Homemade Hamburger Helper

A healthier spin on an American Classic with a date night memory

So many of us grew up on Hamburger Helper, an easy affordable American classic that could be ready in about 15 minutes. The commercials always had the “Helping Hand” mascot from the box talking to a busy mom about getting dinner on the table and fast! It wasn’t until I went to YouTube to remember some of the nostalgic commercials that I realized the helping hand only had three fingers and a thumb, which I feel is a graphics department issue they never fixed, but as someone who was born with six fingers, who am I to judge? (I also discovered a Reddit thread that claimed the creator of Hamburger Helper only had 3 fingers, but I don’t believe everything I read on the internet)

Hamburger Helper wasn’t served a lot in my home growing up, but the boxed dish will always hold a special place in my heart and here is why. On our first date, my husband would end up making me Hamburger Helper’s Cheeseburger Mac as a late dinner, but first he took me to the bar where he worked most nights of the week. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Bailey, he took you to a bar? Ick!”

I wish I could explain to you that Rock Bottom was more than a bar. The closest way for me to explain this to you before you lose complete interest in this recipe is that it was like the show “Cheers”. Everyone knew your name and you just—you just had to be there. It was our home away from home and I already knew I was going to marry Kyle, so he didn’t need to impress me. We met up with a few friends to watch The Egg Bowl which is our states biggest SEC game of the year. The Egg Bowl was held the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So, a few people brought their family leftovers to the bar. Here is where our first date gets fun!

One guy brought a plate of his grandmother’s cookies, from a distance they appeared to be chocolate chip. When I bit into them, I soon realized they were peanut butter chocolate chip. I’m highly allergic to peanuts. I can’t remember the proper order of events that happened next. I mentioned something about a possible ER visit, our friend Nathan ran across the street to his car to get me Benadryl. Kyle immediately puts me in his truck and takes me to his apartment to pump more antihistamines in my system and I don’t think I watched a total of three minutes of that game. What I do remember is taking a grand drug induced nap on Kyle’s couch. When I woke up at one o’clock in the morning, Kyle was cleaning his kitchen and had Hamburger Helper on the stove, because he wanted me to have something to eat if I woke up. Yes, I knew right away I wanted to marry him.