HOMEMADE HAMBURGER HELPER

Hamburger (1 lb)
4 cups noodles
1 can tomato sauce
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups water

Just make this the same way you make hamburger helper, all in the skillet. Brown the meat, drain the fat, add the liquids and seasoning, and the add the noodles and cook until tender.

If you wanted a Mexican dish, you would add spices like cumin, and instead of adding noodles to the mixture, you could add some Fritos or Tortilla chips.

If you really want to get organized, pre-measure your noodles and spices and put them in a large baggie. If time is short, or you want to make things easier for other family members to cook, this may work well for you. Either way, you save money.

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), May 06, 2002

Answers

Okay, stupid question(s):

Any type of noodles? Macaroni or wide egg noodles?

What size can tomato sauce?

I would assume you double the water if you double the noodles? And maybe the sauce too?

This looks really good--my only complaint (besides the expense) about the storebought stuff is that it is very salty, so I will probably stretch it with the extra noodles and maybe some frozen peas....thanks Karen!

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 07, 2002.

Regular noodles, although I don't see why you couldn't use macaroni and just add a little water because they take longer to cook and require more liquid. Regular size (like a can of green beans) tomatoe sauce. Just adjust everything to your particular taste.

-- Karen (mountains_mama2@hotmail.com), May 07, 2002.

Does anyone know what is actually in those envelopes of dryed onion soup mix?? Seriously.......it always seems pretty expensive to me so I mess around with combinations of dryed onions, bullion, herbs etc., never got it quite exactly like the mixes, but close.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 07, 2002.

Diane, the recipe for the Lipton Onion Soup Mix was posted here in the past and is excellent and only costs a few cents to make! You can find it by clicking here .

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

Thank you Karen!!! This is looking like a nice place to hang out :>) I have been waiting to see you on the journaling forum, have you lurked yet???

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 08, 2002.

I am so swampped! I certainly have been meaning to and will get there soon. Chuck has been waiting for me to get back to him on reviewing the new website and I just kind of breezed in and out. I need to go play there this week since that is where we will live I need to try things out. I really want to get to the journaling site because this is the time to be journaling, isn't it!

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), May 08, 2002.

Thanks Karen, the reason I asked about the can sizes is that (of course!) there are TWO sizes of tomato sauce cans in my cupboard right now (8 oz. and 15 oz.) and TWO sizes of green bean cans (14.5 oz. and 8 oz.), lol. I assume you're using the larger size?

Also, I'm sure we all still have some recipes that call for sizes of cans/packages that have shrunk, or worse, aren't even around anymore (anyone remember dry frosting mix, for example?). For example, I had to write to one of the editors of the Gifts of Good Taste book series because they mentioned a spice brand with a certain amount (like l.25 oz.) that wasn't available in my my area in order to get a cup/spoon measurement.

I'm looking forward to trying the onion soup recipe, and will try substituting an herb mix for the seasoned salt. Thanks for posting the link!

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 08, 2002.

Yep, I sure know what you mean. I just thought about that frosting mix the other day! I think Jiffy still makes one. Guess that goes back to the days when you got a "real" pound of coffee and bacon. They just trick us into thinking the prices haven't gone up that much by switching to smaller sizes. One of my shopping pet peeves!

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.