Spaghetti, Hamburger-Macaroni, Hamburgers…
There’s got to be something less boring I can make with this ground hamburger meat. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it, and my husband would appreciate it even more. I’ve got the day off, so it doesn’t have to be quick but I’m not a great cook, so I will probably ruin it if its too complicated.
Tacos!
Stuffed Peppers (Mix cooked hamburg, cooked rice and onions together. Stuff inside whole or halved green peppers. Bake. Cover in tomato sauce).
Swedish meatballs
Chili
good luck
Picadillo (to serve 2)
1 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound of ground beef
1 tblsp flour
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chile de arbol
1 medium baking potato, parboiled, peeled, and diced fine
1/2 cup beef stock
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
Warm the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and saute the onion and garlic until softened. Add the meat and fry until browned. Stir in the flour, oregano, and chile. Add the potato, stock, and salt and reduce heat to low. Simmer the mixture for another 5 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and most of the liquid has thickened, but the picadillo remains moist.
Serve with steamed corn tortillas and typical garnishes…shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, grated Monterey Jack cheese, salsa, sour cream, hot sauce, etc.
You can dress this up by adding tomatoes, raisins, almonds, and/or green olives.
Make Easy Kitchen Sink Chili
You’'ll need:
Ground Beef
Onions
Pinto or Kidney Beans
Chili Powder
a can of tomato sauce
Salt
pepper
Leftovers and othe stuff in your fridge and pantry
Chop up a couple of onions and saute lightly. Add the ground beef and continue to stir, breaking it up until fully cooked. When it is, drain out the grease.
Add a bunch of chili powder some salt, pepper, the tomato sauce a sauce can full of water and the beans.
Stir and simmer for 20 minutes.
Now it gets fun.
Taste it. Spice it with salt pepper and chili powder until you get it where you just like it.
Now grab all the spices out of your cabinet, smell them and decide what would go good. Add small dashes of these.
Oregano, cumin, paprika, red pepper, white pepper, parsley, etc. all do fine.
Now look at your canned goods. Add some of these:
Canned leaf spinach, corn, peas even some soups work great.
Now look at your produce:
Chop and add some of these if you like:
Celery, peppers, okra, you name it.
Stir, cover and let simmer a while. Do one more retasting and final seasoning.
Serve it over rice with crusty french bread drippin in butter.
You’ve probably made a gallon or two of chili, so have some ziploc bags for the freezer. It makes great leftovers.
Chili - one of my favourites.
Meatloaf - add different things to suit your taste (peas, rice, BBQ sauce, garlic, cilantro… you name it)
Saute it with onions and lots of black pepper. Mix with white gravy then pour over toast, biscuits or just bread. My folks always referred to this as ‘Shit on a Shingle’…
Tacos, or enchiladas. Beef and onion or beef and cheese enchiladas are quite nice.
Have you looked online for hints? Kraft has a great ‘recipe a day’ section as well as a search section.
Good eatin’!
Hamburger Pie (I’ve never measured this stuff so these are just estimates… you can use more or less)
2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
2 cans diced peeled tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
6 cups of mashed potatoes (real or instant)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook meat and drain grease. Put the frozen mixed vegetables in with the cooked meat and add 2-4 TBLS. of water. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste. Once this is mixed together, spread it out in a 9 x 13 pan and spread the mashed potatoes over the top. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes… until it’s bubbly.
This is my husband’s favorite! I could make it twice a week and he wouldn’t complain.
Find yourself a recipe for pastitsio. Yum!
Let’s see here… no measurements, since I cook by the ‘dump some in and then taste it’ style. 
Hot dish: (our family’s style)
Cook macaroni.
Brown hamburger.
Before macaroni finishes cooking, dump in package of frozen (or canned) mixed veggies. Adjust timing depending on how done you like your noodles, and how long it takes to heat up the veggies. (Veggies can be whatever kind you like.)
Combine above (after draining) with tomato sauce, tomato paste, and any seasonings to taste. (I like it jucy, with some pepper and tobasco in it. Italian seasonings work well also.) In a pinch, ketchup will also work.
Hamburger soup:
Brown up 'burger meat, drain. Heat up broth (canned is fine: else heat up water and add bullion cubes to taste): use it to cook the veggies and whatever else you want to add (barley is a good addition, but rice, pasta, or potatoes work also). Add spices to taste (again, Italian works: or even Mrs. Dash stuff.), add meat. If you want a thicker soup, add some cornstarch, flour, whatever thickner you have handy. (Hint: take some of the soup stock out of the pot first, and mix it into the powedered stuff so you avoid clumps.)
Actually, the hamburger soup can be used with just about any kind of meat: if you use a tough cut of meat, just add the meat eariler and let it simmer.
There ya go! 
<< There used to be a point to all of this… >>
If you can get the ingredients, a variation on plain old hamburgers is to mix some chopped kim chee into about 1 lb of meat, an egg or two to help hold it together, and some diced green onions. You can form the meat mixture into patties, fry 'em up, and serve them with some steamed rice.
Transatlantic Pie - from a Betty Crocker Casserole Cookbook
One of El Hubbo’s faves.
1 pkg ref. crescent rolls (the cheese kind, if you can find it)
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup milk (whole or 2%)
1 TBSP flour
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 fresh tomato, sliced
Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove from the oven, serve and enjoy! El Yummo.
Oooo…It ain’t haute cuisine, but there’s always Salisbury Steak, Shepherd’s Pie, or any manner of stuffed veggies. (Stuffed tomatoes, stuffed peppers [as has been mentioned], stuffed kohlrabi [my favorite] and stuffed cabbage leaves.)
However, I’ll vote for Moussaka
It’s Greek (although many regional variations of it exist), and your husband’ll love it.
MMMM, pastitsio! Great stuff!
For that matter, moussaka. Don’t have a recipe handy, but it involves eggplant, tomato sauce, ground beef, and a layer of baked egg custard stuff on top. Julia Child has a yummy recipe, and I’m sure you can find lots more online.
Bon appetit!
Eva – psst…two posts up…
Teach your husband to cook. If no dice, try:
Genuine Quiche Lorraine (my recollection of Nigel Slater’s recipe - you’ll have to convert it to US measures - I made it on Sunday - it only takes about half an hour to prepare):
Preheat oven to 190C.
For the pastry:
200g Flour
Pinch salt
90g butter
1 egg yolk
Chill butter, cut into cubes, drop cubes into flour and salt and knead together until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in egg yolk (and a few drips of water if it’s too dry). Roll out on a floured board to the size of the pie tin. Push into pie tin well to the corners, prick the base all over with a fork. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes. Line with baking parchment and baking beans, and put in oven to blind-bake for 10 mins (until pastry starts to dry), then remove paper and beans.
For the filling:
200g bacon rashers (cut into lardons)
375 Ml cream/cream milk mixture
3 eggs
Salt & pepper
Fry the bacon. Whisk eggs, salt & pepper and cream (and/or milk) together, but not too fluffy. Put bacon bits in the bottom of the pie, then pour on the egg mixture. Cook in oven for 30 - 40 minutes until top of egg mix is browned.
Simple and delicious.
Oooooh, yeah…pastitsio is the BEST. Even better than moussaka. Think of it as Greek Lasagna.
In a nutshell, boil some pasta and put it at the bottom of a greased casserole.
Saute the ground meat with onions and garlic, a couple of chopped tomatoes, S&P, and far more dried basil and oregano than you’d consider using in an ordinary dish. Spread this over the pasta.
Make a cheese sauce: first a roux of flour and butter, then add milk, S&P, and cayenne, stir until thickened, then add grated Parmesan (or Kefalotiri – Greek grating cheese – if you can get it) and stir until melted and smooth.
Pour the cheese over the meat, sprinkle with more grated cheese, and stick in a hot oven until bubbly and brown on top.
They’re little-known here, but are served (even on street corners) all across the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. To be authentic, they’d be deep-fried but that’s too much trouble and too greasy. We use puff pastry and bake the meat turnovers, getting the same effect.
Serve with salsa. That makes it really international! I prefer chipotle.
SAMOSAS
Dough – use puff pastry sheets; defrost and roll flat. Cut into squares for crust.
Spicy meat filling – enough for 2 batches
1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 tomato, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red or green chillies – chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, roasted and ground
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, roasted and ground
2 tablespoons garlic
2 tablespoons ginger, fresh grated
½ teaspoon curry powder (or to taste)
1 tablespoon oil
¼ cup peas
¼ cup chopped carrots (optional)
½ cup water
Woo hoo! I am printing this out. All of this stuff sounds delicious. I made the stuffed pepper thing yesterday (because it was the one I had all the ingredients for) and it was really good and easy. Thanks again from me and the hubbie.
A favorite of my Niece Jacki: Hamburger Gravy
brown the Hamburger and mix it with corn and cream of mushroom soup. Serve over bread as SOS, mashed potatoes, or rice.
Another Favorite: Shepards pie
Layer cooked ground beef, veggie and top with mashed potatoes. Brown the top of the taters in the broiler.
Ya all are makin’ me hungry…