Cheddar Stuffed Burgers

We are off and running at the races....or should I say; We are off and running away from the scale?..lol

So each Saturday I weigh in at my weekly meeting at Weight Watchers. I then take Saturday as a "me" day and I eat whatever I want...ONLY and ONLY if I am down on the scales! Usually sometime during the day I sit down and make up my grocery list for the week, and the meals that I plan on making. Then on Sundays I do my grocery shopping, since this is when the new weekly flyers come out. I have gotten into the habit of Cuponing as well. I can save a TONNE. Adrian is so fascinated that I can go with sometimes only $100 and we can eat 3 meals a day for a week, sometimes a week and a half! I love grocery shopping, and I think this is why Weight Watchers works so well for me. I love to spend the time looking at the products that I am buying and making sure that they will fall into a reasonable points bracket.

Now for those that don't know. Weight Watchers gives you set points that you HAVE to eat during the day. You also get a weekly points allowance. These are points you don't have to eat at all. Or you can save them up and have a splurge at the weeks end. They have them so that if you have something like a wedding you can eat and not have to feel guilty about it.

My daily points are 36. The weekly points for everyone is 49. This has recently changed. Weight Watchers has recently revamped their whole program. Everyone's points have gone up, the weekly points used to be 35! Before you used to have to count points for SOME fresh fruit and Veggies. Now ALL fresh fruit, or fruit canned in its own juices are 0 points, as well as MOST veggies. I LOVE THIS. It gives me so much more to eat during the day. I don't feel deprived or anything. Also what I love is Air Popped Popcorn has gone down in points, this has now become my staple snack. It's 1 point for 5 CUPS....5 CUPS!!! That's a whole freaking bowl!! I will make a bowl and put a little bit of butter (counting the points of course) and sit at night and munch away! (butter is 1 point for 1tsp....1 tsp isn't that much and since the popcorn is only 1 point, I usually go for 3 tsps..lol)

Each new post I will try and give you a new piece of information about the program!

I'm not going to lie...I have been craving a BURGER for days now. I supposed I could have had one for dinner on Saturday when it was my "cheat" day, but the kids wanted Pizza for dinner. So when I opened my new Weight Watchers magazine at the weekly meeting I found a recipe for Cheddar-Stuffed Burgers. Who doesn't love a cheese burger? These looked great! They were super easy to make, although I thought they were a little dry. But that could be because they are made with Lean Ground Beef. What I really liked was they were put on an English Muffin instead of a burger bun!

Here is the recipe:
1lb Lean ground beef
1 small onion
1tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp Black Pepper
8 Tbsp low-fat Cheddar Cheese
4 English Muffins split and toasted
1c thinly sliced lettuce
16 small tomato slices

1) Mix meat, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper in large bowl just ubottoms of until combined. With damp hands, shape into 4 equal balls. With your finger, make a deep indentation in center of each ball. Fill each hole with 2Tbsp Cheddar. Enclose filling by pinching meat together. Shape into 4 (3/4 inch-thick) patties.

2) Spray large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium-high heat. Add patties and cook until instant-read thermometer insterted into side of burger registers 145F for medium, about 4 minutes per side. (I just used my indoor grill and cooked them until they were no longer pink)

3) Place bottoms of muffins on 4 plates. Top each with lettuce, burgers and tomato slices; cover with tops of muffins.

This recipe can be found in the January/February 2011 Weight Watchers Magazine. It can also be found in the Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook (John Wiley & Sons, 2011)
Per serving: (1 burger): 343 calories, 12g total fat, 5g Sat fat, 0g trans fat, 70mg, chol, 754mg sodium, 30g total carbs, 2g total sugar, 3g fiber, 30g protein, 257mg calcium.
PointsPlus value: 9
Prep time: 15 min, Cook: 10 min, Serves:4.

Enjoy!