My love/hate relationship with Rachael Ray

I like the concept of Rachael Ray's show, 30 Minute Meals (I know she has a talk show too but I've never seen it).  She wants to make healthy meals that are easy on time and budget.  I might not have a family but I can definitely relate to those concerns.  And I do love her cheesy terms "Yum-o" and "Delish", which my readers know that I use a lot.  And her "GB" is probably one of the more useful cooking tips I've used even though it is really a simple one.

But...I find the show to dumb down cooking to a point that drives me crazy.  I once saw her make a pizza that consisted of her scooping out the inside of a French bread and throwing some toppings on it and putting it in the oven.  That's not a pizza - that's an open faced sandwich.  And her scratchy voice and over-use of the term EVOO drives me bonkers.  

But because the show is on ALL the time, I can't help but watch it when nothing else is on (and by nothing, I mean my bad reality shows or ABC Family movie).  A few weeks ago, I saw her make a turkey bean burger that she called the Turkey and Bean Burrito Burger and it actually sounded decent.  B and I decided to make it last night for dinner.  Well, I ended up staying at work late and then headed to the gym, so I actually didn't contribute much to the meal (unless you count on eatting carrots and celery with dip while talking to B) but it ended up being really great.  Since we didn't have any leftover rice, B picked up some rice from the hot bar at Whole Foods.  We also opted out of the buns (I'm a huge fan of bunless burgers) and also had some leftover sweet potato fries from the night before.  I washed it down with a nice bottle of Michelob Ultra (don't judge) and was pretty satisfied.

Here's the recipe as follows:

Ingredients

• 1 cup cold leftover white or brown rice
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• Palmful chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons, half a palmful, cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coriander, half a palmful
• 1 tablespoon grill seasoning, (recommended: Montreal Seasoning by McCormick)
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 clove garlic, grated or finely chopped
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 red leaf lettuce leaves
• 1 ripe tomato, sliced
• 4 crusty rolls, split

Directions

Combine rice, meat and beans with spices and grill seasoning. Form 4 big patties from the meat and bean mixture then heat 1 tablespoon oil, a turn of the pan, in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook patties 7 to 8 minutes on each side.

While burgers cook, combine avocado with garlic, lime zest and juice, jalapeno and red onion. Mash to roughly combine, then stir in the sour cream.

Place burgers on buns with lettuce and tomato and top with sour cream guacamole.