Avocado Stuffed Turkey Burgers

I figured it was about time I shared a recipe that made it's way out of our kitchen.  Having been immobilized by my ankle, I had plenty of time to scour through my Delightful Dinners board on Pinterest.  I knocked over an avocado stuffed burger (here's the original recipe on A Civilized Caveman's Cooking Creations) and decided to use ground turkey, instead.  I added a few spices that I thought would pep it up, as well.

If you're like my friends, you're looking at me with wary eyes and images of guacamole topped burgers.  Oh, no, my friends.  This is not that kind of recipe.  The filling is so simple, and it's versatile to your personal taste.  For example, the Civilized Caveman's filling calls for sundried tomatoes.  Since we didn't have any of these in the pantry, we chose to add some red bell pepper and serrano peppers.

By recruiting the help of my trusty chef friends, we put together this delightful, delicious, southwest inspired, guacamole surprise! 

For the sides, we had a few cobs of corn (fresh from none other than the Dekalb County Farmer's Market) that Brendan took out to the grill for us.  He rubbed the corn with our favorite greek seasoning.   Then, we heated up some refried black beans (my new obsession) and topped 'em off with some sriracha and goat cheese.

We stacked our burgers  with some spicy mustard, lettuce, tomato and the refried black beans, too.  I think we all deserved a pat on the back after this wonderful meal.

I downloaded this recipe card for free from vertex42.com.  These are going to be great when I finally accumulate all of the family recipes I want to keep.  They'll be super easy to organize on the computer; plus, if I feel so inclined, I can print my own little recipe book!  I have gift ideas floating around in my head as I type this..

If you liked this, you might also like my breakfast experiment (3 gluten-free ingredient pancakes). It was to die for & so easy!

Pest Control From The Pantry

Since starting work with an eco-friendly company, I have been asked if I know a natural way to get rid of insects.  This got the wheels turning in my mind.  If you've ever lived in Atlanta, I have no doubt you have had an encounter with the prehistoric rat-sized insect that my mother refers to as a palmetto bug.  In Florida, though, we had these spiders the size of a grown mans hand.

While I tend to not advocate violence, the riddance of these little creatures from my home doesn't seem to phase me.  I don't kill them outside, though...

So I started knocking about the Internet and happened upon a few solutions for safe bug killers. 

I am excited to try out this Planet Natural roach remedy using baking soda and powdered sugar.  I feel like I'll just have to remember to clean it up later to keep ants away.

Luckily, ants can be deterred with cucumber peels, according to the article.  Simply leaving a few slices along the trails you find will ward them off.  You can get rid of whole colonies with grits, evidently.    

Homemade fly traps could come in handy and they seem rather easy to make, too.  It's as easy as boiling water, sugar and corn syrup together and then painting your sticky concoction onto some shredded paper grocery bags.  Neat, right?

There's even a natural way to rid your home of those creepy, squirmy earwigs.  This article introduced me to something called Diatomaceous Earth.  It's "a fine powder made from the fossilized remains of tiny fresh water algae-like creatures called diatoms."  Evidently this stuff will get rid of earwigs, ants and other small crawlers.  

And if you're looking for a natural flea repellent that's healthy for your pets, well they've got something for that, too.  Finely ground rosemary leaves.  You can sprinkle it on your cat or dog like powder to keep away the pesky little leapers.

From my personal experiments in the past: If you're looking for a way to kill fruit flies without fogging your house up with chemicals, grab a two liter, mason jar or bottle of your choice.  We used one liter Gatorade bottles and that was helpful because they have wider mouth pieces.  Pour just a little bit of wine in the bottom.  We added a few pieces of fruit, too, for added aroma.  I've heard of people using apple cider vinegar and bananas, too.

Then, roll a piece of paper into a cone with a hole at the bottom big enough for the flies to get into.  Place that end into the bottle.  Leave it next to the sink or trash can, or wherever you see the flies most often.  The flies are attracted into the cone and once they're in the bottle, they can't fly out.

Thrifty 20 Something

Natural Planet has tons of other home remedies, along with natural products for sale.  The recipes for Mint and Jojoba Spray and Citronella and Witch Hazel Repellent in this eHow article are worth checking out, too.