that hamburger helper comment earlier

[Stella]

couple of people commented on hamburger helper today.

tonight I went to bunco. I picked up a girl in the neighborhood, and i drove. her husband is a police officer in town, and they have two jr high kids. she runs a day care out of her home.

on the way home she said that margie's dinner was really good, I wish I could cook like that. I said aww c'mon gwen. you can cook fine! she said no, i don't cook.
tonight they had hamburger helper. (flashes on Nu and sabine making eeww faces flashed in my head as i tried to keep a straight face) I said well you can always make your own only a little different. she said she ruins ground meat when she browns it.
she said she was really happy to see those crock pot bags come out you just add the meat and put it in the crock pot. ( loaded with salt)
she said i make tacos alot, and meatloaf, i think meatloaf is my favorite to make.
but danny has to help finish it, i usually over bake it.

i never realized, i mean truly realized that there truly is people out there that do not cook.
truly do not cook.

next month is an open month for bunco, we decided to do a pot lock all appetizers, she volunteered to bring the paper products.

I need to help gwen. I feel i need to go over and help her cook. find out where she has this anxiety. i cannot over load her with freezer cooking hahahahahaha
where do you think i should start??

[krubinic]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

Some people truly do not want to be bothered with cooking........even if they were raised around it. They have such a dislike for it for some reason and then I think too they hate all the clean up and organization it takes to make a meal, well at least a "successful" meal if you are apt to burning ground beef!!!! I know Stella you always kid about not being organized, but you ARE, you have to be to do what you do with those freezer meals. You are a wiz at it woman!!!! You are the "Queen", I think you offering to help Gwen is a great help and so nice of you.

This thread and talking about food like hamburger helper should go hand in hand with the other thread on this board about Liver Disease in Obese Kids.......hamburger helper definitely "helps" get them that way too! LOL

[mgsmallen]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

Start out by OFFERING to give her cooking lessons. Then take her some simple recipes and give her the link to here. My ex-DIL WOULD not learn but she didn't want to. We tried everything but she just never got it. You are a very good friend to want to help her.

[Stella]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

well yea i would offer, i am not the type of person who would barge in and demand she knows this stuff lol

[Ginger]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

Okay, start by showing her the difference between regular ground beef and lean ground beef. Then show her how to brown the beef properly. Then give her some recipes that call for browned ground beef.

Next, tell her about caseroles.

Stella, you are a wonderful person. (hhuggss) This young woman will have such a better life because she knows you. Whatever you decide to do, to help her, will be a thousand times more than the rest of the world will.

[roset]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

I was newly married & both of us working plus DH going to school at night, so hamburger helper just came out. I thought it's fast & he has school why not??? I have been married 32yrs now and every once in awhile he laughs because of how much he hated it. The grocery stores now have so much to offer, even veggies cut up, salad in a bag, roterssier chicken (spell?) if you plan it out you can really get away with less to hardly any cooking and even healthy. Or like you Stella, pre cook & freeze, maybe she needs a cookbook. DD & her roommate have been eatting crap. She got fruit for smoothies but it went bad, I said buy the fruit frozen in the bags, you are only going to blend it anyway. She didn't know they have frozen fruit in bags, you don't even want to see my face when she told me that. LOL Stella now the 2 of us, I have been freezing the leftovers, I have the food saver and got a few days of easy cooking plus saves me money too.

[dragun6]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

stella, maybe if you do a big cooking day, why not invite her to your home to help out and to see some different foods.


dragun

[Ginger]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

Great idea Dragun. Especially if it was scaled down to the absolute basics. Stella, from all that you have posted, we know you would be a wonderful teacher--here's a student in desperate need.

[alidoremi]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

I have a few friends that have families with elementary - high school age kids and they cook very sporatically, if at all. Not that they don't really have the time to cook, but they just claim that they've never learned how to cook. I've don't understood that. I mean, these are people who have been married 15-20 years or so. Even if they couldn't boil water on their wedding day, you'd think they would have learned something after all these years.

When I first got married I considered myself to be a very beginner cook. Now I look back and realize that I really was pretty accomplished, compared to some of my friends. I made casseroles, some HambHelper, and stuff using mixes like Bisquick, cake mixes, etc... From there I progressed to 'home-made' and ditched the packaged foods.

One of my non-cooking friends has commented before on how much I like to cook. I told her it's not so much that I like to cook; I like to eat good food. I'll tell her about some neat recipe (usually from this site, like the Crockpot Chicken) that is quick and easy. I give her the recipe, and it becomes a regular meal in their house.

[TexAnn]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

You Da Best Stella!

[Sabine]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

I would find out if she really wants to learn first? If she burns ground meat, she has a problem, or doesn't pay attention. But you are a good friend wanting to help her.

[Stella]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

i remember when i was first married. I made dinner, baked a chicken and cooked some vegetables.

dana my "step sister" who is history now,
was ticked off. she came over in a rage, she was mad because she cooked all this food and her boyfriend didn't come eat.
my husband asked what did you cook?
she said pillsbury biscuits, and the lasagna hamburger helper... she was crying, saying what a good cook she is.
and there's my husband who had no NO compassion for her, she said I am a good cook dammit !!! and DH said yea from a box !!
oh man that made it worse. she was madder than a hornet, and said well what did you have for dinner, he said my wife seasoned a chicken and baked it with potatoes and carrots. all from scratch...

dana walked out of the house, she hated my husband ever since gosh i haven't seen her in 19 years....

[Stella]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

oh she did say in the car last night that she just never picked up the skill of cooking.
she said they are in a rut, eating the same things. at first i offered she take a gander at my cookbook, for new ideas. she said you cook once a month right? i said yea, but those recipes are freezer friendly, but you don't have to freeze them, they are pretty much easy to do.
she was intrested. in a reluctant way. she said she'd tell her husband and see what he says, i told her to let me know, and i'd be happy to drop off the recipes and book, and come back and talk to them about it.
they are spending 150 a week right now, on groceries, including shampoo tp and soap etc. i can save them a fortune.


i planted the seed, and i will wait. let it sink in and call her in a few days.
in the meantime I'll find a few easy recipes.
she's been married for 13 years.

[nuisance]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

AWHILE BACK MY SECRET PAL HERE AT WORK DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO COOK, AS A JOKE, AND SHE WANTED TO LEARN, I WENT TO BOOKS A MILLION, GOT HER "BASIC COOKING, FOR DUMMIES" YELLOW COOKBOOK, MORE AS A JOKE, BUT LOOKING AT IT, IT HAS GOOD BASIC INFO AND GREAT RECIPES. SHE USES IT ALL THE TIME.

THIS GIRL DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD SEPERATE EGGS, SHE ASKED IF YOU CAN BUY EGG WHITES ONLY, AND THOUGHT THEY WERE THE ALREADY COOKED WHITES OF THE EGG!!!

IT ALWAYS SUPRISES ME AT POT LUCKS HERE, THAT PEOPLE BRING "BOXED" FOODS. I MADE A COUPLE HAM BUTTS ONCE, BONE IN. SOME HERE DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD BUY THEM THAT WAY, THEY'VE ONLY SEEN/BOUGHT THE CANNED OR THE PIECES AND PARTS HAME IN THE DELI!! OR THOSE OVAL MOLDED ONES IN THE MEAT CASE.

[Stella]

Re: that hamburger helper comment earlier

i no likey on the ham.

what is that blue shiney stuff on it??
and from a can?? barf.

didn't know they had cooking for dummies, I will look for one. thanks!

when we have bunco at her house, she always has beef stew that her husband made.

it's a broth, that has a brown tint to it, you can see the bottom of the bowl.
beef stew meat, peas and potato chunks. no flavor.

she's made that the last 2 times, i didn't know she didn't cook.