Burger

Healthy bonus: Fiber and potassium from mushrooms; fiber and iron from beans; folate from avocado; potassium from corn

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Gussy up some couscous with chopped olives and red onion, and offer carrot and jicama sticks for crunch. Fill phyllo tart shells (from your store's frozen foods section) with vanilla pudding and sliced bananas for dessert.

Many cooks of Wisconsin and Minnesota consider it patriotic to add extra butter to a dish whenever possible. At drive-ins in these two states, butter is not considered merely a hamburger condiment but an integral component. After studying a slew of burger flippers at work in Milwaukee, we devised the following recipe:

Make a salad of rice tossed with diced jicama, red bell pepper, avocado and a vinaigrette dressing, and pass bowls of sour cream and shredded lettuce to accompany these Southwest-style meatless bean burgers. A lemon tart is a perfect finale.

Serve with bowls of diced tomato, sliced romaine lettuce, and purchased eggplant salad to spoon atop burgers in pitas. Finish with fresh apricots, grapes, and cookies.

Made with spicy sausages and smoky grilled onion, these are not your standard burgers.

Before spooning yogurt out of the carton, pour off any liquid on top. If you use a particularly thick yogurt, you may need to thin the sauce with a little water.

Top the grown-ups' burgers with the caramelized onions with barbecue sauce and be sure to have mayonnaise and mustard on hand. Serve corn on the cob and the baked potato wedges to the whole crowd.

Serve with: Parslied new potatoes and a frisée salad with goat cheese. Dessert: Pineapple sorbet with sliced strawberries.

Chipotles give these burgers — from Hal's Bar & Grill in Venice, California — a terrific kick.

Beef and Roquefort have a long-standing culinary partnership, but the thick and sweetly smoky slices of barbecued red onions are what really make these burgers great. Keep the meal all-American with chilled beer, homemade lemonade and iced tea. A fresh peach pie with vanilla ice cream is a perfect dessert.

"We enjoyed everything about The Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills — the location, the rooms and the terrific restaurants. The last time I stayed there, I had the most delicious salmon burger at the Roof Garden," says Diana Goldstein of Washington, D.C.. "Now that I've had this version, I may never go back to beef burgers."