Blue Cheese & Bacon Burgers {Naptime Everyday}

What’s Going on Today: Heat wave city – beaching it all day!

Naptime Goals: Prepare burgers and leave in the fridge for the afternoon, prep Caprese Pasta Salad

Tonight’s Menu: Blue Cheese & Bacon Burgers, pasta salad.

The only blessing about the heat wave two weeks ago was that my daughter tired out much more quickly than usual and spent a significant time each afternoon napping like a pro. The heat took so much out of her it was all she could do to stay awake until 1pm after playing outside all morning! During naptime, I’ll admit, I had no interest in turning on the oven. Even though our air conditioning works well it still felt too hot to cook with heat. Instead I decided to prep a favorite summer meal that requires barely any heat to make: grilled burgers and cold pasta salad.

During naptime I formed the burger patties and prepped the bacon in the microwave. I covered the patties with plastic wrap and kept them cool in the fridge until grilling time around 7pm. Admittedly, it was still pretty hot at that hour, but my husband was happy to turn on the grill to make a quick burger whilst sipping a cold beer. During naptime I had also prepped the salad by boiling the noodles and tossing them with the cheese, tomatoes and infused olive oil.

I’ve written about a few of my favorite burger recipes over the past two summers and this is another one from that file. To flavor the meat I dusted it with salt and pepper and topped it with blue cheese and chopped crisp bacon. The cheese and bacon were added toward the end of the grilling to ensure it melted properly without being overcooked. Sometimes I stuff the burgers with the bacon and blue cheese, but I’ve come to prefer it on top since the cheese gets overly runny when stuffed inside the patty. The finished burger was the perfect tasty meal on our hot evening. We happily devoured our tender patties in our air conditioned kitchen, enjoying each tangy, salty bite while dreaming of cooler temperatures.