Budget Savers! Grandma's Hamburger Casserole

My son's birthday was this week...

 Birthdays in our household usher in two choices. What type of cake do you want (Chocolate with chocolate frosting -the boy takes after his mother on this one!) and what favorite dinner do you want me to make?

I expected my son to ask for pasta or maybe pizza but instead he said assuredly, "Grandma's Hamburger Casserole!"
 
 I grew up on this casserole. We had it very often and at times, I really hated it. But when you grow up, you often become nostalgic and suddenly those meals of your youth are the very ones you want to serve your family.

My son LOVES this casserole and it is one that is incredibly budget friendly. This isn't some fancy casserole and like most great American casseroles, this does have a creamed can soup component. Don't let that turn you off though. You can put this casserole together in about 20 minutes and pop it into the oven for an hour while you find other things to work on. This is the perfect 5pm dinner go to when you are driving home from work or errands and don't know what to make. You probably have everything already in your cupboard. In an hour you have a hot and tasty dinner on the table that tastes like so much more work went into it than it did. Try it! It may earn itself in your dinner rotation just yet. With only seven ingredients it's hard to go wrong!

 

I doubled the receipe amounts so we had some for lunches.

GRANDMA'S HAMBURGER CASSEROLE

1 lb of ground beef (or turkey), browned
1 tsp of butter to brown it in (I often leave this out)
1 10 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of white rice
2 cups of water
1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Brown your meat in a skillet breaking it up as you go. If  your meat is very lean, you may have to add the butter to brown in, Remove from heat and drain off fat.

Put browned meat in a large casserole with the remaining ingredients.

Stir to combine well. Do not be concerned that it appears really soupy at this point.

Once the starches in the rice release and the rice absorbs the liquid, the casserole will come together more completely.

Cover your casserole and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Enjoy!