Simple Hamburger Stroganoff

This recipe comes courtesy of AllRecipes.com.

• 1 (16 ounce) package egg
  noodles
  
• 1 pound lean ground beef
  
• 1 (.75 ounce) packet dry brown
  gravy mix
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream
  cheese
• 1 (6 ounce) can chopped
  mushrooms, with liquid
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed
  cream of mushroom soup

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until no pink shows; drain.
3. Mix brown gravy, cream cheese and mushrooms with hamburger until cream cheese has given the mixture a whitish look. Add milk, sour cream, and mushroom soup to cooked pasta. Blend hamburger mixture with pasta.

I chose this recipe because of the cost effective ingredients and the fact that I absolutely LOVE stroganoff.  I am gaga over the stuff. I have several different recipes for it using different cuts of meat and different ingredients for the sauce. This one is very high up on my list of favorites. As you can see from the image, the ingredients are pretty self explanatory. I sent my now unemployed husband to the grocery store since he has less of a tendancy to buy extra crap. He grabbed tub cream cheese instead of block, but this actually worked out to my advantage. Aldi doesn't sell any thing smaller than an 16oz container of sour cream so I kinda had to eyeball it. I could have measured, but where's the fun in that? The recipe calls for a .75oz packet of gravy, but I think my packet had .8 and the can of mushrooms was only a 4oz can. (Can you see the Slap Chop in the background? You're gonna love my nuts...)

This came together extremely easy. She doesn't have you season the meat, which is almost a cardinal sin in my book. So while the meat was browning I tossed in some garlic powder and some minced onion.  My local grocery store throws ground pork on sale every once in a while and I was able to pick about 3/4 a pound for only $0.58 so I tossed that in with the ground beef to bulk it up a little bit.

When she says "a whiteish look" she ain't kidding. Take a look:



It's a rather unattractive dish...kind of lumpy and whiteish grey, but don't let this turn you off. (The orange splotches don't help but they are hiding unsightly blemishes on my stove top.) As the caption says, this is after the soup has been added, but before the noodles. The stroganoff flavors had lots of time to meld as the only other burner that functions on my stove is the front left. This burner is very tiny and takes FOREVER to heat up a pot of water. So while I waited rather impatiently for the noodles to cook, I let this simmer, slightly, to keep it warm and to help bring everything together.

And finally, the finished product:



If this was reminding you of something like Hamburger Helper, get that thought clean out of your mind. Sweet nibblets does this trump the box stuff! The sauce is extremely creamy and rich. The gravy mix gives it just enough beef flavor that you aren't eating a mouth full of cream cheese mushroom soup.

This recipe is DEFINITELY going into the Going to Make Again Really Soon file. It's filling and not very expensive. The best part is that it is a versatile dish. You can serve it over noodles, shown here, or you can try mashed potatoes or rice. Oooh...Aldi put out some herbs de provence mashed potatoes around the holidays. I wonder what this would be like over that...

Simple Hamburger Stroganoff gets the Akari Hoshi Stamp of Approval and then some. On a scale of 1-10, this puppy is definitely an 11.

If you make this, leave your own review and let me know what you think!

~Akari~