Hamburger Stacks for Busy Nights
Busy nights after a busy day can squeeze out time to build a healthy meal. With a little preparation ahead of time, though, you can easily create a delicious weeknight meal like these Hamburger Stacks!
You can, of course, prepare all your ingredients at one time, so I’m including one meat prep option below. I’ve also already shared how I batch cook hamburger in the oven in a previous post.
A Quick Weeknight Meal
Busy weeknights can limit time available for meal prep. For this reason, I try to prepare ahead when possible, which really helps when trying to eat healthy. Because of my schedule and goals, most early meal prep happens on Sunday afternoon, or Wednesday, my “lightest” weekday.
I commonly roast vegetables, bake snacks or desserts, bake potatoes, slow cook broth, some form of chicken and/or beef. Then, depending upon what I’m planning for the week, I’ll either separate, package, and freeze or containerize and refrigerate what’s prepped.
With the availability of all the freshly prepared foods, I can more easily set up and serve a delicious meal, usually within 30 minutes. Also, almost all of our dinner meals will also be our next day lunches, so I’m also saving money and time for that too.
Hamburger patties or meatballs is one of my commonly batch cooked options that can be used across a variety of meals and flexed in different directions based on what’s in the fridge and pantry.
I’ve included the recipe below if you haven’t prepared the hamburger beforehand that is prepared stovetop and with oil. Go here to see how I batch cook meatballs ahead of time in the oven, no oil for weeknight meals.
An easy, weeknight dinner option that gives everybody their choice of toppings.
- 1-2 Tablespoons Coconut or Extra Virgin Olive Oil (prefer organic, refined coconut)
- 2 Lbs Ground beef (prefer organic, grass-fed and finished)
- 1/2 Tablespoon Salt
- 1/8 Tablespoon Ground Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Ground Garlic (prefer organic)
- 1 Egg (prefer organic, free range)
- 1/2-1 Tablespoon Tomato paste and/or Mustard
- 1 Dill Pickle (Chopped)
- 1 Red Pepper (Chopped)
- 1/8 Teaspoon Dill Weed (Chopped)
- 1 Jalapeno or Serrano Pepper (Chopped, but not so family-friendly)
- ¼-½ White or Yellow Onion (Chopped)
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Mix chosen ingredients together in a bowl, form into small hamburger patties or meatballs.
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Spread oil in lidded skillet and pre-heat to medium. The oil can splatter, so take care and adjust heat as needed.
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Distribute patties/meatballs in your skillet according to what fits evenly distributed flat, and cook for approximately 5-10 minutes on each side.
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Check the patties/meatballs as they cook and remove when all the pink of the meat is gone.
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Serve with your toppings.
- I like Tropical Traditions Expeller-Pressed or Nutiva Refined Coconut Oil
- I use organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Azure Standard.
- I prefer Redmond Real Salt (Fine).
Variations
Whether its stacked or deconstructed, you can take these in a number of directions. Here are a few combination options that we like:
- bed of greens and topped with sauteed peppers and onions, homemade salsa, and homemade cilantro-jalapeno cheese sauce,
- bed of diced potatoes or hashbrowns and topped with greens, diced tomatoes, green or sauteed onions, and a homemade honey-mustard dressing,
- serving of rice, noodles, or quinoa below and then all topped with a sauteed or creamed mushrooms and steamed green beans or broccoli served on the side,
- slicing and adding to a gluten free pita along with microgreens, diced tomatoes, red peppers, greens, green onions, with our homemade ranch dressing drizzled on top.
Everybody can create their stacks, a great way to enable all family members to build their meal their way. Aside from warming up and chopping, the overall meal prep time to serve is relatively easy after a busy day.
