Ground Beef & Pasta Skillet Dinners

I gotta be honest, I love Hamburger Helper. Whether it’s beef stroganoff, cheeseburger macaroni or the beef enchilada flavor, I’m totally down.  I will gobble it up like it’s my last meal on death row, I enjoy it that much. But the kids--who you would think would be into it (because, well, they’re kids)--just can’t bring themselves to eat it.  Nearly every time I make it, they make a face and ask: “Why do you buy that boxed stuff, when you can probably make it better from scratch?”

My reply is almost always the same:  "Because it's good now leave me and my Hamburger Helper alone, damn.”

Ground Beef & Pasta Skillet Dinners

I bet Lois gets to eat her Hamburger Helper in peace.

But one day at the grocery store, standing in front of the boxed stuff, it had me thinking, just how hard can it be to make pasta skillet dinners from scratch?  I mean they're literally meat, noodles, milk and some sort of powdery orange substance that is probably cheese, maybe?
 
So I set out to prove to the kids that yes, I can make Hamburger Helper from scratch, thank you very much, and my version will be much tastier and (slightly) healthier, too!

Here are three of my very own, homemade, absolutely-from-scratch, definitely-not-from-a-box ground beef and pasta skillet dinners.  And wouldn't ya know--the kids love 'em!

Veggies, ground beef and pasta or rice:  the staples of every delicious skillet dinner.

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Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta

Veggie Bow Tie Skillet

Pizza Pasta

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Do you have any Hamburger Helper-ish skillet dinner recipes of your own?  Share in the comments below, I'd love to hear about them!