-table spoons diced red onion

¼ cup corn meal

Mix completely and form into patties.

Since we’re doing this running style, I decided to give the potatoes a night off. Nothing against potatoes- without a load of condiments or hot oil, they’re a great carbohydrate. I sliced up some fresh veggies for a side of “fries”

Red Bell Peppers

Squash

Zucchini

Another runners call- I swapped the average, white, fluffy, high glycemic hamburger buns with Oroweat's Mulit-grain Sandwich Thins (upper right hand corner of the picture above). With a lower glycemic index, less calories and some more whole-grains, they definitely are the way to go.

I drizzled a tad of olive oil over them, then sprinkled some salt and ground pepper before putting them on the grill.

Time to fire up the grill and slide the patties on. I gave them about 10 minutes with the lid up before flipping them. Once they were laying on their backs I dispersed the zucchini, squash and bell pepper strips around them. Another 7-10 minutes and I pulled the burgers off! The veggies were soon to follow.