The Ultimate Parmesan Bacon Mushroom Burger

I was taken to lunch with my girlfriend for my birthday the other day. There is a new restaurant in town which moved over from a near by town for a bigger location. 

I had never eaten at the place but my friend told me how wonderful it was.That was the place she picked for my birthday lunch. I am anemic so I have been trying to eat red meat. I usually get salads when eat and pick chicken of fish for my meat of choice. So, with the anemia and tired body in tow, I ordered a Mushroom Burger.

As I took my first bite, I was in heaven. It was SO good. It was a blue cheese portobello mushroom burger.

I came home raving about it to my girls. I thought I would try and make some for them. I got Black Angus beef burgers for the hamburger. 

I have lots of dried Portobello mushrooms (click here for that post) so that part was easy. I sauteed about two cups of dried mushrooms, a dab of butter, a dab of coconut oil and a splash of olive oil for flavor and to keep it from sticking. I added 2 tablespoons of crushed garlic. After the onions had sauteed, I added about 1 1/2 cups of water to soften the dried mushrooms. 
 
While that was going on, I fried up some bacon and the hamburgers both in different fry pans. I would have thrown the hamburgers in the mushrooms to cook but one daughter doesn't like mushrooms so I kept them separate. 

I drained the bacon and blotted it and the burgers with paper towels. While those were cooking however, I cut up cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado.   

I wish I had buns but am cutting down on that so I used Sprouted Bread to make it a bit healthier and it was good other than the bread got a bit soggy towards the finish. 

I put mayo on mine because I wanted Parmesan cheese instead of blue cheese. If I were using blue cheese, I would have used a fine quality blue cheese dressing as the mayo. My girls put other condiments on theirs as one doesn't like avocado or mushrooms but she enjoyed the rest of the toppings.  

 I sprinkled real shredded Parmesan on the top of the cooked burger to let it melt in. I did try adding some to the mushrooms but it just clumps up so putting it on at the end works better.

Bread or roll, sauce, burger, bacon, cheese, tomato, cucumber, avcado and the spoon on the mushrooms. 

Both girls told me how good it was and both had seconds. I saved my second for dinner and enjoyed it just as much the second time. I will make this again for sure. My mouth is watering as I type this. 

The restaurant is so good that I called one of my guy friends that I haven't seen in awhile and we went the same day for dinner. I had a $30 blue cheese and garlic Porterhouse steak, real mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. 

It was SO good. I couldn't finish it all and brought it home for the girls to try. They liked it so I will have to try and make that at home for them as well. The price and the fat content of the steak there weren't my favorite. I will have to post about it when I do make it.

Here is a pictures of the burger without the mushrooms as I shared one princess doesn't like them. She really enjoyed her burgers though and I can see that this will become a regular. 

I think we are all a bit anemic so this will be a good reason to add this to our diet. 

I won't link to them all, but here are a few of my favorite mushroom recipes I have posted about in the past: 
Hot salad dressing - Thanks to Wayne
Sauteed Sirloin and Mushrooms with Dirty Eggs
Chicken Parmesan and Veggie Stroganoff