Let's Sup: California Chicken Patties

I'm not sure what school lunches are like these days, but when I was a kid, you lived for two days of the week: pizza and fries on Fridays and whatever day had the chicken patty on the menu. I felt like we were channeling those days a bit creating dinner tonight - the California chicken patty.

The secret to this rich ground chicken patty is making it like you would a beef burger: add lots of seasoning, breadcrumbs as a binder and an egg. Chicken doesn't have the same intramuscular fat as beef, making its patties much leaner and easier to dry out. So, by adding lots of moisture back to it, you lessen the chance that your chicken patties will turn into dry, bland examples of fowl play. The final product is a thick, juicy patty sandwich topped with ingredients inspired by the bright freshness of California agriculture.

CALIFORNIA CHICKEN PATTIES

Ingredients:

• 1 package ground chicken
• 1 tablespoon adobo seasoning
• 1 egg
• Panko bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 avocado, sliced
• Goat cheese, softened
• Green Goddess dressing 
• Burger buns
• Salt and pepper

Eat up:

1. Get the grill heated up. We don't have a grill, so we turned on the good ol' George Foreman.
2. Mix the ground chicken, egg, adobo, salt, pepper and panko bread crumbs together in a large bowl until thoroughly blended. The mix should be slightly sticky and easily able to hold shape as patties. Add more panko until the mixture reaches a dry enough texture to hold its shape.
3. While the patties are cooking, toast the buns if desired. Slice the avocado and give your dressing a good shake.
4. Put one patty on each bun. Top with a generous schmear of goat cheese, a swirl of dressing and two avocado slices per sandwich.

This super-easy dinner is tasty with chips on the side. Not so much into eating a bun? Turn the patties into meatballs and serve drizzled with dressing, diced avocado and crumbles of goat cheese instead. 

Let's Sup: Lean Beef Burgers with Bacon and Spinach

I work for Georgia Cattlemen's Association, and as such, I eat a LOT of lean beef. There's a lot of great stuff going on now in the beef community about lean beef: The BOLD, or Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet, study released in 2011 by Penn State demonstrates that using 4 ounces of lean beef as the daily protein source can help lower cholesterol. There are 29 cuts of lean beef with the total fat in between that of a skinless chicken breast and skinless chicken thigh.

One of those is 95/5 ground beef (that's 95 percent lean muscle and only 5 percent fat), which is what this burger is made of. The thing you've got to be careful with is that because there is so little fat, these buggers will cook up pretty quickly to medium. Burger cooking tip — DON'T press your burgers down with a spatula! Especially ones this lean; what little juiciness there is will leak out when squished.

LEAN BEEF BURGERS WITH BACON AND SPINACH

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound 95/5 ground beef (preferably ground sirloin)
• 1 slice of bacon for each burger (super healthy people can substitute turkey bacon, but I like the good stuff)
• Two handfuls of baby spinach
• Olive oil
• Provolone cheese
• Wheat hamburger buns
• OPTIONAL: 1 tablespoon water
• OPTIONAL: 1 egg
• OPTIONAL: Wheat breadcrumbs
• OPTIONAL: Adobo

Get 'cha grill on:

1. Heat up your grill. If you don't have a grill, you can use a grill pan, pan broil or a George Foreman. Or if you're me, you can cheat by rescuing two leftover burgers from a Georgia Beef Board event the day before! :)
2. Form the burgers into small patties, about the size of the palm of your hand. When Justin and I make burgers, we will also put in some wheat breadcrumbs, a tablespoon of water and one egg to keep the patties bound together. We also sprinkle in some adobo, a Hispanic salty seasoning, for added flavor.
3. Toss the burgers on the grill. Keep an eye on them and only try to turn them once!
4. As the burgers are grilling, cook the bacon in a small amount of olive oil over the stove. As the bacon begins to get golden brown, toss in the spinach and wilt it in the bacon grease. If you chose to use turkey bacon, be aware: It will cook faster due to lower fat content and will have less grease, so you'll probably have to add some additional olive oil when you throw the spinach in.
5. When the burgers are done (they should be 160 degrees F inside!), lower the heat and place a slice of provolone cheese on top. If you're doing this on the stove, cover the burgers with a pot lid to help the cheese melt quicker.
6. Place burger on bun and top with the bacon and spinach.

Boom, done. That easy. You can put sauce on the burgers if you want, but I prefer the flavors of the meats and the spinach speak for themselves!

Let's Sup: Shrimp Pesto Pizza

Aside from beef, my second favorite meat is shellfish. I could probably eat them for every meal and be a happy camper: Shrimp, scallops, crab, lobster ... etc.

I recently saw a similar recipe to this on Pinterest, but the blog it took me to was ... less than helpful. Thankfully, my awesome chef boyfriend and I were able to replicate it by looking at the pictures. This pizza is light and makes a wonderful summer supper, and it breaks up the ordinary by not having a tomato-based sauce.

SHRIMP PESTO PIZZA

Ingredients:

• 1 roll Pillsbury pizza dough (or croissant dough)
• 1 jar pesto sauce (we used Bertolli)
• Mozzarella cheese
• Feta cheese
• Jumbo shrimp

Directions:

1. If your shrimp are raw: Peel and de-vein them. I like to grill them for a minute on the trusty ol' George Foreman, but you can also saute them. Cook them until they are slightly pink.
2. Unroll the pizza dough and top with the pesto. Roll the corners of the dough in slightly to form a barrier that will prevent the pesto from going everywhere during baking.
3. Sprinkle the pizza liberally with mozzarella and feta cheeses.
4. Top with shrimp.
5. Bake in oven at temperature and for time required by the dough. It should have a nice, golden-brown color when taken out and the shrimp should be all the way pink.