The Lazy (Healthy!) Dinner that ABSOLUTELY KILLED

I lost steam at about 5:30pm. After 5 hours of paperwork-related "festivities", including doing taxes, plus a solid 2 hour hike, the thought of making myself presentable for a dinner out on the town quickly became a repugnant one.

Mi esposo wanted to order a take-out pizza. Commercial pizza is sometimes just too much yeasty, doughy glop for me to handle, and tonight was one of those times.

But he's a good kid, that esposo of mine, and I wanted him to be happy, so I told him to go on ahead with a small pizza for himself while I improvised with stuff on hand for the grill. The ever-present Alberta Clipper winds blowing cold misery over the Great Lakes Region apparently finally got the message to go on spring break, and with the warming temps outside, it seemed like a downright fine idea to fire up the grill.

The pickin's were slim around here, but I had some ground turkey on hand. There was also an eggplant lurking at the bottom of the produce drawer. Turkey Burgers with a Grilled Eggplant "Bun"??? Why not? After all, the less adventurous eater in this household had his pizza coming....

I love grilled eggplant. I know, I know...probably a good 4 out of 5 people say they hate eggplant, but they've probably eaten it either undercooked or poorly prepared. Thinly sliced, marinated, grilled eggplant is as indulgent an umami flavor experience as a perfectly-seared portobello in the finest restaurant in town. LOVE IT. Ground turkey, on the other hand, is about as lean and bland a protein as you can imagine. The burgers would need some jazzing up.

Scanning the almost-bare cupboards, my gaze landed upon some chickpeas. Rich and fibrous...they might give some life to the ground turkey. That, along with some sage, and a good, finely minced sweet onion...dinner was beginning to take shape.

The eggplant was marinated in some homemade balsamic vinaigrette left over from a recent salad, while the impromptu turkey-garbanzo burgers were formed. The eggplant was grilled on high...the burgers were grilled on medium...and some mayonnaise made the scene as a final condiment at serving time (cholesterol-watchers could substitute some Vegenaise)

Well, my ad hoc I'm-just-too-lazy-to-dress-for-dinner dinner was so damned delicious that I feel a little braggadocio telling you so. But it was. My poor, poor esposo seemed happy enough with his mushy pizza...although the crust looked undercooked and overly glutenous from where I was sitting...but I was happy enough to NOT share my awesome invention. I don't think anything could have beaten my dinner, excepting maybe some Pat LaFrieda beef at some fancy-schmancy-celebrity-cheffy place, but we've already established that nothing was getting me out of my hiking duds and into the LBD (that's "little black dress" for all of you readers who have let your Cosmo subscription lapse).

Interestingly enough, my dinner was cooked AND the grill was cleaned in the same amount of time it took mi espsoso to drive out and pick up his takeout.

And did I happen to mention that these off-the-cuff turkey burgers absolutely slayed me with their deliciousness?? The chickpeas did, indeed, make them feel rich and indulgent while the minced onion rounded the flavor out with their gentle pungency. The big, bright flavor of the grilled eggplant "bun" was the perfect counterweight in the overall flavor combination.

Everything else notwithstanding...why don't you see what you can invent with the scant remains of what's in your pantry the next time you are too lazy to venture out to dinner? You just might surprise yourself with how much more amazing the "something" you create out of "nothing" can be versus some doughy, derivative carryout crud.