Turkey-Salsa-Cheese Burgers

When your kids move beyond rice cereal and diced bananas, but haven’t yet graduated to steak, then you’re probably in the ground meat phase. You can't drop a whole pork chop on their plate, but toddlers can manage a couple meatballs. However, hamburgers and meatloaf easily become boring, so try varying the meat, spices and cooking method. Instead of always turning to beef, consider ground turkey, chicken or pork that you can stir-fry, stew, grill, steam, broil or roast. There are lots of options for simple ground meat dinners that will satisfy the entire family.

Turkey-Salsa-Cheese Burgers
serves 4

Salsa
4 large tomatoes, diced (about 4 cups)
¼ onion, minced (about ½ cup)
1 can diced green chiles (7 oz)
2 limes, juiced (about ¼ cup)
½ teaspoon salt

Avocado Spread
1 avocado
¼ cup plain yogurt
¼ teaspoon salt

Burgers
1 lb ground turkey
¾ cup shredded monterey jack

For serving
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted
tortilla chips

1. Combine salsa ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, use a fork to smash avocado spread ingredients together until smooth.
3. For burgers, gently mix turkey, cheese and 1 cup of the salsa. Form into 4 burgers.
4. Heat frying pan on stove to high. Place burgers in pan and reduce heat to medium. Cook until well browned on one side, about 10 minutes. Flip burgers, reduce heat to low and cover pan slightly. Cook until well done (160º F), about 20 minutes.
5. Place burgers on bun bottoms and top with large scoop of salsa. Spread avocado mixture thickly onto bun tops, and serve burgers immediately with tortilla chips and the remaining salsa.

For your child: Reserve a portion of the avocado spread for your baby—you may want to thin the consistency with some water, milk or formula. If your toddler has graduated to finger foods, cut a burger and bun into bite size pieces. You may also serve some diced tomatoes.