by James Coulter
Here on Cooking on the Ridge, I’ve been experimenting with various elaborate recipes, from cream cheese and bacon stuffed chicken breasts to pickle marinated ranch chicken.
However, sometimes you don’t want to prepare a meal that’s fancy, complicated, or over-the-top. Sometimes you want to make something simple and easy. (And sometimes, you want to cook something other than chicken!)
Sometimes, you don’t want to make something with a lot of flavor or fancy ingredients. Sometimes, you simply want a nice warm meal. Sometimes, you crave simple comfort food, something to make you feel better when you’re feeling down or having a bad day. (Like, for instance, when your faithful dog of 11 years eventually passes away!)
So, for this week’s recipe, I opted to prepare a meal that was simple, easy to make, and overall comforting–a meal that brings back warm and happy memories of better days gone by, especially one’s childhood.
To me, two meals come to mind when I think of childhood comfort food. First, macaroni and cheese. And second, Hamburger Helper.
I loved Hamburger Helper as a kid. I loved the noodles and sauce mixed with the various seasonings to make something like spaghetti only fancier–or, at least fancy by the standards of a single-digit-old child.
Obviously, Hamburger Helper isn’t so much a recipe as it is something you make from a box. But for this article, I chose a recipe that’s close enough: American goulash.
If you think about it, American goulash is essentially a fancier version of Hamburger Helper: ground beef browned and mixed with tomato sauce, pasta, and seasoning. It’s a simple and filling meal that makes for a real emotional picker-upper.
Even better: this recipe is prepared using a slow cooker. So, all you need to do is brown the beef and dump it in along with the other ingredients into the crockpot, then set it and forget it for the rest of the day until dinner rolls around.
I admit, this recipe, while simple, managed to offer simple comfort, especially during a time when I wasn’t feeling all that comfortable. It’s a delectable form of emotional support that’s great for a rainy day–or even a not-so-rainy day!
The following recipe is from The Cookie Rookie:
Ingredients
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 large onion diced
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 4 cups water
• 4 beef bouillon cubes
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes 1 standard can
• 30 ounces petite diced tomatoes 2 15-ounce cans
• 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbsps Italian Seasoning
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups elbow macaroni
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
1. In a nonstick pan over medium heat, cook the ground beef until it’s no longer pink, about 7-10 minutes. Drain and add to the crockpot.
2. Add the onion, garlic, water, bouillon cubes, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, Italian seasoning, and salt. Stir well.
3. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or on high for 2 hours.
4. 30 minutes prior to serving, stir in the macaroni. Cover and cook just until the noodles are tender.
5. Remove the bay leaves and stir in the cheddar cheese.
6. Serve immediately so that the pasta does not turn mushy.
