Today’s NYT article Putting Meat in its Place captured my philosophy on meat perfectly. We don’t NEED huge slabs of meat on our dinner plates every day!
In that spirit, here’s a recipe several people have requested. We only make this a couple times a month– it is NOT low fat– but everyone loves it when we do!
Affordable Hamburger Stroganoff
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles
3/4 pound lean ground beef
2 cups milk
2 T. flour
2 T. butter
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 of an 8 oz package of cream cheese
1/2 of an 8 ounce container of sour cream
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms, optional (or canned, if you must)
DIRECTIONS
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.
In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until no pink shows; drain and set aside. If you are using fresh mushrooms, fry for 1-2 min in same skillet that you used for the hamburger. Set aside.
Again in the same skillet, melt butter on medium high heat. Add minced garlic and cook for a minute. Then add flour. Whisk well to break up any clumps of flour. Add milk and heat till bubbly and starting to thicken.
Add cream cheese, ketchup, and sour cream. Whisk til smooth and heated through. Add hamburger and mushrooms back into skillet. Blend hamburger mixture with pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.
Once you’ve made this recipe a few times, you’ll probably be able to get the whole thing on the table in 30 minutes. It is a quick, easy and very delicious meal. We serve the mushrooms on the side, since not all our kids like mushrooms.
(Note that this recipe does not call for canned soup, which helps make the recipe more affordable. If you want to save a few calories and even more money, you can also delete the cream cheese. It is not essential, but it sure is yummy.)
My mom use to make this version of beef stroganoff when I was growing up. I remember the smell, the taste… everything. It was GOOD! Reminds me of my childhood. 🙂
-Andrea
I love this thread! As our family has grown, every meal to me has comes down to:
1. Taste
2. Time and
3. Cost.
Nearly every dinner I make for our family of 7 is between $5-$10 and can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. Though I use a crock-pot about 3 days a week and a rice-cooker at least that much. Tonight was Red Beans and Rice and was about $4.00 total food left over.
I agree with the meat issue, but find our main cost now comes down to vegetables and fruit.
Yummy… sounds yummy!
This looks delicious! In meat-related recipes like this (where the beef ends up in a sauce of sorts), my family’s noticed (or rather, hasn’t noticed) that the soy-based ground beef tastes the same and costs between 30-50% less, depending on quality. Granted, the texture isn’t exactly the same, but it’s pretty close.
Sounds good to me. I always feel like stroganoff has too much beef added to it, so I bet I’d like this much better 🙂
Oooh looks yummy! As a tip, if you wanted to make it lower fat (although obviously kids don’t need to worry about that!) you could substitute cream for yoghurt like we do in ours. Makes it a little tangier too 🙂
I just made this tonight for my super picky husband and he LOVED it. So did I.
I used to make stroganoff all the time when we were dating, but have since gone MSG-free and avoid the canned soups. This is definitely a keeper.
Thank you for sharing!
That looks sooo yummy, I am going to have to make it!