Sausage and Zucchini Soup

This one is wonderful if you love soup. If you just like soup, it's pretty good. I'm not really big on it but it was especially nice for something different, and it warmed up nicely for Patrick the next day.

1lb hot or sweet Italian sausage (I would double next time)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
28oz diced canned tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
3C water
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
4 medium carrots, sliced
5 celery stalks, sliced
1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced

Slice sausage and cook with onions and bell pepper over medium-high heat in a pan about 10 minutes or until sausage is browned. Drain fat.

In an 8qt Dutch oven (or I just used my soup pot) add tomatoes, water, potatoes, carrots and celery to sausage mixture. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes or until vegetables are just tender. Stir in zucchini and simmer 5 to 10 minutes more or until zucchini is tender. Serve hot. (I added a tiny bit of sour cream-yum!)

Red Robin-esque Spinach Artichoke Burgers

We terribly miss Red Robin-there isn't one close to us at all. So I was super disappointed when we kept seeing commercials for a special burger they had... I think it's off the menu now, but we wanted to try to re-create it anyways. It was SO good! Probably not that fantastic for you at ALL (for a healthy version see the Turkey Burgers I'll eventually remember to take a picture of and post-I'll link it then!)

1 or 1 1/2lbs 93-97% lean ground beef
Package of bacon-we get the center cut kind
Cheese-this time we used the tiny bit of (fresh) Parmesan we had left, a little Italian three cheese, and some cheddar. Not much though.
Spinach Artichoke dip-make your own or buy a frozen version (we bought-it was a busy day)
1 Roma Tomato
Multi-Grain Sandwich Thins buns
Salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste (or fresh, we were just in a hurry)

Cook the bacon. Cut a couple pieces into tiny bits. Mix those in with the ground beef, little bit of cheese, and seasonings. Shape into burgers, grill, and assemble as shown (top bun too of course). Soooo-o good!