Cheeseburger Casserole and Baby Spinach

Back about a hundred years ago, when hunny and I were first married, I couldn't cook worth anything.  The only cooking shows on television were gourmet shows like Julia Child.  We wouldn't hear about Martha Stewart or America's Test Kitchen or Rachel Rae for years and years.  Needless to say, I could not cook at all.  I remember the first meal I made for my husband was chipped beef and toast.  It was very ambitious for me, and I remember him saying, "Is this all?"  I knew I'd better learn to cook.

Fortunately, two lovely ladies took pity on me and gave me two of the best gifts I ever received.  Mrs. Handren gave me a tote filled with all the kitchen gadgets you could imagine.  It took me years to figure out that one thing was a pastry blender.  In with all those gadgets was also a Fannie Farmer Cookbook.  Wow.  I wore out that copy years ago, wore out my second one years ago and finally realized I needed a hardcover copy.  White sauces and blancmange, simple and easy and tastes like you were trained in Paris.  My favorite part of this cookbook is that it takes lots of things, like different vegetables, pieces of meat, even kitchen equipment and tells you all about those.  Like what to look for, what it's used for, etc.  Perfect for someone starting at the base level -- and now like me, who cooked eggplant for the first time this year, it takes me through step-by-step.

The other gift was from our landlady, Mrs. Westmoreland.  I married my husband and for the first time in 23 years, I was moving out of Indiana.  He rented this one-bedroom farmhouse outside of Durham where Mr. Westmoreland used the land to keep his five pet cows.  I was sad about the only thing I knew to take to a church potluck was macaroni and cheese with cut-up hot dogs.  She immediately delivered to the house the First Baptist Church's Cookbook.  Now this cookbook was how to open some cans, throw them together and make something worth eating.  You know those super-easy recipes all over the internet these days?  Half of them are already in this book printed nearly thirty years ago.  I'll never forget making "Cheeseburger Casserole" for my hunny the first time and he loved it.

All these years later, he still loves it.  It isn't as cheap as I like to get, but it isn't bad.

Cheeseburger Casserole

• I dug into the freezer and used the last of the ground beef that Winn Dixie had on sale a couple of weeks ago for $3.99 for a two-pound package.  I used two of them, so the meat was $7.98.
• Save-A-Lot had pasta on sale for 89¢ for a 1-lb box and I used two -- $1.78
• I used three cans of tomato soup that, of course, I had gotten on sale, Save-A-Lot, 75¢ * -- $2.25
• Big (really big) bag of shredded cheddar cheese from Walmart -- $8.32.
• I also used a dash of Worcestershire, seasoned salt and vegetable oil. 
• We also had baby spinach for a salad -- $3.69
• Salad dressing

So... this is the simplest recipe ever.  Set a large pot of water (for the pasta) on high.  Pour about a table spoon of vegetable oil into a large skillet.  Brown the four pounds of ground beef and drain.  Season and pour a little Worcestershire (maybe a tablespoon over the meat.

While the beef is cooking, boil the pasta and drain.  Preheat the oven to 350°.

This was a large batch of casserole, so here's the geography:

1. 9x13 Rectangle Stoneware -- Meat
2. 2-quart Round Pyrex Casserole -- Meat
3. 9-inch Square Pyrex -- Vegetarian

All three dishes will have pasta, tomato soup and cheese, but the Square will not have meat.

Basically, divide the pasta, about half into the Rectangle and a quarter into each of the smaller dishes.  Divide the meat, two-thirds into the Rectangle and one-third into the Round.  Add one can of tomato soup into the Square, and divide the other two cans between the Rectangle and the Round.

Top with cheese.  Yea, we were all craving cheese, so we used the whole package between the three dishes, and since this was the only protein in the Square Vegetarian dish, it got even extra cheese.

Pop them into the oven until the cheese melts.  Et voilà!  Cheeseburger casserole.  This served six of us tonight, with I'm sure two more home after work to eat.  But, we had more than half of the vegetarian, all of the round, a little bit of the rectangle and more than half of the baby spinach.  It won't be another full meal for us, but it will cover lunches tomorrow.  We've really been eating on the cheap this week (lots of Ramen and REALLY Cheap Chicken Patties from Winn Dixie), so it was nice to have a higher quality meal.**

All in all, I'm guessing that this meal will amount to close to 15 meals for us.  And, the total?  $24.02.  I know that is high, but when you dole it out to the cost per meal, it is about $1.60 per person.

And yes, hunny still loves it after all these years.




*Ugh.  I can't remember exactly.  It was either 75¢ or 69¢.
**I confess that we also could have done this with just 3 or maybe even 2 lbs of ground beef, but we might be eating vegetarian completely tomorrow night and I thought I'd better give the men a meal of beef first.