Homemade Hamburger Helper

For last night's dinner, I wanted to use leftovers + whatever we had in the house/fridge/cupboard. The items I absolutely I wanted to use, was leftover already cooked lasagna noodles, and ground beef.

For our family, I used about 1 pound of ground beef. Then I browned the meat and cooked it until it's no longer pink, then added in onions and continued to cook and stir.

In the meantime, if you don't already have noodles ready (like I did last night), cook 1 box of elbow macaroni (or any macaroni of your choice) until it's the way you like it (my family likes it softer than al dente) and drain it well.

Add 1 (15oz) can of stewed tomatoes to the ground beef and onions, and stir. Add 1 (15 oz) can of mixed vegetables, (if you choose, I decided to not put any in last night) cover and cook for 6-8 minutes.

Mix 2 Tbsp flour in 1 cup water, and get all the lumps out. Add it to the hamburger mixture and stir until mixture is thickened. Add 1 can of cream of mushroom (or cream of celery is what I used last night, as I'm not a fan of mushroom) and stir it in good. Add the pasta to the mixture, and heat it all together. (Since I already had the pasta cooked from a few days ago, I heated the pasta in the microwave in a bowl and the mixed in the meat into the bowl and mixed it all together.

All together, I think it took me half an hour to prepare everything. The longest was waiting for the liquids to evaporate.

The boys had no interest in eating it. Mack doesn't eat sauce to begin with on pasta (he's an oil & Parmesan kind of boy). Sean had no interest in eating it - but did taste it. He said he wasn't in the mood. I absolutely enjoyed it - and it was WAY better than boxed Hamburger Helper from the store. Jamie really liked it too. He even had seconds! I was very impressed with it. I can't wait to have leftovers for lunch today! Yum!