Soccer Mom Suppers: Baked Hamburgers

Another week of school and soccer, more need for easy dinner ideas, since no one has invented the self-cooking kitchen yet. WHY NOT? Someone get on that, please.

My boys love burgers, but I don’t really want to fire up our grill all the time, which had previously been the only way we could get a decent burger at home. And drive-thru burgers make me cringe.

I found this easy way to bake burgers in the oven. They make for a super easy dinner AND they turn out so moist and flavorful. I’m not usually a burger fan and I actually like these- a lot! You can prepare the patties ahead of time and then pour the sauce over them right before you bake them(the sauce takes a whole minute to mix up) or you can assemble the whole thing while your oven is preheating, as they really don’t take very long at all.

Serve with your favorite burger toppings(you might find you don’t need much because these have a lot of flavor on their own) and sides. Sides in this house usually mean whatever we have on hand: tator tots, fries, salad, or fruit salad. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple.

Baked Burgers

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon plus 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1-1.5 lbs ground beef
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• hamburger buns

Directions

• In large mixing bowl, combine bread crumbs, milk, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper.
• Add in the ground beef and mix.
• Form 4-6 patties and put into a greased 11×7 in. pan (or similar). Thinner patties will bake faster. I don’t recommend going too thick.
• In a small bowl, mix the water, brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
• Pour over patties.
• Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.