Give Your Summer Burgers Some Muscle with Nutritious Add-Ins by Lisa Messinger on Creators.com

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Give Your Summer Burgers Some Muscle with Nutritious Add-Ins

Jillian Michaels looks perfect. The overweight families she moves in with this summer for her new NBC series "Losing it with Jillian" do not — sometimes alarmingly so. If you'd like to look and feel more like Michaels — the popular "loud-mouthed trainer with a heart of gold" from the long-running "The Biggest Loser" series — you might consider pumping up not only yourself but also your summer burgers.

Hamburgers or any type of burger — chicken, turkey, lamb or pork — make especially good foundations for easy add-ins. They blend right in, adding lots of health boosts without affecting flavor. Michaels' Mediterranean burgers, for instance, from her best-selling "The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook" (Crown, $26), add ground sunflower seeds and rolled oats to a pound of ground lamb.

This technique also allows you to cut down the amount of meat used. Only one-half pound of ground beef is needed for six servings in delicious patties made from Great Northern beans, ground walnuts and ground sunflowers seeds adapted from www.ifood.tv.

These kinds of blends are also more likely to attract other delicious flavors, rather than just the salt and pepper of everyday hamburgers. The bean burger utilizes horseradish and parmesan cheese.

Michaels' delicious lamb burger incorporates lemon zest, garlic, tahini, fresh oregano and fresh mint. Such ingredients are part of her strategy to perform functions like improve your metabolism, prevent cancer and heart disease, boost immunity and improve digestion — encouraging tags that her recipe, like all those in the book, carry alongside their titles.

JILLIAN MICHAELS' MEDITERRANEAN LAMB BURGERS

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup rolled oats (not instant)

1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

1 teaspoon fresh mint leaves, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

Grated zest of 1 lemon

1 pound ground lamb

1 tablespoon tahini

1 garlic clove minced

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Yields 4 servings.

In the work bowl of a food processor, place sunflower seeds, rolled oats, oregano, mint and lemon zest. Process until ground, but not mushy or pureed.

Place the lamb in a large mixing bowl, and add sunflower seed mixture along with tahini, garlic, salt and pepper.

Use your clean hands to gently combine. Form the mixture into four (3 1/2-inch) patties and place on a plate.

Cook as you like on an outdoor grill. Or heat a large cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed (not nonstick) skillet over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the burgers and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Then turn with a spatula. Cook for another 5 or 6 minutes. For any cooking method, USDA recommends that burgers be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 F.

Serving suggestion: Good served on toasted buns with a mixture of cucumbers, plain yogurt and freshly ground black pepper as a topping.

— "The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook" by Jillian Michaels (Crown, $26).

BEAN-NUT BURGERS

1 (15-ounce) can Great Northern beans, drained and mashed

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup roasted salted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup snipped parsley

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 hamburger buns, split and toasted

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

6 lettuce leaves

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

1/3 cup chopped onion

Yields 6 servings.

Mix beans, beef, walnuts, sunflower seeds, parmesan cheese, parsley, horseradish and egg.

Heat oil in two 12-inch skillets over medium heat until hot. Carefully drop bean mixture into 3 equal mounds in each skillet; flatten and shape into patties 3 1/2 inches in diameter.

Cook patties until light brown, about 5 minutes, and then turn. Cook until hot and light brown, about 5 minutes longer. For any cooking method, USDA recommends that burgers be cooked to an internal temperature of at least 160 F.

Spread buns with mustard. Place patty on bottom half of each bun; top with lettuce leaf. Arrange tomato slice on lettuce leaf; sprinkle with onion and top with remaining bun half.

— Adapted from www.ifood.tv

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.