Mac N' Helper

While I enjoy the strait ol' mac n' cheese as much as the next person, I'm also eating more of it ( and more often) than the average person.  While different cheeses do change things up, most don't come with anything else in them. So when a meal includes some kind of extra veggie or protein, I'm pretty excited to give it a shot because I know it will be different (good or bad).  I've found and reviewed so many just add water or heat and serve options that I also decided I should break it up some more and start slowly dipping my foot into the stovetop pool.  First up is the first meal that I've reviewed with it's own (not licensed) mascot, Hamburger Helper and it's mascot the "Helping Hand"!

Hamburger Helper is a product of General Mills and has been in production since the early 70's.  Another meal of the baby boomer break out era, where simple fast meals (with minimal additional work by the chef) really began to take hold.  Hamburger Helper is known for the simple additional ingredients you provide of water and hamburger and the need for only one pan to prepare it all in.  They've since created additional brands of helper for Tuna, Chicken and Asian and discontinued other helper brands including Pork and Fruit. 

I've got my chef's hat on, lets see how my first step into stovetops comes out.

Brand:
Hamburger Helper Classic Cheeseburger Macaroni

Price:
$2.79 at Target for the Helper $5.99 for the 1 lb of grass fed hamburger at Safeway.


Packaging Description:
(On Front)
Now Better Tasting, Even Cheesier!

(On Back)
None

Preparation:
*Rip open the box and take out the different pouches of ingredients.

Noodles? Check.  Mystery pouch of cheese powder? Double Check.

*Brown up a pound of hamburger, draining the fat along the way.

How to brown a pound of hamburger in four easy pictures!  First put the hamburger in the pan.

Remember to break up the meat, it cooks faster and more evenly.

Getting flipped and broken up into smaller chunks as it's being cooked.

And before you know it, browned beef!

*While the beef is cooking, get two cups of milk (16 oz) into a measuring cup.  You'll also want to get some water hot, you'll be needing one cup (8 oz) of hot water as well.

Mooooooooo

*Once the beef has been browned and drained, add the cheese powder to the beef.

Magical golden dust, do your best!

*Quickly add the milk and hot water to the pan.  Since the stove is still on, if you don't quickly add the liquid, the cheese powder will start to burn.  Not a good smell.

First the water.

Then the milk.  It almost looks like a tie dyed meal.  Groovy.

*Add the noodles to the pan.

Looks so tasty! Let's just serve it now, our job is done here!

*Stir it all up good.

The goal is to break up those cheese powder clumps.

*Bring everything back to a simmer.

Bubble, bubble, toil and cook the pasta.  Wait, that doesn't sound right.

*Once it's reached a simmer, place a cover on the pan and reduce heat.  This will need to cook and reduce for 12 minutes.

Not only does the lid help keep the heat in, it prevents the simmering cheese sauce from splattering all over your counter.  This WILL splatter.  You've been warned.

*Make sure to pull the lid up and stir every minute or two.  The cheese sauce will really begin to reduce and then stick to the bottom of the pan, making occasional stirring a necessity.

Bubbling away.  See also, splatter!

At this stage you should have about 2 minutes left on your timer. 

*Once the timer goes off, remove the pan from the heat and give it one last stir.

See! Splatter made it to the other side of the stove top.  I told you!

*Grab your favorite bowl and scoop some in.

After all that cooking, simmering, mess making and stirring this is a serving size?  But I wanted more!

*Commence with the nomming!

Taste:
Since this meal is cooked in stages you're exposed to a number of smells, with the cooked hamburger stealing the first part of the aromatic show and the cheesyness coming in after the intermission.  The noodles came out a little al dente but they were cooked.  The sauce really thickens up as it cooks and has a distinct hamburger taste to it (I wonder why).  The cheese flavor is more in the vein of an American cheese or at the best a very mild Cheddar.  The hamburger was also well cooked and gave little chewy chunks throughout the bowl. 

Final Score:
This is a filling meal.  The pasta and sauce can be a bit heavy and with the added hamburger it's really got the potential to be a food baby meal (one of those meals that is quite heavy and sits in your stomach).  The extra preparation of the hamburger doesn't really add too much time to the whole meal (about 10 minutes) and requires enough hands on to give you a sense of I made this.  It may be a bit pase, but it's not a difficult to prepare and only messes up one pan (and stovetop).  It's very cheesy and the hamburger gives the dish a little something extra that you don't just get from a standard box of mac n' cheese.  Not the greatest thing ever, but it's quite good for what it is.

 









Nutritional Information:
Serving Size 1/4 Cup as Packaged (33g)  1 Cup Prepared
Servings Per Container 5

Calories  110 (As Packaged)   320 (Prepared) 
Calories From Fat 5 (AP)   120 (P)
Total Fat 0.5g (1% Daily Value As Packaged,   20% Daily Value Prepared)
Saturated Fat 0g (0% DV-AP,  27% DV-P)
Trans Fat 0g (0% DV-AP,   0% DV-P) 
Cholesterol 0mg (0% DV-AP,  1% DV-P)
Sodium 760mg (32% DV-AP,  36% DV-P)
Total Carbohydrates 24g (8% DV-AP,  9% DV-P)
Dietary Fiber <1g (3% DV-AP,  3% DV-P)
Sugar 2g
Protein 3g