Chicken and Bacon Burger with Avocado Cream

I had grand plans for Tuesday. I may have mentioned before 😳 it is my child free day as it is the one day a week that Mr 4 goes to 3 year old Kindy.  I am not going to call it a day off as it is usually my busiest day! I plan so much for that Tuesday. My Tuesday To Do list looks like a Monthly To Do List.

This Tuesday was no exception. I had my grand plans but they didn't take into account my crazy random life! We left the house 5 minutes late, and I realised as soon as I sat in the car that I had left my phone inside.

I have a little ritual when I get in the car. I put my handbag in the boot, I take my phone out of my back pocket and put it in the door pocket. I put the key in one of the coffee holders (I have a push button start car) and I grab my sunnies from the little tray under the heater controls. I calmly reverse out of the parking space and leave looking glamorous and in control.....No? I lost you at calmly didn't I! 😉

The first part is true, well it is true in theory but not always in practise. Some days I get to school and realise that my handbag is still on the kitchen table. Or I go to grab my sunnies and realise I had them on my head when I went in the house last night so I have about 5% chance of finding them quickly. Or like Tuesday I go to my pocket and find my phone isn't there.

Not too big a deal, most days I can run back in as Stew rolls his eyes and comments "You've been up since 5:30. How are you still unorganised?" I shrug and say it is just one of my very endearing and well homed skills.

But Tuesday we were 5 minutes late, so I decided not to run back in the house. I wasn't going to be out of the house long. Stew to the station, boys to school, me back at home with the kettle on before 9 o'clock.

What a mistake, if I had run back in I would have discovered that my phone was no where to be found and maybe just maybe I would have saved myself 3 hours of hunting!

I got home from school, put the kettle on and went to grab my phone from the bedroom. No phone. I checked my dressing gown pockets, I checked the bathroom, I looked in the bed. Still no phone, so I thought back to the morning.

• Breakfast for the boys - checked the cupboard with cereals in it. Checked the fridge. No phone
• School uniforms for the boys - checked the laundry and window sill near the drying racks. No phone
• Made lunches - checked the pantry, checked the fridge again, removed fruit from the fruit bowl. No phone.
• Remembered that Mr 4 had messy paint day and was meant to go in old clothes - checked the uniform drawer, checked the pile of clothes on top of the drawers. No phone.
• Had to rush to get Mr 4 out of uniform and re-dressed in messy clothes, got hot and took off dressing gown whilst sitting on his bed. - checked under the boys beds, checked pockets of dressing gown again. No phone.
• Picked up school bags and left the house - Oh no did I put it in one of the school bags? Hmmm, is it appropriate to ring the school office and ask them to check the kids bags? Decide that it isn't and also realise I can't ring the office as I have no phone. Then start to panic what if the school needs me? Must find my phone.

So I do what most people would have done at the very beginning. I grab the MacBook and fire off an iMessage (don't you love apple!) to Stew

"I can't find my phone x"

"What do you mean? x" Which personally I thought was a silly question! I mean my statement was pretty clear!

"I mean I can't find it! Can you ring it please? x"

Which he does, no ringing in the house. Hmmm, I know it is in the house as I had it when I first got up and I know I didn't have it in the car. Must have left it on silent! Oh this day is going swimmingly.

And now I turn the house upside down. I take the cushions off the sofa. I empty the washing machine, I go through the dirty laundry basket. I pull things out of the fridge and the freezer. I check outside to see if it fell out of my pocket on the walk to the car. I empty the linen cupboard, I go through my wardrobe. I move the boys beds completely. I check their wardrobe, I check their bedside tables, I check their bookcase. I am at a loss. Where is the thing! I decide I might need another coffee. So I sit down at the table and really try to think about the morning. The last time I remember having it was in my dressing gown pocket. Which takes me back to the boys bedroom as that was where I took it off. I check the bookcase again, I look behind the books and then I start on the little canvas storage boxes and there in the 3rd one I check is my phone.

By this time I have wasted half of my day! How did it get there!!!! Turns out that Mr 4 put it there! Which is what I meant earlier, if only I tried to find it before we left for school I would have saved myself 3 hours and I wouldn't have been faced with a house that looked like I had been raided!

So that was Tuesday! My whole day was out of kilter then. It was almost lunchtime. I hadn't posted my Moroccan Carrot recipe (I didn't manage that until 10:30pm!) I hadn't put the slow cooked ribs on (which I had wanted to photograph and blog on Wednesday!), I hadn't started the worlds slowest washing machine and I hadn't even looked at the mop bucket, well apart from checking inside it for the phone!

So Tuesday was an epic fail on the productivity front. I decided that I needed to treat myself for lunch. I needed to get my mojo back and prove that at least in some areas of my life I could pull it together. Which is why I ended up eating a homemade burger for lunch. A chicken and bacon burger, topped with a smooth avocado cream. Seriously how good does this look? I sat at the table and looked out of the window and enjoyed every mouthful.

Then I got up and started to wash up, cut my finger on a knife, so I sat back down and ordered a dishwasher!

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INGREDIENTS

Serves 2 (These are big big burgers)

• 150g bacon/pancetta
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• chopped chilli (to taste)
• 1 small red onion
• 450g chicken mince
• 2 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 burger buns (I used ciabatta buns, but pick your favourite)
• Spinach leaves (To serve)

1. Cut the bacon up into small dice.
2. Pour the oil into a frying pan and add the bacon. Cook on a high heat until it is starting to crisp.
3. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and leave the oil in the pan ready for your burgers.
4. Allow the the bacon to cool slightly whilst you prepare the avocado cream.
5. Use a sharp knife to cut the avocado in half. Give it a good twist and one half should pull away from the stone.
6. Remove the stone, either with a sharp knife or scoop it out with a spoon.
7. Use a spoon to remove the flesh from the skin and spoon it all into a zip lock bag.
8. In a small bowl mix the lemon juice and salt together until the salt has dissolved.
9. Add the lemon-salt mixture to the bag, expel the air and zip it closed.
10. Squish the contents of the bag together until you have a smooth puree.
11. Taste and add chilli and extra salt to suit your palette. Pop the bag in the fridge.
12. Finely chop the onion and place in a large bowl.
13. Add  the chicken mince, cooked bacon, parsley, salt and pepper.
14. Add a small amount of oil to your hands and then gently work and combine the chicken mixture.
15. Form the mince into two large patties. (or 4 smaller ones)
16. Fry the burgers in the reserved bacon oil (adding more if needed) for 8-10 minutes on each side.
17. Ensure the centre if fully cooked. Exact times will depend on the thickness of your patties.
18. Cut each bun open, add spinach, a patty and top with your avocado cream.