Buffalo Turkey Burgers with Blue Cheese Coleslaw

I'm on vacation in Florida right now with my two kiddos, my mom, and some extended family. We're spending a week pool and beachside with three of her cousins and their families. It's a blast so far!! My boys were in the pool for over six hours today before we pulled them out to go to the dollar store to get some beach toys. Boy #2 fell asleep in the car on the way there and is still snoozing (so I volunteered to stay back here with him), and Boy #1 is back at it, either swimming or going to play on the beach, I'm not sure.

We had a four hour plane ride yesterday, and I was alone with my kids. In my mind, they'd spend the entire flight enthralled with various new movies I'd purchased for the trip and basically leave me alone except for the occasional DVD switch or another snack (you have no idea how much food I take along on an airplane ride...it stems from a mantra of "when in doubt, feed them" from when we traveled with our boys when they were babies). While they were busy being fixated with movies I was going to spend the flight updating my blog, be one of those people typing away on my laptop on the plane. Now, if you have kids you're probably shaking your head at me right now, and I don't blame you. I should have known better. No one wanted to watch a movie for more than 10 minutes, and I was constantly picking up a backpack so they could find something else to do or trying to come up with something to entertain them. My laptop stayed packed away in my backpack in the overhead compartment the whole trip.

Sigh.

But, I'm at least hoping to get caught up on some entries while on vacation. I mean, I can't spend an entire week laying by the pool or on the beach eating tasty food and having delicious adult beverages, right? Ha! Who am I kidding? That sounds awesome, so this may very well be the only post I do. We'll see. I can't let Boy #2 sleep too long or he'll never go to bed tonight.

So...

I recently found ground turkey on sale for BOGO, which I love. And then a day or two later I happened to see this recipe on skinnytaste.com and thought it would be a perfect addition to my meal plan for the week. I wasn't sure about the coleslaw on the burger but figured it was worth a shot. Plus I don't think I've ever been disappointed with a recipe I've made from her website! And one more thing, we really love anything deemed "buffalo" so it was worth a shot!

Buffalo Turkey Burgers with Blue Cheese Coleslaw
Source: skinnytaste.com
1 1/2 cups broccoli slaw
1/4 cup skinny blue cheese dressing (recipe below)
1.25 lbs 93% lean ground turkey
2/3 cup grated carrots (grate in food processor) 
1/4 cup seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs 
1 clove garlic, grated 
1 tbsp red onion, grated
1/4 cup Franks Hot Sauce
salt and fresh pepper
oil spray
5 slices reduced fat cheddar
5 whole wheat burger buns (I used Martin's 100 calorie Potato Whole Wheat Buns)

Directions: In a medium bowl combine broccoli slaw and skinny blue cheese dressing. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, carrots, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, hot sauce, salt and pepper.

Makes 5 equal patties, 5.5 oz each. Servings: 5 • Size: 1 Burger  
Calories: 358 • Fat: 15 g • Protein: 38.3 g • Carb: 22.7 g • Fiber: 5.6 g • Sugar: 5.9

Low Fat Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
6 oz fat free Greek yogurt
1 tbsp light mayonnaise
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, mash blue cheese and yogurt together with a fork. Stir in mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar, and garlic powder until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Makes 1 cup.

Servings: 8  • Serving Size: 2 tablespoons •  Calories: 46.8 • Fat: 3.0 g • Protein: 2.8 g • Carb: 2.2 g • Fiber: 0.3 g 

*****

As I've mentioned before, my children are very anti-spicy food, so before adding in the Frank's I pulled out enough of the mixture for a burger patty each for them and set it aside. I was pretty liberal with the Frank's, but I really could have put more in it. Oh, and I skipped the garlic and onion and instead went for a bit each of garlic powder and onion powder. I'm lazy, and neither was enough of an amount to deal with using the real thing. We loved these burgers!! I will warn you, with the slaw on top they were very messy, but they were oh-so tasty. I would have eaten another if we'd had it, I loved it so much. The slaw on top was a great addition, too. Mellowed out the tang and heat of the Frank's and added an interesting texture. I think if you weren't a fan of blue cheese (which I just don't understand) you could easily substitute ranch dressing for the blue cheese dressing when mixing up the slaw. My kids were happy with their normal burgers, the husband and I were happy with our tasty buffalo burgers, so it was a win-win all over!!