Cheeseburger & Fries Casserole

Thursday night was Girl's Night In at my best friend's house and about 15 minutes before I was supposed to leave, I realized I hadn't made dinner for my husband. I chose the quickest and the manliest of the recipes that I selected for this weeks Saucy Skillet. Once again, the Hillbilly Housewife comes to the rescue.

Cheeseburger & Fries Casserole

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can golden mushroom soup
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can Cheddar cheese soup
• 1 (20-ounce) package French fries, frozen potatoes

Brown ground beef; drain. Stir in soups and pour into an ungreased 13″ x 9″ baking dish; arrange French fries on top.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.


Akari's Musings

I apologize for the lack of pictures in this entry. I was in a huge hurry and could not locate my camera for some reason.

There wasn't room for deviation in this recipe. I used only 1lb of beef and tossed in another pound of the ground pork. Aldi doesn't carry golden mushroom soup, so I went with regular ol' boring cream of mushroom (dearie my...I eat a lot of that stuff...). And I went with tater tots instead of actual French Fry potatoes.

There weren't many steps to it either. Literally, it's brown, dump, mix, pour, top, bake, eat. (The last step is James' favorite...lol). I seasoned my ground meats with garlic & onion powders and a little sprinkle of chili powder for something a bit different. After topping the meat and soup with the taters, I gave them a quick spritz of cooking spray to help with browning (It's a trick some one taught me. I can't remember who.) and a light dusting of seasoned salt because YUM.

I set the timer and took off for card games and female bonding with my two dear friends. My husband was in charge of taking it out of the oven. I was a scosh nervous about it, but he pulled through just fine. When I got home, I had just enough time to brush my teeth then I had to get in bed for a 7:30 start time. I didn't get to eat any of the casserole until lunch the next day. If it tasted HALF as good as it did reheated, holy crap. This was so good!

If you're looking for something filling, fast, and delicious, this gets my recommendation. I am definately going to file this one away for a rainy day and keep the ingredients on hand. A total comfort food!

~Akari~