Way back when I attended college, my parents would buy me a case of macaroni and cheese almost every time I went back to school. With 24 packages in a case, after using 4 or 5 boxes, you would need to get creative. I seem to always have some spaghetti sauce and on occasion I would have some hamburger meat. Today, I am going to make my version of homemade hamburger helper. The nice thing about this technique is that you can substitute, chicken or pork for the beef, or leave it out all together. This also makes enough for a couple of meals or to share with your roommates all for under 10 dollars.

Ingredients

1 box of your favorite macaroni and cheese mix

1 lb. ground beef or your favorite protein

1 teaspoon onion powder or 1 cup freshly chopped onion

1 teaspoon garlic powder or 3 freshly chopped garlic cloves

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning blend

1/4 cup heavy cream (substitute for the milk in macaroni and cheese)

1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1/2 jar favorite spaghetti sauce

1 can of mushrooms

salt and pepper

Preparation: time 25 mins

Over medium heat, sauté beef, onions, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Sauté the mixture until thoroughly cooked.

Sauté the meat, onion and garlic mixture for about 6 to 8 minutes

Prep colander with paper towel

Take a colander, line it with a paper towel doubled over several times and pour in the meat mixture. This step will drain the fat out of the meat.

In the same sauté pan, add the spaghetti sauce and mushrooms and begin to cook down

Add the meat back to the sauté pan and begin to warm it up. Grab two corners of the towel with each hand and when over the pan, let two corners go to make a funnel for the meat to pour into the pan.

In the same sauce pot, begin to boil water, olive oil and salt to cook the pasta from the macaroni and cheese mix. Olive oil is used to keep the pasta from sticking together and salt is used to lower the boiling point. Lowering the boiling point will make the water heat up faster.

Cook the pasta until “al dente“ which will be 8 to 10 minutes after the water boils. Once the macaroni is cooked, drain it in the colander.

In the same pot the macaroni was boiled in, add the butter, milk or heavy cream, cheese package and shredded cheddar to the pot and begin to warm. Use a spoon or a whisk and stir the mixture until thoroughly mixed. It should look creamy in texture.

Add the cooked pasta to the spaghetti sauce and bring to a simmer.

Add the cheese mixture to the spaghetti and pasta mixture. Mix thoroughly.

Mix thoroughly, simmer and add parmesan cheese to the top

Let it simmer for 5 minutes, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.

Serve in a bowl with some garlic bread.

Bon Appetit!