bison burgers

Mr.Mister and I are both on a pretty big health kick/fitness challenge lately which has greatly squashed my cupcake indulgences and given me new challenges to make food tasty and interesting without breaking my own (very small) caloric bank. Still, we've both been craving big burgers for a few days now, and I finally had a chance to make bison burgers at home to satisfy the craving without going 1000+ calories each by eating out.

No pictures, because I simply didn't take any before all was inhaled. But here's your own moan-and-groan recipe, pulled from here with some explanations and modifications:

Bison Burgers

• 1 pound freshly ground bison meat
• 1.5 teaspoons "Ted's Special Mixture" (see below)
• 1 tablespoon EarthBalance margarine (1TB = 100 calories)

Use your hands to mix up the bison, seasoning, and margarine so all is nicely blended. Divide into 3, fire up the grill, sqash those balls of meat into flattened burgers so they fill the bun nicely when cooked. Grill and serve up on a 100-calorie deli thin Earth Grains whole wheat bun with lettuce and mustard. If you follow the above and divide evenly into 3, you should be looking at about 300 calories per patty, but read your own labels and do your own math to be sure...

If you're like me and you LOVE ketchup, grab a handful of cherry tomatoes and pop one into your mouth right before you take a bite of burger. Ketchup is crazy high in sugar (or HFCS boooo) so fresh cherry tomatoes hit the lycopene and tomato taste in a much healthier way.

Ted's Mixture

• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (see below for scratch on that too)
• 1 teaspoon onion salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 Seasoned Salt (thanks Recipezaar)

• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch 

 I ended up making double of each of the above spices and will just keep in jars in the cupboard for the next time I need them. A little seasoned salt was *fantastic* on sliced up, baked sweet potato "fries."