Celebrating Summer with Sargento *Giveaway*

Summers call for celebration. It’s the time to get outside and let our little hearts and souls rejoice in the warm weather and long, carefree days… Especially if you’re a child. It seems that ever since I had kids, not only have I increasingly welcomed the warm weather, but I especially love the new food and meal ideas that come with summer.

Cooking for children every single day is a challenge. It’s a challenge that I happen to really appreciate and take advantage of because I love to cook, but nevertheless my little people are not always easy to appease. I welcome summertime with it’s cornucopia of timely fruits and veggies, but I think I love the tradition of outdoor grilling the very best. Living in the city has presented a challenge in that department because we don’t have a back yard or even a balcony for our own BBQ, but there is a large gas grill that is available for the tenants of our building to use whenever we want (perspective: There are 5,000 tenants in our establishment. There is one grill. Ahem). The one food that I know I can always make and the kids will enjoy it: Turkey burgers. We aren’t much of a red meat family (I was vegetarian for 10 years, still not so hip on red meat), and we find that turkey is much more lean and healthy-plus the kids prefer it. They’re easy to make and are the perfect summer dinner paired with baked beans, french fries and watermelon.

We took to The Grill on the plaza last weekend and I made our favorite turkey burgers for the family. And, because our turkey burgers are never complete without cheese, we brought along the Sargento to top them with. Apparently I’m in the 56% of the US that prefers something other than cheddar!

Some interesting burger stats:

• Forty-four percent of Americans list Cheddar as their favorite natural cheese for burgers.
• More than half of burger-lovers would forgo French fries to top their burger with cheese.
• Across the board, “simple and classic” is the preferred burger style among Americans.

My Go-To Turkey Burger Recipe:

1 lb ground dark turkey meat
1 tsp Lawrey’s Seasoning Salt
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbs bbq sauce
Package of sliced Colby Jack Sargento Cheese
1/2 finely sliced onion
1/2 sliced heirloom tomato
4 leafs butter lettuce
4 small ciabatta buns

Mix together meat, seasoning salt, garlic, onion powder, black pepper and bbq sauce and roll into 1 inch patties with your hands. The bigger, the better they will retain their moisture. Grill for 2 or so minutes and flip. Add cheese and remove from heat after 2 or so minutes. Grill bread until just slightly browned, and top with burger, onion, tomato, lettuce and any condiments you like.

My kids prefer the burgers with only the burger, cheese, mayonnaise and ketchup and will only sometimes eat the bun. I tend to cut the burgers for them into easy-to-eat pieces with toothpicks, or with the bun if the bread is thin enough. Sargento is an easy choice for us as it’s all natural and never processed, plus it’s well priced and easy to find. We never skimp on the watermelon, and while the grill is hot you might want to throw some corn on the cob. This is our favorite summer dinner!

Sargento “America’s Ultimate Cheeseburger” Giveaway

Leave a comment on this post with your favorite type of cheese to be entered to win 2 product coupons from Sargentos.

Don’t forget to head over to Sargento’s Facebook page and submit a recipe under their “America’s Ultimate Cheeseburger” tab!

Sweepstakes run from today, July 23rd until Monday July 30th at midnight PST. Winner will be chosen randomly.

I received products and compensation from Sargento Foods Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in this campaign. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.