Hungry Girl

We love cheeseburgers but, unfortunately, they don't always love us back. Check out our fast food findings, a brand-new and DELICIOUS cheeseburger-inspired recipe, plus our ROCKIN' recipe round-up! Read and chew...


The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Fast food restaurants... take twenty paces, turn, and DRAW!


Winner! Wendy's Jr. Cheeseburger

PER SERVING (one burger): 270 calories, 11g fat, 700mg sodium, 26g carbs, 1g fiber, 6g sugars, 15g protein -- POINTS® value 6*
Need a cheesy fast food burger? This is a quick and easy way to satisfy your need without totally blowing a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting. Pair it with a side salad topped with fat-free French dressing for a total of just 370 calories and 12g fat (POINTS® value 8*) for the whole meal. Well done, you!





Loser! McDonald's Angus Third Pounders

PER SERVING (one burger): 750 - 790 calories, 39 - 40g fat, 1,170 - 2,070mg sodium, 59 - 63g carbs, 4g fiber, 8 - 13g sugars, 40 - 45g protein -- POINTS® value 17 - 18*
What happened, McDonald's? You were on a health kick for a while there, but then you dropped these Angus burgers on us. People, these are to be avoided like, well, the cheese demons they are!






SHOCKER! Hardee's 2/3 Pound Monster Thickburger

PER SERVING (one burger): 1,420 calories, 108g fat, 2,770mg sodium, 46g carbs, 2g fiber, 9g sugars, 60g protein -- POINTS® value 37*
Folks, COME ON. Sure, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are the unapologetic bad boys of fast food, but this burger is just WRONG on so many levels. One bun, TWO beef patties, THREE cheese slices, FOUR bacon strips... and probably about FIVE straight days of running on the treadmill to counteract it.





HG's Crispy Cheeseburger Pizza

PER SERVING (entire pizza): 226 calories, 4.5g fat, 1,207mg sodium, 33g carbs, 15g fiber, 9g sugars, 27.5g protein -- POINTS® value 4*

Make our quirky, burger-style pizza in the comfort of your own kitchen. It has fewer calories than ONE SLICE of CPK's version...

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp. ketchup
1/2 tbsp. fat-free mayonnaise
1 tsp. yellow mustard
1/2 cup frozen ground-beef-style soy crumbles (like the kind by Morningstar Farms or Boca), thawed
1 La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Low Carb High Fiber Large Tortilla
1/4 cup shredded fat-free cheddar cheese
1 tbsp. chopped onion
3 tbsp. shredded lettuce
2 tbsp. chopped tomato
Optional toppings: hamburger dill pickle chips, additional ketchup

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small dish, combine ketchup, mayo, and mustard, and mix until uniform. Add soy crumbles and toss to coat. Set aside.

Lightly spray a medium-large skillet with nonstick spray and bring to medium heat on the stove. Lay tortilla flat in the skillet and cook until slightly crispy, a few minutes on each side.

Transfer tortilla to a baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray. Scoop soy crumble mixture into the center of the tortilla and spread it out evenly, leaving a 1/2-inch border around it. Evenly sprinkle with cheese and onion.

Bake in the oven for 11 - 13 minutes, until tortilla border browns and cheese melts.

Top with lettuce and tomato. If you like, add pickles and a squiggle of ketchup. Cut into slices and EAT!

MAKES 1 SERVING

HG Heads Up! We know this one's a bit high in sodium. You can save about 300mg sodium if you use no-salt-added ketchup, like the kind by Heinz.





Flippin' Burgers with HG!

A bevy of burger recipes (most of 'em meatless!) for your every craving...

Awesome Whopper Stopper - The original burger swap. A MUST-CHEW cheeseburger!

Chili-rific Cheeseburger - Forget those Carl's Jr. commercials with an obscene amount of chili dripping from a ginormous burger. Ours is way lower in fat and calories -- and marginally less messy.

The Cheeseburger Chomp - Get unconventional with your burger fix... Chop it and then wrap it up in a tortilla!

Outside-In Cheeseburger Patty - A patty with creamy delicious cheese INSIDE it? Where do we sign up?

Island Insanity Burger - One look at the picture and you'll fall into a full-on food fantasy...

Burger Specials! - Cheeseburger Quesadilla... Big Bad Burger Wrap... BLC Wraps... All three of these tasty burger recipes can be found in Hungry Girl 200 Under 200. By the way, BLC stands for Bacon, Lettuce, CHEESEBURGER!













CHEW ON THIS:
Tomorrow, September 18th, is National Cheeseburger Day. No matter how you take your burger, we've got you covered with our BRAND-NEW Crispy Cheeseburger Pizza and our recipe round-up!