Bariatric Friendly, Low Carb, Burger Bites

Whether it is the 4th of July, Labor Day or a family birthday party, don’t worry about showing up empty-handed to this year’s cookout! Our team at WLS Afterlife created these bariatric-friendly burger bites that not only you can enjoy but so can friends and family! 

Hearing your doctor explain to you your new dietary restrictions can be worrisome for bariatric patients. For that reason, WLS Afterlife is always excited to introduce delicious bariatric-friendly recipes that you can enjoy while on your weight loss journey. For those of you reminiscing about the last time you enjoyed a burger, you don’t have to fret any longer because our team has put together a a burger bites dish that combines all the flavors of what makes a great burger.

Our burger bites recipe is bariatric-friendly in size and in nutrition. We get it, not all meals brought to a summer cookout are made for bariatric patients. This is why we decided to create a summer-style dish with you in mind! This recipe alone is a great way to up your protein intake and best of all is completely customizable.  We had a lot of fun making our own special burger bites with our favorite toppings.

For this recipe, our team chose to cook with turkey bacon and turkey meatballs. We selected turkey meat because it holds less fat than regular ground beef. If you want to try other meatball recipes to mix things up, you can try our Italian Meatball recipe.  Our team is always on a mission to provide you with meals that not only taste amazing but are also healthy. 

Once you have your meats cooked, the order in which you choose to put together your mini burgers is pretty important. After making this recipe we were met with the challenge of getting the bite-size burgers to stand straight up. We realized that the burger bites needed a flat surface in order to be picture-perfect. A solution that we implemented was cutting a cherry tomato so that it was flat on both sides and placing that at the bottom and finishing off the mini burger with the other round half of the cherry tomato. If you did not want to double up on cherry tomatoes, then we also found that the pickle slices we used also worked with keeping these mini burgers to stand properly. 

This finger food dish is perfect for any cookout you attend this summer. Our team is excited for you to try this dish out and share it with your friends and family. 

If you make this recipe, post, follow and tag us on social media! We love seeing how our blogs can help bariatric patients continue to make healthy choices and maintain wellness years post surgery. That’s what we’re all about at WLS Afterlife! Whether you’ve had the gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, lap band, gastric balloon, or any other kind of weight loss surgery- we have recipes for you.

Ingredients

Turkey meatballs

Turkey bacon

Cherry tomatoes

Spinach

Sliced cheese

Pickle slices

Here’s the general nutrition breakdown:

Estimated Total Nutrition for 1 Serving:

• Calories: ~300-350 kcal
• Protein: ~25-30g
• Carbs: ~6-8g (mainly from the tomatoes, pickle slices, and spinach)
• Fat: ~20-25g (from the turkey bacon, cheese, and turkey meatballs)

Instructions

1. Bake the meatballs according to instructions 
2. Cook turkey bacon, cut into bite-size pieces
3. Cut tomatoes in half
4. Cut spinach to bite size
5. Cut cheese slices into 1/9 
6. Assemble on toothpick, place pickle slice on the bottom for stabilization

If you like our recipe and need to pack them for lunch? Check out one of our favorite bariatric meal prep products, Metal Bento Boxes

You can find our favorite Amazon items in our Amazon Store. WLS Afterlife’s Amazon Page

We recommend our WLS Afterlife viewers follow their doctor’s dietary guidelines, regardless of our recipe instructions. WLS Afterlife is dedicated to presenting new bariatric-friendly meals weekly so you can continue to enjoy the life you’ve worked so hard to enjoy!  If we listed an ingredient you were told to avoid, write to us so we may provide you with plenty of other tasty alternatives.