OK, so you’ve stocked up on ground beef and pasta since they were on sale. Hypothetically. Not that beef has gone on sale for me recently. But maybe it did! Maybe you got some roasts BOGO and ground it up yourself. The best way to use your meat is to find a recipe to put it in so it goes further, rather than just cooking it and eating it on its own. This goes for more than just meat, but let’s focus on it for now.
There’s a family recipe we have. There is no story. We don’t know who wrote it or where it came from. It was just on one of our recipe cards (typed on a typewriter). We’ve since lost the original card, but I have a digital back-up. Let’s go.
This makes a lot. Like. A lot. Feel free to halve it if you want. The card called it simply “Hot Dish.”
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 1 pound hamburger
- 1 can condensed tomato soup
- 1 can condensed mushroom soup
- 3 TBSP molasses
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Preheat the oven to 350F
Cook the macaroni, drain and set aside.
Brown the hamburger in a skillet. Drain it, as well. Find a biiiig mixing bowl and dump the hamburger and cooked macaroni in it.
Mix the rest of the ingredients with the hamburger/macaroni.
Pour the mixture into a casserole dish. You might need more than one. The recipe calls for 3 quarts but there always seems to be more than that.
Bake it in the oven for about an hour, or until heated through.
Something about it is just so good. It’s just missing a vegetable, so find one to serve as a side. You could try roasting some vegetables, if you have any fresh. But there’s no shame in just heating up some frozen vegetables, either.
Feel free to get creative, too. I did sausage instead of hamburger once and it turned out great. Shredded chicken might work, too!