I Make This Ground Beef Dinner for My Family When I’m Totally Exhausted

My job here at Simply Recipes is to keep our digital library fresh and tidy. That involves lots of looking at our older recipes over and over again. I get desensitized to some of them, but every time I even see a picture of our hamburger and macaroni recipe, I crave it right away. I think, I should make it for dinner!

What’s so great about it? I always have a box of macaroni around plus canned tomatoes. If we have meat, it’s probably ground beef. While the sauce simmers and the pasta boils, I can cut some broccoli into florets or throw a salad together. And that’s it, that’s dinner—from a whim to a hot meal on the table in about half an hour.

Why Hamburger and Macaroni Should Be Your Go-To Dinner

A good skillet dinner is pure gold when my bandwidth is low. And there’s a certain comfort in a meal that hits all the marks without costing very much or taxing anyone. We never ate Hamburger Helper when I was growing up, but this from-scratch recipe is surely better and seriously easy. 

An onion is the only chopping I have to do, and I have all of the seasonings on hand at all times. I like that this hamburger and macaroni leans heavily on Worcestershire sauce, lending it a different flavor profile from a marinara-based pasta.

The recipe itself comes from Elise Bauer, whose mother made it often to feed their large family (six kids!). She probably had to double it. My family is smaller, but I love having leftovers to eat for lunch the next day.

The Enduring Appeal of Ground Beef and Macaroni

This trusty American dinner staple has been around probably for a good hundred years; it appears in cookbooks under many guises, including goulash, American chop suey, and slumgullion. 

It’s also not too far from Johnny Marzetti, a baked ground beef and macaroni casserole with tons of cheese on top. I love me some Marzetti, but it’s honestly kind of a pain to make. No matter what you call it where you live, good old hamburger and macaroni is the safety net of cold weeknights when inspiration is low.

How I Make Hamburger and Macaroni

I tweak this recipe in many ways depending on my mood. Make it yourself and I know you’ll come up with great ways to personalize it!

• More tomato power: If I have an open can of tomato paste, sometimes I throw a tablespoon or two of it in to deepen the tomato flavor. Or even a squirt of ketchup.
• No chopping: If I’m lazy, I’ll add teaspoon of onion powder or adobo seasoning instead of fresh onions.
• Umami bomb: To savory it up, I add a little more Worcestershire or a few dashes of Maggi sauce.
• Vegetarian: We don’t eat meat often at our house, so I can say for sure that plant-based grounds work in this just fine. No adjustments needed!
• Nooch: A sprinkle or two of nutritional yeast never hurts.
• Whole grain: Whole wheat macaroni is not bad in this at all, and you get more nutrition packed in every bite.