The Best Burger

Bob and I were so hungry for a really thick and juicy hamburger lastnight. I'm a certified fitness chef and am also trying to maintain a healthy diet, but sometimes you just have to give in to your cravings, and I think that's ok as long as you don't make a habit of it.

It was very late and Red Robin was on the way home and we know that restaurant is famous for its gourmet burgers, so we wheeled in. (It's also been voted the best family restaurant by Charlotte Observer readers.)

Of course, we'd waited so long to have dinner that we were starving. (Dontcha know that you will ALWAYS over eat if you let yourself get to the point of starvation, and then your body will hoard every single one of those calories you consume!) But there's a certain freedom to tossing care to the wind and not even thinking about calories or fat grams. We WERE, after all, looking for a thick juicy hamburger! Not a turkey or tofu burger, but a hot, juicy, salty beef burger piled so high with condiments that it's hard to wrap your lips around!

We were not disappointed. It took all of 2 minutes for us to decide to each have the Sante Fe burger: a thick beef burger layered with corn chips, lettuce (at least we had a healthy veggie!) ancho mayo, guacamole, and a roasted poblano all stuffed between tender layers of onion roll. Mmmmmmm. Of course that came with a "bottomless" basket of hot and crisp steak fries and, in honor of our feast from the Southwest, we each ordered one of Red Robin's signature margaritas. No salt, of course, as we are cutting down on our sodium intake. hehehe

Bob and I both agreed that the burger we had at Red Robin was the best we've ever had, and that's saying a lot as one of Bob's professions is being a professional connoisseur of burgers. He said, "Now THAT'S a burger I'll come back for any time!

But in the cold light of dawn as I gazed at the nutritional value of that burger alone (Red Robin provides this info on their website) I realized that we will save that particular burger experience for very occasional splurges. Last night, with that delicious-satisfy-our-burger-craving sandwich, we each consumed 1047 calories and 64 grams of fat. I didn't even bother checking the fries and margaritas, but went out to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and fixed us hard boiled eggs and fresh grapefruit for breakfast.