I'm working on adapting recipes that I already use to begin the diet, so let me know if this is not OK for phase one? I think it is...

Basically you just mix 1 cup of feta cheese per 1 pound of lean ground turkey. Oregano, salt and pepper then just grill them

up. Usually these go on pita bread but they would be just fine in lettuce leaves too with some tomato, onion, roasted red pepper and yogurt sauce! Or just on a plate maybe with some sauteed spinach?

To make yogurt sauce you just mix fresh mint and crushted garlic with the yogurt and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours -- a whole day is even better. You can use the leftover as a salad dressing.

That sounds really yummy and would give DH a change from the usual
Could you also make it a loaf?
and for burgers what do you grill it on (I'm in cold wintery NJ so a real grill would be out of the question)

Looks good but be very careful to get lean turkey and lf feta. I just ran this through fitday and got a total of 1453 calories and 91 rams of fat for the whole recipe. Fitday doesn't list lean ground turkey or LF feta so I'm sure that's way out of line. Assuming it makes four patties, it would still be pretty high calories and fat if you didn't use the reduced fat ingredients.
I hate to be a party pooper because it sounds yummy. I have lf feta and may grind up a chicken breast and have it tonight.

I also like to add some sliced cucumber to my yogurt dressing, sorta like a Taziki (sp?) sauce. I would use the ground turkey breast and either LF feta or cut back on the regular feta ( which is 1/4 cup=90 cals and 7gms fat). Sounds yummy

There are always ways to adapt recipes to SB.

Could you add cucumber to the burger?

I think that Feta cheese is one of the few where the non-fat version is really just as tasty -- I would do the n/f.

This recipe I actually got from my sister who is going to a nutritionist, she makes this about once a week because her hub is so picky and hates "diet food" but he likes this one! She does have it with pita bread on her particular diet, however, she makes very small patties, kind of like falafel? And the rest veggies and yogurt sauce, and then she packs the leftover patties for work...

As far as grilling, hmmm! That's a good question as we do bbq all year here in SoCA, I wouldn't try it in a George Foreman type think cuz I picture the cheese getting all gooed up? It would prob turn out good but ooooh, the pergatory you would have to go through after dinner with the LITTLE PLASTIC CLEANING FORK THING! I love you George Foreman but I've always found the EZ CLEANUP THING TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE...

I would say maybe broiled? that would probably be good...oh and I so add crushed pepper flakes to this recipe when I do it cuz I like everything on the spicy side!

Def!! After you cook it though, you mean, not in it cuz that would get slimey...CILANTRO IS GOOD WITH THIS TOO CUZ CILANTRO IS GOOD WITH EVERYTHING! IMO!!

Yeah I think it would be good with half the feta! I think I am going to try putting some shredded zucchini in it as an experiment, sometimes that makes for moister LF ground meat type things...haven't tried it with this one though.

The cucumber in the yogurt sauce is a great idea!

You're not at all a party pooper, you're an expert as are all of you veteran SBers so I love your imput on stuff! Nice to have all this help starting out!

Made this tonight - it was great!

I used 1/2 lb. lean ground turkey, LF feta cheese, finely shredded zucchini, S &P, 1 tsp, crushed garlic, dash oregano and dash of thyme.

Formed 2 patties (one for dinner and one for next day) and pan fried with cooking spray about 5 min each side. I probably over cooked them a bit, but I couldn't tell.

Served with yogurt-cucumber sauce and salad on side.

YUM!!

Making these tonight. I figured the cal/fat on them. I used lean ground turkey.

1lb of lean ground turkey
1/2 c reduced fat feta
Makes 4 servings of 195 calories/approx. 10 grams of fat

There is a more lean ground turkey you can get, but this is what I had on hand. Will let you know how it tastes.

After dinner edit: Next time I would spice them up more...and also I would get the more lean turkey to cut down on fat. I want to experiment and make these into meatballs with some sort of glaze/sauce. Overall: Good