Homemade Hamburger Helper - Cheeseburger

I have always known that Americans aren't exactly known for their culinary skills, but one thing I realized upon living in Europe was just how much our cooking isn't really cooking at. It's more assembly. You see, even if we aren't cooking from a box or a can our "homemade" meals still generally involve buying a pre-cooked chicken or using condensed soups or other such already prepared food. Food that is of course unhealthy, full of preservatives, and other chemicals that can't possibly be good for us. These foods are also generally high in sodium and still taste bland.. at least that was my opinion of them after I tasted them when visiting home (after three plus years away).

As unfortunate as it is, I grew up on this kind of American cooking. When I moved away and went to college, I graduatlly changed my eating habits and eventually rid of all such food from my diet... with the exception of the condensed soups. These are just so ingrained in American cooking! We LOVE casseroles and condensed soup and cheddar cheese are two of the primary ingredients. Both of which tend to be a bit on the expensive side in northern Europe.

However, on occassion I get a craving for some of that unhealthy goodness from my past. This week it was Hamburger Helper - the cheeseburger flavored one.

Never heard of Hamburger helper? Well, you see, in the States ground beef is really cheap (and you can get some pretty unhealthy packages too) and you can buy massive boxes of the stuff. So, a lot of our boxed meals use ground beef (or as we prefer to call it - hamburger meat or just simply hamburger) as a main ingredient. They usually come with some noodles (we call all pasta "noodles" in the US and Asian noodles are noodles too.. we don't differentiate) or dried potato slices and a packet of seasoning. Then you just add in your cooked ground beef and some milk and voila! Dinner is served. Gross.

So I did some searching on the internet and it turns out other people have experimented with how to make a homemade version of this cheeseburger hamburger helper. I modified the recipe a bit because I thought the ones I found online made it a bit bland, and I changed some of the ingredients to suit what is easiest for me to find in Iceland.

I have to say.. it wasn't the best meal. It was edible. And my boyfriend ate it... he was skeptical when he saw it cooking. But I don't think we'll be making it again anytime soon, but if it were up to me, I'd probably have it more often.

Ingredients

1 box ground meat (I used ground pork)
1 cup hot water
2 cups milk
2 heaping cups of small pasta (like macaroni, mini-penne, or spirals)
1 cup cheese, shredded (I used generic white cheese)

Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

Dash of oregano
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Brown ground beef in a frying pan and drain any pools of grease. Add hot water, milk, pasta, cornstarch, and all seasonings. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 12 to 15 minutes or until pasta is tender. Once the pasta has become tender, add in the cheese, stir, and re-cover. When pasta is tender and the cheese is melted, remove heat and uncover. Let it stand for a few minutes, so the sauce can thicken.