Taste Memories: Hamburger Helper

Childhood Memories

Hamburger helper isn’t usually what you think of when you think of health food. However, with a few tweaks it gets a healthy makeover and you can feel good about indulging in a childhood favorite. My mom would frequently make her own version of hamburger helper (no boxed mixes at our house!) and I even remember when she decided to try “Dinner’s In the Freezer.” The concept was make four recipes and quadruple them…then freeze them in the freezer. This made your freezer so packed that when you opened it, dinner would totally fall on your foot. The other issue was that we didn’t like having the same thing for dinner every week, so by the end of the month we didn’t want to see any of those four meals again! Good concept, but the execution was just a little nuts!

So, this recipe definitely has some memories behind it. I have been super excited to give it a facelift and in the process make it gluten-free, diary free, and even grain free since I used lentil noodles. I made it for my memories, but a bonus result was that my picky eaters devoured it and said I needed to make it again soon.

Recipe

2 cups lentil gluten-free noodles (feel free to sub whatever noodles you prefer)

1 lb. grass-fed ground beef

1/2 onion chopped (if your people are picky you can sub dried onion which I nicknamed invisible onion!)

garlic to taste–I used powered again so there were no weird chunks for the picky people

1 can mushroom pieces

1 can black olives (this is my families obsession –feel free to leave it out, but this is how we knew it was my mom’s hamburger helper!)

Oregano to taste

Cumin to taste

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/2 cup or more of daiya cheddar cheeze shreds (you can also add nutritional yeast for a more cheesy taste!)

1 16oz can tomato sauce

1 cup dairy free plain unsweetened yogurt: I like the KiteHill Foods brand of almond yogurt. The original recipe calls for sour cream!

Directions

Boil water for noodles and cook them according to package directions.

In a large skillet brown the ground beef, adding the onion, mushrooms, and garlic. Stir until the onion is tender and the ground beef is cooked (no more pink!).

Add the salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, and tomato sauce.

Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes on low to allow the flavors to blend.

Mix in the olives, yogurt, and the cheeze. Then mix in the noodles. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

Serve with a green salad and enjoy!

Note: original recipe called for putting it into a casserole dish and sprinkling extra cheese on top and cooking at 375 degrees F until bubbly. I live in Florida and I never turn on the oven if not necessary. Also with the dairy free cheeze this just seemed like an extra step to dirty more dishes, so I didn’t do it. There were no complaints from the family.