We do not eat much red meat at our house but when we do I choose ground beef over any other cut. Forget your prime rib or filet mignon and just give me a straight up burger (or meat loaf, meatball, spaghetti sauce, or lasagna.) We changed our set menu for some extremely warm weather dishes, food that does not make the kitchen/family room hot. Grilling outside and making a salad accomplishes that goal.

John seasoned the meat with salt and garlic powder and added baking soda to keep our low fat hamburger juicy. I took yesterday’s leftover bean salad and added a can of black-eyed peas and some more vegetables and dressing for a slightly different bean salad. It was all delicious and I really wished I could have had two burgers as did John. Good thing we only bought enough meat for one apiece.

On Thursday cooler weather should be setting in and we will finish up the week with Moroccan chickpea stew, seared tuna, and a vegetable grain bowl. Flank steak fajitas and fettuccini arrabiata will have to wait for another week.