Portobello Burgers

This is not really a grains recipe, but it was surprisingly good and it satisfied my craving for BBQ during the fire-ban. I usually buy Morningstar Farms chick patties instead of hamburgers because they are so delicious (I used to serve them to Garth's friends when they came over and gave him a hard time about me never cooking meat-but they were completely deceived by the chicken-ness of these patties). Anyway, this time the store was out of chick patties so I used Morningstar Farms "Bacon" strips instead, which were also surprisingly meat like despite their appearance. Turns out they are made of egg whites, but we ate them anyway.

For 2 people:

• 2 portobello mushroom caps
• 1/4 inch Red onion slices (or white-as many as you want on each burger)
• tomato slices
• lettuce leaves
• 4 Morningstar Farms "Bacon Strips" (can be purchased in the garden burger section of frozen foods at most grocery stores-even in AK)
• Two whole wheat sesame hamburger buns (toast them right before assembling burger)

Basting Sauce for Mushrooms and Onions:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

I used my new cast iron skillet (dr. says I'm anemic-duh) that Garth got me for my birthday to "grill" the mushrooms/onions and fried the bacon in another skillet at the same time- but if you use the same skillet...

1. put the bacon in first on the cold skillet and fry the strips on medium heat until they're crispy, turning once or twice.
   
2. Spoon or brush the mushrooms (both sides) with basting sauce and put them in the hot cast iron skillet (careful the basting sauce will smoke and maybe spray so use a guard or lid or something) and "grill" for about 5 minutes.
   
3. Add the onion slices (also brushed with sauce) and cook both onions and mushrooms together for another 5-10 minutes.
   
4. If you want to put a tiny bit of BBQ sauce on the toasted buns that's what I did, then put the lettuce on both buns (the mushroom can get really juicy so the lettuce keeps the buns from getting soggy).
   
5. Layer the portobello, tomato, onions and bacon, close the burgers and eat!

We had these with corn on the cob (also a good cast iron skillet item) and baked beans. It was a good compromise smoke flavored meal since we don't actually have a real grill. Of course you could just use a real grill for all of this...

Sorry no photo- imagine a big yummy burger- I couldn't wait to eat it long enough to take a picture.