Opinion on Hamburger/Chicken Helper? I'll admit I typically just make it when I'm feeling lazy

Depending on where you live in the US, a lot of older people will call ground beef hamburger, or burger. Like if they go to the store to get some ground beef, they'll ask for pound of hamburger. That's probably why you think of it as some sort of flavoring for what is actually a hamburger, a patty for a burger.

So the more appropriate name would be Ground Beef Helper. It's just a box of noodles with a big powdered flavor packet. So you brown your ground beef in a pan, then you add water, milk and the powdered flavor packet and let it thicken up. It's good if you're a single guy or are married and need to feed a family filling food for cheap. Usually you'll bake some crescent rolls with it.

>It's good if you're a single guy
It's pretty much half of what me and my roommate lived on back in college. Just fuckin throw it into the skillet and throw on a hockey game or something. Minimum effort, maximum volume.

Only without the hamburger.
youtube.com/watch?v=0wlZd9YSuDg

Oh I'll still fucking make it. My wife and I have a son but we aren't really hurting for money. Once in a while we'll get lazy and not feel like actually cooking a full blown meal. Like my grandma used to say, "get some hamburg" and brown it and make some Hamburger Helper. We'll do the Cheeseburger Macaroni or the Beef Stroganoff and bake some rolls with it. We'll also have some instant rice or something.

I never tell my sister about the stroganoff though, she'd get offended. She makes that shit from scratch and it's slamming.

>Without the hamburger

I dunno about that, but it actually is better if you cut the amount of beef by about 1/4th.

You know that dish in Australia moms make when they've had a long day and don't feel like putting effort into cooking but aren't to the point of ordering out? That's what hamburger helper is.

It's a meme you dip

Pretty bland right outta the box, but if you get creative with spices / additional ingredients, you can turn out some pretty tasty meals.

That wasn't a meme. That was autism

>need to feed a family filling food for cheap

Bingo. My parents practically raised us on this stuff, also more expensive mexican stuff and stews when they could afford it. They did the best they could.

Is it normal that I can eat a whole skillet of this in one sitting? My favorites are cheeseburger macaroni (add Velveeta or a can of spray cheese) and stroganoff (add sour cream and black pepper). Beef pasta flavor is best avoided.

Based Uli

Can't eat it anymore. A college roommate would make it and my shits smelled exactly like the original dish. I'll rock the fuck out of some

Maybe as two meals but me and my dad would regularly finish the whole thing in one sitting.

Ate a lot in college (with and without the meat) actually it was store brand Panburger Partner.

Anyway, can't eat it anymore. Way to much sodium and taste makes me hurk. I've gotten pretty good at simple sauces so whipping a hamburger pasta dish isn't that much harder than making a box dinner.

Don't bother with cheeseburger mac or any of the variations. It's literally just mac and cheese with beef. Just use Kraft or something instead. Stroganoff is hard to beat, though. That shit's the bomb and totally worth the diarrhea afterwords.

anyone ever eat tuna helper?

Yeah, it's just the same thing. Quick cooking noodles and powdered sauce.

That's not bad at all man, they kept your belly full.

Growing up I had 11 fucking siblings of which I was the third oldest. Well, not growing up I guess. My parents had six of them after I turned 18 and moved out. So I guess five, an older brother and sister, and three younger siblings. They would get creative with meals, especially breakfast. If we had spaghetti the night before, they would cook extra noodles and ziplock that shit up. So for breakfast they would heap a huge handful of noodles into the pan and crack eggs on it and mix it all up. Pretty much a large portion of spaghetti noodles and egg.

Also in case anyone is curious, there were like two sets of twins thrown in there, and my mom got pregnant with my oldest brother when she was like 15.

Yes, the sauce is fucking vile. I'll never eat a Helper product again after trying that garbage. I make my own sauce and use good egg noodles.

I know who ulillillia is, you dumb assshole. I was just saying.

>Opinion on Hamburger/Chicken Helper? I'll admit I typically just make it when I'm feeling lazy.
With a coupon and a BOGO sale, they can be nearly free. If you are buying it though, ehh, get a bit less lazy and buy regular ingredients instead. The pastas in those boxes is ultra-thin and kind of floppy and because they are cooked in the pan they just lack the flavor differences that make a nice creamy dinner so satisfying.

Buy pasta, whether barilla shapes, big egg noodles, fresh pasta dumplings or other. Brown you hamburger or chicken chunks in butter or oil, roux the drippings, pour in your milk to make your own bechamel...all this while noodles are boiling, fold in cheese of choice and set aside. Add drained noodles, and top with something good, whether fried onions, parsley, cilantro, sour cream, crushed garlic croutons, rice or asian egg noodle toppings, or more cheese, or just a dose of paprika. If you want to actually make it lovely, pour that into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs and dots of butter or cheese, and park it 30 minutes to get bubbly good. Clean up kitchen. Make a garlic bread or salad or just steam-in-bag peas.

To the guy who said the Stronganoff is godly...seriously? Brown some steak or hamburger with a pint of mushrooms, garlic cloves, chopped bell pepper and about 15 frozen pearl onions or bell pepper stir fry mix. Stir 1 tsp flour and paprika into 1/2 cup of sour cream, and add to browned meat and mushrooms in pan. Serve over egg noodles. Top with parsley.

there's always that guy.

$.79 cents compared to $10 or more for every 3 people or so. Spend $2.50 to feed a family of 9 or spend $30 per meal? 20 minutes of basically sitting around or 30 minutes of constant work making it your way? This thread isn't about making your own. It's about hamburger helper. See how there's a photo of it in the OPs post? Hamburger Helper. Not JIMMY TELLS YOU YOU CAN MAKE IT FROM SCRATCH HELPER

This. Everyone knows you can make it better with better ingredients, no one is impressed that you finally realized that.

I guess if you want to ignore the first paragraph, then we can not only make fun of your math where you exclude the price of meat and dairy from the box price, or just address the fact that an opinion was asked about the product. It's crap. The product is crap. What is most crap about it, is that it is not 79 cents, but rather $3.50, and unless you did get that bogo and coupon, however pasta is 2/$1, and that tsp of flour and half a jar of spices and powdered cheese in a packet isn't worth the $3. It is crap that you spend about the same to do better if you do not mind dirtying two pots.

When someone, probably you, states their stroganoff is worth the price, they aren't using a good recipe for comparison.