Cheese Stuffed Pesto Burgers!

I know what you're thinking "What the fadoodle is this lady talking about?!" Well, I'm talking about one of my all time favorite burgers, and I LOVE burgers.

I made these for my family and of course, my mom thought they were really good but her hubby and my bro didn't very much, but I don’t care cause I LOVED THEM! I love pesto, burgers, tortillas and cheese. With the George Foreman grill, a TON of grease was drained off and with the tortilla it wasn’t quite as heavy as usual. If you want even healthier, use a whole wheat, tomato basil, spinach, whatever you can find, tortilla. And using a cheese stick instead of say shredded cheese, it was a lot easier to stuff. If you don’t want to use a cheese stick, feel free to try fresh mozzarella balls and just cut them down like the cheese sticks. Hope you like it!

 

Ingredients:

1.5# ground hamburger

1T homemade pesto **

1t pepper

1/2t kosher salt

1/2t Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasonings (if can’t find, just use whatever you usually used for your burgers)

1 cheese stick

Tortillas or Hamburger Bun

Burger Toppings

            Yellow cherry tomatoes (or red whatever you like)

            Pesto

Directions:

1.      Mix first 5 ingredients together.
2.      Form 4 big patties.
3.      Cut cheese stick into fourths. Then cut those fourths into fourths.
4.      Divide fourths evenly among burgers.

5.      Push cheese strands into patties and make sure they are covered with meat so cheese doesn’t ooze out.
6.      Preheat either a skillet or I used a George Foreman grill.
7.      Place patty in pan and brown on each side until you have the doneness YOU prefer.

8.      I used a tortilla instead of buns but you could use pita pockets (just toast them to give them extra crunch) too!
9.      For my tortilla (helps to warm the tortilla up to make it pliable), I’m going to wrap my mostly finished burger into it, and my toppings, and press back onto the grill and crisp it up.

10.  Serve with fries, chips, salad, etc.
Enjoy! :)

** Homemade Pesto:

1c pinenuts/walnuts/almonds (any kind work)
1c loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 1/4c shredded fresh parmesan

1/3 cup olive oil

1. In a food processor, add the almonds and pulse until they are finely chopped. Add the basil, black pepper and process until incorporated.
2. Add 1 cup of the cheese, pulse a few times, then with the machine still running, slowly add in the olive oil.
3. Should be slightly thick.

   TIPS!: A note about pesto. You won't use all of this for the burgers so to preserve it you can put it in a freezeable container, or with a muffin tin, but in cupcake liners, add a scoop of pesto, freeze it, then when they're frozen, put them in a ziplock baggy and put them in the freezer and reuse them when you like.