I wasn’t introduced to Hamburger Helper until I got married. It was part of my husband’s pre-marriage meal rotation which consisted of 3 meals; Hamburger Helper, spaghetti with sauce and cereal. Seriously, that was his diet. Bless his heart.
- You can’t go wrong with a homemade skillet dinner on a busy day!
I grew up with a meal very similar to Cheeseburger Macaroni Hamburger Helper but it was homemade and called cheesy beef and macaroni. It was a quick, cheap, wholesome, weekday meal that my mother made often on PTA nights or whenever we were really pressed for time/money.
It’s ALL about the spices that really bring out the flavor!
I thought I was done with boxed Hamburger Helper until I had my son. We ended up getting a box one day when we were out of town and he loved it. I didn’t mind. It was easy to make, made him happy and I just loved that little glove and how those commercials made family dinners look so fun and easy. Well one day when I was making his favorite kind, Cheeseburger Macaroni I decided to look at the ingredients and WTH!
I’m not normally an ingredient snob but why the long list of ingredients, dyes, msg and weirdy stuff just to make a pot of macaroni, beef and cheese? I ended up throwing it away and making a pot of homemade hamburger helper . We’ve been doing it this way ever since.
This homemade Hamburger Helper uses real ingredients: macaroni, meat, milk, water, cheese and spices, THAT’S IT! It tastes fresh, comforting, cheesy, meaty, and filling, just like it should. And best of all it’s just as quick as the boxed version. I use ground turkey in place of beef simply because we don’t eat much red meat in this family. I don’t normally cook with much cows milk either but I love it in this recipe because it makes for a really creamy cheese sauce. For the cheese I use a mixture of shredded cheddars. Hamburger Helper uses ricotta as well and sometimes I’ll mix a little of that in for creaminess but only if I have some on hand which I usually don’t.
If you’re a true, die hard Hamburger Helper fan you may find that it doesn’t taste EXACTLY like hamburger helper. I think it taste waaay better and Isaac doesn’t even know the difference, but if you’re trying to ween your addicted,older kids off of it then you may want to throw in a little processed cheese for a familiar taste.
Isaac approved!
Watch me make this Homemade Hamburger Helper from start to finish!
The Recipe
Homemade Hamburger Helper
By divas can cook
Recipe type: main, dinner,
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey (sometimes I use only ½ lb)
- ½ cup onions, diced
- 1 tablespoon butter, optional
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup cold water
- 2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt or seasoning salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon oregano
- ¾ teaspoon parsley
- ¾ garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Brown ground meat in a skillet over medium heat until almost done.
- Add in onions and cook until tender.
- Drain meat & onions on paper towels and return to skillet.
- Add remaining ingredients except for the cheese.
- Stir to combine.
- Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover and cook until pasta is tender, about 10 minutes. Stirring occasionally.
- * Do not over cook pasta. I usually taste check it at 9 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in cheese. Sauce may be thin.
- Let pasta sit to thicken the sauce, meanwhile adjust seasonings if needed.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
I’m cutting right now and tried this recipe with ground turkey breast and Banza chickpea shells for noodles and only 4oz of cheese. Holy crap it was good and for 40g of protein a serving it can’t be beat for the flavor. The spice mix was perfect. If I can make that much substitution and it still tastes bomb, the recipe as written must be amazing. It tasted better than the boxed meals by a mile. Please continue your magic in the kitchen.
I would have searched the comments for an answer to this question, but I don’t have all day to argue with your site, it only loads 2-3 comments at a time! Lol
Have you tried freezing this as a make-ahead meal? How was it?
LOL@arguing with my site. I’m going to fix that right now! Oh and I’ve never frozen this before.
I made this and it was really good. I didn’t add the sugar because I thought that was strange. I also didn’t put in the oregano or paprika because I didn’t have any.
How hard would this be to do in the Crock-Pot?
We LOVE this recipe. I have this book March and hand written in my deck of recipe cards. Have made it so many times! So much better than the Box version and so easy to make. I always add a can of diced tomatoes in it for extra flavor and veggie representation. A red bell pepper is also delicious diced up and cooked with the onion in this.
Just made it using beef broth instead of plain water. Also used half Velveeta and half cheddar (all I had)…..’It was awesome. 5 Stars
Love this! It’s my go-to meal! I usually double or triple the spice mix.
I made it for dinner last night and it was a hit! It tastes just like hamburger helper. Just healthier. It was surprisingly very filling too! Thank you!
I have made this several times and switched between elbow macaroni, jumbo shells, and also different cheeses! It is so good! My kids love it and they are picky eaters, especially my toddler!