Hamburger Helper.......Yummmmmm
 

I was wandering through our local super Walmart the other day and buying some groceries and usually I buy those "store brand" items since they are way cheaper and in most cases taste as good or better than name brands. Saving $$$$ is important for us since we are way past retirement age, ETC, ETC. So I come to the isle with the boxed stuff and there it was......Hamburger Helper and it has been some years since we had any and they had several flavors I had never seen so I bought some of each kind. My wife cooked up some last night and I was shocked as it tasted way better than I remembered. So good in fact we both had seconds and that is rare for her. The only addition we had was some jalapeno cheese sprinkled on top! Additionally the warm weather out here is still driving the ladies to wear those yoga shorts and halter tops and in most cases were easy to watch!

I find since I have gotten older it takes much less to make me happy........

I make the Lasagna flavor quite often but I doctor it up with extra sauce, mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms. Freeze the leftovers and my wife takes it to work for lunch.

I don't think we had that much as a kid, but I always wanted it. I'm sure it's tasty, but I suspect it's horribly unhealthy.

My wife put herself through school as a sou chef. And takes great pride in her skills as a cook. It grates on her that I am perfectly content with hamburger helper type meals.

I just checked the box I bought last week. It's Spartan brand. It's not even REAL Hamburger Helper.

It's a quick meal that all here will eat.

You are damned right.

afterburn 549 would suck that goodness down quicker than the Browns are out of the play-offs

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LOL.....that's funny.....:D

I don't think I've ever had it but will check it out now that it's been so highly recommended. ;)

What flavor(s) did you eat, John?

I figure I'd eat it. Anyone who actually kinda liked "Ham and Mother****ers" of C-rat fame will enjoy about anything.

_

God damn this is eye opening.

What post graduate college were you helicoptered to?

Jeebus, you have not lived yet, young man. Get out there and savor the divine carbs and MSG.

Crap. Afterburn deleted his rats wont touch it posts. I am prepared to do a test in my shop which has a compromised door that lets mice in from the back field.

He may be right as rain.

I have eaten the stuff and I swell up like a balloon from sodium, but it's tasty.

For the record: My Mom did not make this when we were growing up. Everything she made was from scratch. She still kids me because I use spaghetti sauce from a jar.

I think the first time I had HH was after I met my first wife. I had no clue it was from a box. She made fake mashed potatoes, too. I didn't even know until I saw the box one day.

Don't forget Rice'o Roni...

Funny that I could eat the whole box (said to feed 4) with half a bucket of KFC and still go for the midnight Pizza snack :D:):D

Just get some pasta and make your own "helper." Doesn't really take that much more time, is cheaper, and you can spice it up how you like it. Most add their own stuff to make it better anyway. That's what my Mom did when I was growing up.

Oh boy.

I made Rice Roni to go with tacos Friday, we had pizza for supper last night and today we got KFC for late lunch/supper.

In fact, I'm gnawing on a KFC thigh right now. :D

+1

My Mom's volume grub was out of a pressure cooker. Hamburger balls with rice in them, tomato sauce with her seasonings on top of mashed potatoes. To die for.

On the cheap, fried cow's liver. Still sucked it down.

Going to stop and get HH tonight on the way home. NO burger in it for the test sample. I am seriously interested.

The $1 on sale rice sides are not bad. Has to be comparable to Rice a Roni. Add butter and water.

Time for DNA testing... Don't tell me you were born in 57 ;)

I had heard the name, but honestly didn't know what the stuff was. Cook up some meat, add some pasta and spices. Sounds like a pretty good quick meal actually. Easy to dress it up with cheese and some veggies too.

Funny, when my daughter was younger, I would make her organic hamburger macaroni. She loved it. Same thing really.

Nope. 1967

3 digit out of 4 is not bad...

Rice a Roni is the San Francisco treat. How can that possibly be dated?

I think you are on to something. Massive advertising in the 70's. Old farts got hooked. Don't recognize it's very old news today except the product is still being harvested at a profitable margin.

I tell people to spell my name like the cold capsules (Contac) but with k's at each end. I get blank stares.

The one we had last night was "Cheesy Italian Shells" with some real Mexican cheese sprinkled on top. Nothing like international meals! When I was on the Big E back in 1969 and so on they used to make something like this in huge pots and one of the cooks told me it was the only meal that was ever completely finished!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1474247267.jpg

Peanut butter, cheese, Cheesy Italian Shells for the test.

Gonna eat the rest.

I ate plenty of Hamburger Helper as a kid growing up. So often that I enjoyed it......when confronted on occasion with the Tuna Helper. Yeccchhh.

Mom never was any type of gourmet cook, but she could feed the family on a budget. Plenty of times dinner was a hotdog sliced down the middle for a piece of cheese then wrapped in bacon with toothpicks and put under the broiler. Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato-mush soup------a can of tomato soup and a can of cream of mushroom soup with 1.5 cans of milk all in the same sauce pan. I still like that soup!

You're just trying to convince yourself that you're not a rat aren't ya :)?

Never had the SF treat...but now I've got that stinkin' jingle in my head...

I ate a lot of Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper in college and grad school. Along with a lot of Top Ranen and burritos. I still like that stuff. I'm a man of simple tastes. I'll cook fancy meals for company, but when it's just me, dinner is usually canned tuna with mayo on spinach. Hey, it's low carb.

I ate so much of that as a kid (mom was not much of a cook) that if my wife tried to serve it that would be grounds for immediate divorce. Did I mention I hate HH? LOL

This is my favorite:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1474291872.jpg

i don't eat none of that ****. After years of being on that, now i no longer can nor want to.

Hmmm. 190% of your daily sodium needs. :eek:

I make something similar. My wife calls it Man Food Casserole (because, she says, it's something only a man would make - or eat).

1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb rotinni or elbow macaroni
1/2 pound sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can Campbells Healthy Request cheddar cheese soup
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced

Brown the beef and onion, boil the pasta until it's just a bit under done. When the beef and pasta are done put everything in a deep casserole dish (hold back about 1/4 of the cheese). Mix it up well, but don't pack it down, leave ii nice and loose, make sure the surface is nice and three dimensional. Sprinkle the last of the cheese on it. Bake at 350 for 1/2 an hour or 45 minutes, until the pasta on top is crispy.
I eat this stuff like popcorn.

That sounds good but I will swap out the cheddar cheese soup for cream of mushroom.

I'm not THAT into cheese.

I was just telling someone about that delightful meal of ham and lima beans and gave it the same name you did. I always was able to trade it off the beef with spiced sauce.SmileWavy

Now yer talkin.

Mom was a good cook but most of the time we couldn't afford anything fancy.
But she could take the basic stuff and make it good.
And with three brothers I couldn't afford to be picky or I'd go without.

Uphill both ways!

Try these recipes. My kids can't tell the difference, & they are experts on "scientific foods".
How to Make Homemade Hamburger Helper | Chickens in the Road

Ha! I do sometimes make it with mushroom soup. I have even made it with cream of celery soup - to make it healthy doncha know.

One of the things we do with cooking with hamburger is to buy the cheap stuff so there will be more drippings or grease. It adds to the flavor and I even heard this on one of the cooking shows!

Back in the olden days when I was dating, one new girlfriend invited me to her apartment to cook for me. She served me Tuna Helper and I swear it was cat food. I tried to eat some of it to be polite and I was really really after a different thing that kinda smells like fish. I choked down enough to make her believe I was full. It was THE worst meal I ever had in all my life. We broke up quickly after that night.

I had HH a few time in my single days. I quickly learned how to cook better and cheaper that that stuff.

I still fix the split hotdog, but use a couple of spoonfulls of mashed potatoes (usually instant) with cheese laid over the top, and broiled......pretty cheap, and quick meal along with hamburger helper of all varieties.

I guess I'm not a rat. My son and I ate a good chunk of it. Tasty but a little too seasoned for me. This morning was a pretty hard lump but I left the burger fat in the burger so it solidified.

I have my little field test going. Bait is in the shop fridge in tupperware. Cooked it without the burger, pulled the sample, put a dollop of peanut butter in there as well to help draw the little critters.

I can't imagine why a rat would walk away but if afterburn is correct, that is one weird fatoid.

Too soon to tell... o (with a b on each end) :)