So you’re probably reading this post and thinking “wait, she cooks?”, lol. On account of my crafting spree the past few weeks I haven’t tried out many new recipes but luckily I have an arsenal of easy favorites that I can rely on during the weeks that I lack creativity in the kitchen. Last night I came up with this amazing new burger recipe that I am so excited to share with you! I like to think of this recipe as rolling two bar favorites, a burger and a jalapeno popper, into one delicious bite. In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that the motivation for this burger was actually to get rid of some lingering cheese, sour cream and scallions in the fridge (throwing out food drives me nuts!) which reminded me of typical dip ingredients and then somehow my mind wound up at jalapeno popper, lol. No idea how that happened but I’m glad it did because I love a good burger and I’m so happy to add this one to my list of favorites (I’ll have to write a burger collective post soon!). I wouldn’t classify any recipe containing cream cheese and sour cream as “skinny” (lol) but for what it’s worth I did lighten it up by using reduced fat ingredients and lean beef feel free to adapt it to your liking whether that be dialing back the amount of cheese or using full fat ingredients! With football season officially upon us I hope you can feature these at your next game day get together, served up with lots of cold ones 🙂

Even though baby P wasn’t awake for burger deliciousness he still thought our weekend was fab! 🙂

INSIDE-OUT JALAPENO POPPER BURGERS

INGREDIENTS (makes 8 regular burgers)

• 2 lbs. lean ground beef
• 4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
• 1/4 cup light sour cream
•  1 medium jalapeno, diced (I removed the ribs and seeds to reduce the heat a bit, but prepare to your liking)
• 1/3 cup crumbled bacon or bacon bits
• 1 cup mild shredded cheddar cheese (pepper jack or mozzarella cheese would also work)
• 1 scallion, sliced
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• salt and pepper, to taste
• olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: Combine cream cheese, sour cream, diced jalapeno, bacon, cheese, scallions, garlic powder, salt and pepper, stir to combine.

Step 2: Separate your ground beef into eight equal portions. Working one at a time, separate each section of beef and form two equal patties. Take about 1-2 Tbsp. of the cream cheese mixture and place it in the center of one of your patties, then take the other patty and place it on top of the filling using your fingers to pinch the edges of the two patties together around the filling and reform the burger. Continue until you have eight equal sized burgers.

Step 3: Brush your burgers on both sides with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Grill on conventional grill or grill pan to your liking! These would be delicious served with homemade onion strings but if you’re lazy like I am just throw your onions on the grill while your burgers are cooking 🙂

ignore my weird choice of lettuce, yet another fridge item I was trying to burn lol

For two other great burger recipes check out my recipe for Kitty’s Mediterannean Turkey Burgers and Greek Sliders!