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When my husband and I were first married we basically lived on Hamburger Helper. Cheeseburger Helper and the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo were our flavors of choice. When my son came along he agreed. For some reason we got out of practice of buying it, most likely we weren’t getting coupons for it any more or it wasn’t on sale very often. I was very strict on my grocery budget back then. So it was nostalgic to pick up a few boxes and make it with my husband again. We know a little more about nutrition and have better produce at our disposal now so we decided to make one of our favorites, cheesy taco salad Hamburger helper style. Taco salad is an easy family dinner that we make often. You get all your veggies and can mix it up quite easily. Sometimes we do it with tortilla chips, sometimes we have black beans, sometimes we have it with olives. There are no rules, just a yummy, basic, quick dinner recipe.
Right now we are in dire need of quick dinners! My daughter, who is 15, does technical theater and they are in the last 2 weeks of prep for the spring musical. She is gone until 8:30 some nights! My son, who is 17, has a job at the local grocery store. He’s sometimes gone until 10 pm! My husband is a truck driver so I never, ever know when he is going to be home. I need easily heated food that can be divvied up in portions so that my 8 year old daughter and I can eat and the rest of the family can grab theirs as they trickle in.
Right now there is a Hamburger Helper Rebate for a free pound of hamburger if you purchase 3 boxes of any Hamburger Helper.
The three flavors we chose were Beef Pasta, Crunchy Taco (which we used for our Taco Salad) and Double Cheeseburger Macaroni.
I printed out the rebate to send in (make sure you check the due date and get it in before it expires!).
We also picked up some fresh veggies, cheese, sour cream and some black beans to go in our salad. Yum!
I bought some very lean, ground beef to go in our taco salad. I am not a spring chicken anymore, got to go for the lean meat or my stomach gets angry!
After browning the meat and draining it, I mixed all the ingredients as directed, covered it and let it simmer.
While the Hamburger Helper recipe was simmering, my husband and I chopped all the veggies, rinsed the beans plus prepared all the rest of the ingredients. The package didn’t come with enough corn chips for all of us to have in our salad instead of using it as a topping per the box’s directions, so we added a some of our own.
The finished product!!! We added some fresh cut mango as a edible garnish that totally balanced out the meal. This was a super quick, super easy family dinner. Even my teens could do it if I wasn’t home.
If you want to recreate the recipe here are the ingredients we used:
Crunchy Taco Hamburger Helper
1lb. of ground beef
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 cup of grated Monterey Jack shredded cheese
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 head of romaine lettuce
Extra corn chips
(we also had sour cream and tomatoes on the side for personal preference)
1 ataulfo mango, sliced
This made enough for my family of 5, two of them being teenagers! The total of this meal rounded out to be about $5 after the rebate. That’s $1 per person. Not bad.
Helper is the Perfect On-Hand Solution
Weeknights are hectic and a reliable dinner solution is key to get you through the week. When you don’t have time to plan, that is okay, because you can always rely on Helper for a quick dinner recipe. It is something that you should always have in your pantry for those days when you just don’t have time to think about dinner! It is so easy to make and all that you need is ground beef (or chicken or tuna) to make a complete meal.
About the Free Ground Beef Rebate:
1. Visit your local grocer, and purchase three Hamburger Helper products and Ground Beef.
2. Visit the rebate landing page. You will see the digital rebate: “Free Ground Beef, when you buy 3 boxes of Helper.” Please note that you may also buy Chicken Helper or Tuna Helper.
3. Click on the rebate.
4. Print and mail in the rebate form.
I want to help make your dinner free! Enter to win a $15 Paypal cash or Walmart Gift Card! With the rebate this should make your meal free! Good luck! Contest ends 5/4 at 11:59 pm EST.
