My 18 year old son loves Hamburger Helper meals. But we’re trying to cut back on pre-packaged food. I tend to cook without a recipe, but he’d like some recipes for Hamburger-Helper type meals that he could cook up himself. Any suggestions?
I would try some Hungarian Goulash recipes, lots of room to improvise or make mistakes and certainly hearty enough for an 18-year-old.
Go for your basic Chili Mac type dishes. Boil up a cup or so of elbow macaroni. Drain. Stir in a pound of cooked, drained hamburger. Add some chopped veggies, chili sauce and whatever. Eat out of the pan over the sink.
My mom used to something she called “Spanish Hamburgers”. Ground beef, onions, celery, tomato paste, and some spices. Better known to the rest of the world as Sloppy-joes.
Pseudo-stroganoff: boil up some pasta, brown a pound of hamburger meat, mix with one can of cream of mushroom soup.
Cheeseburger mac: same as above, except use a can of cheddar cheese soup, or some melted Velveeta.
Oh, if you have leftover cooked chicken he can make pseudo-tetrazzini with spaghetti noodles and a can of cheddar cheese soup.
Also onions, Worcestershire, and sour cream.
Mac’n’cheese with meat: Cook and drain elbow macaroni. Use any of a variety of recipes for cheese sauce, add ground beef cooked with onions and salt and pepper.
Hamburger Hash
1 lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
4 red potatoes, peeled and diced.
1 cup beef broth
Salt and pepper
1 tbs corn starch
1/4 cup water
Brown ground beef with onion. Drain if necessary. Add diced potatoes, broth and S&P to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 15 minutes. When potatoes are done, thicken with corn starch mixed with water.
Porcupine meatballs.
I liked this as a kid, and still make it once every year or two. I use Beef Rice-A-Roni, and use the packet for making gravy. If you don’t want a box-o-makin’s, you might try this:
Break vermicelli or other very thin pasta into bits. Mix the broken vermicelli, white rice, one egg, Worcestershire, and a salt and pepper to taste with a pound of ground beef. Shape into meatballs and brown all over. Add a cup or so of water, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. In the meantime make a roux. Mix the roux into the liquid with the meatballs and thicken into a gravy.
I’m impressed. A Hungarian goulash recipe that has an actual resemblance to actual Hungarian goulash. 
(Here’s my recipe, by the way, with pictures.)
We call this slop at my house, but I think the recipe was Texas beef skillet. Take a pound of ground beef, brown with a small chopped onion. drain. Add a can of kidney beans undrained,a can of diced tomatoes half a cup of water,half cup instant rice, half cup green pepper, tablespoon of chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. simmer till rice is soft, add crushed fritos and chedder cheese on top and serve
These are great. He’s busy making a shopping list.
Yes, yes, oh, god yes! Total memories of being a kid!
And…I swear…I made this just two days ago.
For the sauce, mommy always used a couple cans of cream of mushroom soup or tomato soup…straight out of the can, no water.
Hamburger stew:
Brown some hamburger with some onions, throw in a handful of flour, a can of beef broth and some sliced or diced potatoes, let simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Toss in some frozen peas and/or carrots if desired.
Bacon cheeseburger hotdish:
Mix together some browned hamburger, mac and cheese, and crumbled bacon. If desired toss in some chopped sun dried tomatoes (I highly recommend this). I also like to throw in some jarred jalapenos.
A classic recipe from my youth. ‘Goulash’ that’s really not much like the real thing but damn tasty.
1 lb Hamburger
1 pkg of Egg Noodles
1 can Campbells Tomato Soup
1 can Campbells Cheddar Cheese Soup
Fry/chop up hamburger. Cook noodles. Open cans. Mix it all together. YUMMY. Can also substitute Nacho Cheese Soup for some kick.
This seems a little obvious, but, Almsot Hamburger Helper. It’s not hard at all to recreate the seasoning at home, without using a bunch of preservatives. If you search the web for your favorites, you’re sure to find them.
This was a bachelor staple for me. Especially good is using ground turkey. Lightly brown, mix it all together and top with a little sour cream.
Hey! Don’t be gettin’ all fancy now. 
You can make a kickass stroganoff in your Crock Pot.
1 lb stew meat
1 can condensed Golden Mushroom soup
1 tablespoon Worchesterstuff
Chopped onion - I had a half in the fridge, a whole is fine
Cook eight hours on low, add half a block of cream cheese at the end (trust me, it beats sour cream hands down.) Serve over egg noodles.
For those who don’t like mushrooms or mushroom soup, I recommend Campbell’s Cream of Onion soup. Adds great flavor.
We recently had Hamburger Helper Crunchy Taco. A good substitute for this would be taco seasoning, Minute Rice, some corn chips, and Velveeta.
If he also likes tuna, try mixing can of tuna with a can of condensed soup (pretty much any cream style soup will do) and a half pound of pasta.