A war against convenience foods - Hamburger Helper

     Yesterday, I talked about the ingredients that are in Hamburger Helper and the fact that you don't really know what they are. The one I'm going to talk about specifically today is the Double Cheeseburger Macaroni variety, but the technique I'm going to outline can be used on pretty much every variety.  Let's look at the ingredients in the variety in question and highlight the ones that we actually know and are easily obtainable.


Hamburger Helper
Double Cheeseburger Macaroni

Ingredients:  Enriched macaroni, corn starch, salt, enriched flour, maltodextrin, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, ricotta cheese, monosodium glutamate, cheddar cheese, monoglycerides, corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavor, colors  (Yellow, Red), Whey, disodium guanyate, disodium inosinate, yeast extract, silicon dioxide, egg, soy flour.

     Okay,so, if you've listened at all to the news that isn't sponsored by by the Corn Farmers of America, you probably know that corn syrup is a major contributing factor to obesity in the United States.  That being said, let's eliminate it from the recipe.  I did a few experiments and found we don't need corn starch, flour, or egg either.
     Hamburger Helper costs $1.79 per box at my local store and you still need to buy the pound of ground beef and the milk for it.  According to the directions on the box, you need 1 lb of ground beef, 1 cup of water and 2 cups of milk to serve 4 people.  The question is now, can you get all the ingredients for this variety for less than the box and make it in the same time?
     Before I started, I weighed the macaroni in my kitchen scale and found that there were 4 ounces in the box.  Here's the breakdown for the boxed dinner.

Price for Hamburger Helper

Ingredient	Amount	Cost
Box	1	$1.79
Ground Beef	1 lb	$3.38
Milk	2 c.	$0.32*
Water	1 c.	$0.00
Total		$5.49
* Based on price per package divided by amount used.

      To give the ground beef some flavor, add a few herbs and spices of your preference. I suggest a light sprinkling of salt, garlic powder, and cumin over the raw beef before you cook it. Those will take about $0.10 a piece.   Instead of water, I'm using beef broth.

Price of Homemade

Ingredient	Amount	Cost
Spices		$0.30
Macaroni	4 oz	$0.25*
Ground Beef	1 lb	$3.38*
Milk	2 c.	$0.32*
Beef Broth	1 c.	$0.58*
Ricotta Cheese	4 tsp	$0.12*
Shredded Cheese	1 c.	$0.44*
Total		$5.39
* Based on price per package divided by amount used.

     Now that's a 10 cent difference to begin with.  However, if I consider that my homemade beef broth costs about 3 cents an ounce and would, therefore, be $0.24 in this recipe, that drops the cost to $5.05.  You can also substitute cottage cheese for ricotta, but it was less than a penny saved and I wanted the ricotta for a lasagna recipe in a week or so.  Regardless, we have a net savings of $0.44 which doesn't seem like a lot, but how often do you eat Hamburger Helper?  I know plenty of people that have it at least twice a week.  That's a savings of $3.52 a month!  Hey, you can get some of those luxuries that we talk about on Fridays with that!
     I'm sure that your stumbling block is how to prepare it.  Let me tell you a secret:  the macaroni in the box isn't any different than the macaroni you buy in the supermarket.  That means you can prepare this almost exactly the same!  Here's how I did it:

Instructions:

1. Sprinkle salt, herbs and spices over raw hamburger.  Brown the hamburger in a skillet.
2. Drain the hamburger thoroughly.
3. Add macaroni, beef broth, and milk to the skillet, and bring to boil.
4. Cover and allow to cook for 10 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed.
5. Add ricotta and 3/4 c. of the cheese.  Stir until all cheese is melted.
6. Serve out the dish and sprinkle each portion with the remainder of the cheese.

  

     You'll notice 2 things about this dish:  a) It isn't the same color as the stuff you make from the box.  That's because we didn't add the food dyes that are in it.  You didn't really need those, right?  b) It won't be as sweet as the box-made dinner.  That's because you didn't add corn syrup for all the reasons mentioned above.  It might take your family a bit to get used to, but it's just as fast and it's just as cheap - it's just better!

What convenience food would you like help fighting?  Questions?  Comments?   Tweet to @cookingcheap