Nix9to5

One for the Grown-Ups: Hamburger Stroganoff

// April 7th, 2010 // Cooking

I’ve really been getting into freezer meals (to quote a friend, “Cook once, eat thrice”).  Tonight I tried a recipe for Hamburger Stroganoff.  It tasted pretty good, but I have two complaints:

1. The recipe is too small.  Instead of dividing it in half and freezing half of it, I should have just made it all and had leftovers tomorrow.  Next time, I’ll either double the recipe, serve half and freeze half, or I’ll not treat it as a freezer meal.
2. It looks disgusting:

It was pretty good, though, and it is something Bear could eat.  In fact, he’s taking some to Auntastic’s tomorrow to eat for lunch.

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/4 c. diced onion (HH won’t eat onion if he knows it is there, so I just sprinkled in a little dried, minced onion)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 T. lemon juice
• 1 can beef consomme, undiluted
• 1 small can mushroom pieces and stems, undrained
• 1/4 t. pepper

Brown the ground beef with onion and garlic.  Add lemon juice, soup, mushrooms, and pepper.  Divide mixture in half, place half in a freezer-safe container and freeze.

To the other half, add 1/2 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat and it worked fine), 2 c. cooked spiral pasta (obviously, I didn’t use spirals, and the world did not end), and 2 T. water.  Heat through, but don’t boil.

I thought it was kind of runny, but HH was running late, so I put it on low.  By the time he got home, it was fine.

While I was browning the ground beef, I went ahead and cooked 2 lbs. instead of one, and separated half out and mixed it with a jar of spaghetti sauce.  Now I only have to cook noodles tomorrow, and dinner is served.