After a weekend of terrible weather we’re happy to see the sun out again so we can get back into enjoying this summer. Canada Day hits on Wednesday and since the celebration is midweek and a lot of us have to work we thought we’d look into a menu that’s easy to execute as soon as you get home. Burgers seem like a perfect choice – they’re easy to cook and serve and go well with any number of toppings. Grab some salad fixin’s and you’ve got dinner down.
Now making your own hamburger patties from fresh ground beef, or veggie patties from quinoa and mashed beans, is all well and good, but for the sake of simplicity and ease we looked into frozen patties. There are a lot of hockey pucks out there in the frozen patty section of the freezer but we found two, one vegetarian and one beef -so no one gets left out, that raise the bar and are definitely worthy of your Canada Day barbecue feast!
Amy’s has been a top vegetarian brand for years, since 1988 in fact, and the family owned company is especially known for their delicious veggie burgers. Using all organic ingredients, like mushrooms, celery, oats, walnuts, bulgur and more, they make delicious patties that don’t taste too dry or too ‘healthy’. These are burgers after all, they’re supposed to be fun!
The best thing about veggie burgers is that you don’t have to worry about things like pink slime or mystery meat. When dealing with frozen beef burger patties it can be hard to choose wisely.
The people at Life Choices are taking a stand and offering a product that customers can trust in. They come right out and say it on their website,
“All Life Choices Burgers are made with whole and prime cuts of meat- no organ meat, mechanically separated meats, pink slime… We make our burgers like you might at home- no fillers, binders or extenders- just meat and spices!”
That’s just the end product they’re talking about, they’ve also got more to say regarding the animals they raise to use in those burgers.
These beef burgers are fresh frozen, not pre-cooked, and are the best we’ve tried from the pre-made burger world. Once you’ve fired up the grill you can set up a burger toppings station with the expected ingredients like ballpark mustard, ketchup, pickles, tomato and lettuce and maybe some not so expected like salsa, avocado slices, pickled pepperoncini, horseradish and alfalfa sprouts.
Now that the burgers are settled and a salad is ready to be tossed all you need are some great Canadian tunes and an ice cold local beer or two. Muskoka Brewery’s Detour is an excellent choice with barbecued burgers and a little Stompin’ Tom or Sam Roberts make for a great soundtrack. In fact, the CBC recently compiled a list of the top songs that make one feel the most Canadian, check it out here.
Happy Canada Day!
And, of course, if you do decide to take the day off, be sure to check out this super fun beach party!