We have made a bunch of food at home. It started with hamburger helper and other prepared crap. Well we have evolved and we can make our own hamburger helper. We have made this a few times, but I have never captured the steps. It is more of a casserole the way we make it. We get three meals out of this and it rules. It is nothing more than an adaptation of our mac and cheese.
Cook up some bacon. We used about 6 slices.
3 tablespoons of butter to make the roux
3 tablespoons of flour to make the roux
let the roux brown just a bit. Will hide the flour flavor a bit.
3 cups of milk
a bay leaf, cayenne pepper, and black pepper
Let that thicken and lightly boil till you only see a few bubbles for 10 minutes.
Temper in 1 egg after the 10 minutes.
Get the pasta going. We use shells. Any type of pasta that can hold stuff will work fine.
can’t hurt to salt it
brown the meat. Bigger chunks make it a bit more fun.
I did about 10 ounces, mac and cheese takes 12
with the stove on med low mix in the cheese.
Do not let it get above med low if you use any heat at all. If the mix is too hot before you add the cheese, or let the cheese get too hot it will go grainy and ruin everything. Melt, not cook.
get that cheese melted and mixed in
we rinse off the beef to get rid of the fat.
Although it is cheese, bacon, and beef we in no way want to have this be greasy.
pasta should be al dente, or just still a bit hard. Not all the way done for sure.
Still have to bake it in the sauce, so if they get overdone it ruins it as well.
Cool the noodles once they get there so they stop cooking.
mmmmmmmmm bacon mixed in
time for it all to come together
we split it up into our thingies we freeze / bake in and add some cheese on the top.
the one we eat we cook at 350 till the cheese is melted.
Frozen ones get foil @ 350 till the center hits a decent temp. Remove foil to get the cheese melted to serve.
kicks hamburger helpers ass and feeds us 3 times. Love it
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