Sweet Potato Barbecue Burgers

After a week of cool, gray, and drizzly weather, sunshine returned to Cincinnati!  We decided to take advantage of this beautiful weather with a few nights of grilling and outdoor eating.  Rather than grill our typical chicken breasts or turkey burgers, I went exploring on the internet (and quickly became addicted to several food and cooking related websites, but that's another story).  As I searched, I quickly realized that if I kept cooking purely for taste, I would easily start to put on weight.  Yet I didn't want to cook the same decent low-calorie meals over and over and over....  Where's the fun in that?  And that's when I found it: http://www.sparkrecipes.com/  A website dedicated to creating and sharing a variety of healthy and delicious recipes!   You can search the thousands of recipes by meal category (dinner, breakfast, snack.... etc...), by food category (poultry, beef, vegetarian... etc...), but dietary needs, and several other ways.  You can sign up for recipe of the day e-mails.  There are several articles with ideas on healthifying cooking and baking.  And all of their recipes come with full nutrition information.  Speaking of which, definitely read the nutrition information before committing to a recipe.  Any user can add their recipe to share, which is great in so much as you get an increased amount of ideas and variety.  Not so great when you happen across a recipe that claims one serving registers at 1,000+ calories.  Yes.  I saw that.  And moved on very quickly.   I've already copied several recipes to try in the future, but our first experiment from this website was the Sweet Potato Barbecue Burgers mentioned in the title.

Recipe:

1 1/2 lbs 93/7 extra lean ground beef
200 grams of sweet potato (about half a sweet potato) or yam
4 tablespoons of KC Masterpiece Honey Smoke BBQ Sauce
1 large egg
1 teaspoon each: paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, cayenne pepper 

 (Diva Note: I cut this recipe in half since it makes 10 patties and that is clearly overkill for Alex and I.  Also, I thought I had paprika, but I was wrong, so I omitted it.  And I went light on the cayenne pepper since I am as wimpy as they come in terms of heat-tolerance.)




Combine all ingredients and shape into 10 patties. 1 hamburger is 191 calories. Cook as desired.
 
Nutrition Information:

• Calories: 190.6

• Total Fat: 12.1 g
• Cholesterol: 65.4 mg
• Sodium: 109.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 5.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 13.7 g 

Verdict: The above information is for the hamburger patties only.  Don't forget to add in bun and condiment choices.  I went for a burger sans bun with extra barbecue sauce on the side for dipping.

The burger itself was juicy, tender, and delicious.  The spices definitely added something to the flavor.  Honestly, I probably could have eaten this patty without any condiments, which is saying something from a self-proclaimed ketchup addict.  I can't say that I could taste the sweet potato per se, which was a bit of a disappointment since I love sweet potatoes, but it is a great way to add a super healthy food to a pretty typical summer meal.

Alex went for the full complement of topping choices, including whole wheat buns, cheese, tomato, and lettuce on both, mustard and ketchup on one, and barbecue sauce on the other.  His does make for a prettier picture, but when it comes to eating, these burgers don't need any help.  We will definitely be making this again!