Homemade Hamburger Helper

Who hasn't had Hamburger Helper? I would be willing to say that all the Canadians that I know have actually tried it. In our family, this meal was a famous camping trip meal. We would have it almost every weekend as it is easy to make and good! We just loved our Hamburger Helper :) On our last trip to Montreal, we brought 2 or 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper back to Madrid. I have one box left but I was thinking the other day: Hey, this can't be that hard to make from scratch?! So off to the thinking and logical box I went!

So, the Hamburger Helper comes with a spice & cheese mix and pasta. You just need to add the meat, onion, milk and hot water. So I replaced the cheese part of the dried spice mix by regular cheese and I gathered a few spices and flavors that would play well with the meat and pasta to replace the spices part. Time to get cooking :)

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Ingredients

200gr of pasta
500gr of meat
200gr of mushrooms
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp of paprika
1 tsp of chili powder (if you want it spicy)
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tbsp of oregano
1 tsp of black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 cup of milk
2 cups of hot water
1 cup of cheddar or mixed cheese
oil

Chop the onion, garlic and mushrooms. Add oil to a pan and heat. When ready, add the onion and garlic and sweat for a minute. Add the mushrooms. Cook lightly.

Add the meat and cook until it is no longer pink. When meat is almost cook, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, bay leaf, paprika, oregano and chili powder. Mix well.

Add milk and hot water. Since David finished our milk this morning and I actually did not realize it until I opened the fridge door to take some (like seriously, I always check my cooking items but milk?! who runs out of milk?! lolll). So out of milk, I used cream and added more water to compensate for the quantity. Turned out perfect!

When the broth simmers, add the pasta and cover.

Cook until the pasta has absorbed the broth. Add the cheese and mix well.

Hamburger Helper is done.

Seriously, this took the same amount of time as the store bought one. And let me tell you, the look and first taste was the same but it was SO MUCH better. There is nothing better than homemade food! Well, I guess I won't be bringing anymore Hamburger Helper boxes from Canada anymore ;)