This is almost exactly what I’m planning to cook for dinner tonight. I have some penne pasta in the cupboard. I’ll get some Prego, ricotta, ground beef, and maybe mushrooms. I’ll grate some parmesan and crack an egg to mix with the ricotta, mix the meat and sauce, and mix everything together with the pasta. I’ll top it with mozzarella and bake it.
YES!!! to the creamed beef. Thank you aceplace57.
Quickest meatloaf recipe ever:
-1 and 1/2 lbs ground beef
-1 envelope dry Lipton’s Onion Soup mix(if you’re feeling posh use the Onion/Mushroom
variety)
-1 small can(5.3 fl.oz. or thereabout) evaporated milk
Moosh it all together, let sit 15 minutes. Bake as usual. Good, firm, a tad salty. Makes terrific sandwiches though, but then, what meatloaf doesn't?Nachos! Brown and season the beef like you would for tacos, add a can of black beans and some diced onions and a bit of water. Let it simmer for a bit until the water reduces to nearly nada. Top your chips with the mix and a bunch of shredded cheese and sliced jalapenos. Nuke till it melts.
Cuban Picadillo!
I also do a tamale pie but with grits instead of cornbread on top. The recipe is from Bert Greene. Very tasty.
Sounds delicious and really not difficult to put it all together. With a salad and some good Italian bread on the side, instant dinner.
Tortilla soup? Brown the beef and drain. Add beef broth, jar of salsa and a drained can of corn. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer, stirring occasionally. Serve with tortilla chips broken on top and cheese.
Bring meatballs to EVERY potluck you get invited to. Everyone loves meatballs.
Cottage pie a.k.a shepherd’s pie with ground beef instead of lamb.
Brown the hamburger meat with seasonings and diced onion. Spread into bottom of casserole dish. Next layer is mixed veggies of your choice. Top with gravy** then mashed potatoes. A sprinkle of cheese and into a hot oven she goes.
** if your beef renders off some grease and you have a few minutes, cook some flour in the fat from the ground beef, stirring for a few minutes, then stir in chicken broth or milk or whatever floats your boat. Quickie homemade gravy. 
This recipe came off a bottle of Blue Mountain Jamaican Jerk Sauce, which is why it specifies that brand.
Jamaican Shepherd’s Pie
A homey dish with a Calypsonian twist.
4-6 Servings
1-1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 8 oz can mushrooms
1 11 oz can corn niblets (drained)
1/2 cup Blue Mountain Jamaican Jerk Sauce
4 cups mashed potatoes
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
Vegetable cooking spray
Spray a large skillet with cooking spray.
Brown meat together with onions. Drain.
Stir in Jamaican Jerk Sauce, mushrooms, drained corn, salt & pepper.
Cook 2-3 minutes.
Spoon meat mixture into 9 x 12 oven proof dish.
Top with mashed potato. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 375° for 20 minutes, until cheese has melted.
I thought it could have used more sauce, but Mrs. L.A. said it was ‘perfect’. Oh – I did grate some nutmeg for the ricotta.
My meatloaf recipe (which caused my kids to tell my wife, not to make meatloaf, but let me):
For each pound of ground beef:
1 medium onion
1 to 2 cloves of garlic
1 slice stale bread
1 egg
1/2 to 1 tsp salt (to taste)
Soak the bread in warm water and drain well. Saute the onions at high heat till golden, then turn down to medium and add the garlic for a minute or so. Mix all the ingredients well and bake (I use a pan lined with non-stick Al foil) for a half hour at 425, then turn down to 375 and bake for a half hour per pound of meat.
I have used this for up to five pounds of meat, although I didn’t bake more than 2 1/2 hours (use some judgment here).
I like the nutmeg idea, I’ve never tried that. I always like extra sauce so I hear you!
A little grate of nutmeg is a not uncommon addition to the white layer of lasagna (whether you’re doing the white layer as bechamel or ricotta). Just go easy on it. It’s easy for nutmeg to go from accent flavor to overpowering.
Mrs. L.A. usually likes extra sauce. She says she likes the liquid part of the sauce more than what’s in it. So it was a little surprising she thought it was just right. She said that with more sauce, it would have been too runny.
So here’s what I did: I put a pound of 80% lean ground beef into a saucepan, and cut up a container of sliced mushrooms and put it on top, along with some salt. I turned the element to ‘4’ and covered the pot and cooked until the meat was browning and the mushrooms were getting soft. Then I added a spoonful of minced garlic that I have in the fridge, and mixed it all together until the meat was completely cooked. Once it was done, I drained everything in a colander, put it back in the pot, and added 1½ jars of Prego sauce. (There was half a jar in the fridge.) In the meantime, I mixed a pound of ricotta, almost a cup of shredded parmesan, an egg, and some nutmeg I grated over it. I cooked the penne pasta to al dente, drained it, put it back in the pot, and mixed it all together, and attempted to fold the cheese mixture into it.
The cheese mixture wasn’t folding in very well. I put the pasta and sauce into 8 x 13, and 8 x 8 baking dishes, and put the remaining cheese mixture in dollops on top. I covered everything with shredded mozzarella. I covered the baking dishes with foil and put them into a 350ºF oven. After 20 minutes, I removed the foil and baked until the mozzarella was nicely browned. I had to run down to the corner market to get a loaf of garlic bread.
Way too much food! We ate about half of the pasta in the 8 x 13 dish (I had seconds). I put the rest into a container and put it in the fridge. I cut up the pasta in the 8 x 8 dish into four pieces, wrapped each piece in cling film, put them into a 1-gallon zip-top bag, and put them in the freezer.
when I was a young bachelor, one of my favorite things was to brown up about 1/2 pound of hamburger, drain it, occasionally add some seasoning if I was feeling extravagant(usually whatever was at hand at the time) and melt some cheese into it. Not exciting, but filling in a “stick to your ribs” sort of way.
I find with pasta dishes I often split them, instead of one large pan I do 2 smaller ones and freeze. I saw the post above yours about taking it easy with the nutmeg so not to overpower the dish. I will have to try it sometime soon.
That recipe calls specifically for ground sirloin, but c’mon, it’s a samosa no reason to get all fancy.
I could probably only eat about 100 of these at one sitting.
Mountain Meal!
I’ve mentioned this on the boards before. It’s super easy to make and kinda fun for the kiddos.
All you do is make a bunch of mashed potatoes for the base. Then put ground beef on top of it, then top it all off with some corn. It makes a mountain, hence “mountain meal.”
Been in my family forever and, ironically enough, it’s what we’re having for dinner tonight!
Loco moco.
OK, it sounds like ‘crazy booger’, but it’s a Hawaiian thing, and ‘moco’ was made up because it rhymes with ‘loco’.
Put hot, cooked rice in a bowl. Top with a burger patty. Pour brown gravy over it. Top with a fried egg. I’d suggest a good squirt of Sriracha, too.
taco salad ! just make the normal stuff for tacos seasoned ground beef shredded salad lettuce and what ever you like in your tacos then tortilla chips … most doritos flavors work and mix together its why those doritos tacos exist